WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
About Horsing
Dear Editor
I was interested to read the article by Peter Grey about Norman horses and how they were shipped across the sea. The image on the Bayeux tapestry clearly shows the Norman sailors lowering the horses off the ship using the mast as a hoist to lower the horse over the side of the ship safely. One sailor is lowering the mast while one man is steading the boat with a pole secured in the beach. Another man is using the rope to lower the horse while another man is in the sea guiding the horse to the ground. The horses do not appear to be jumping off the boat! Mast of a Viking style ship had a pulley at the top used to hoist up the sail and the mast can be lowered when they are being rowed or moored. These kind of ships were well used by the Saxons and the Normans and can be seen in Viking ship museums in Oslo and Roskilde in Norway and Denmark. The nuns sewing the tapestry have not shown leather slings that would have been used to support the horse while they are being lowered. I am sure when Hastingers visit the British Museum to see the tapestry they can see it for themselves.
Regarding Roger’s invasion of Sicily, the chroniclers at the time mention a date of 1061 and not 1038!
Paul Reed
From our website
Syd’s Last Stand
Fun though Nick Tucker’s preview of ‘Syd’s Last Stand” (HIP 305) is, he’s arguably too much of a fan boy to be objective.
LSD, sometimes enjoyable, other times curdling your karma, does not automatically confer wisdom. Consequently, Syd’s solo albums were merely whimsical, fitfully entertaining and thankfully less pretentious and overlong than Pink Floyd’s later LPs.
Floorboards are not iconic; they simply stop you from falling through the ceiling. A more interesting question to ask when analysing the album cover might be why an unacknowledged woman is adopting such an uncomfortable pose in the background? I’m sure her nudity was essential to the artistic message, yet Syd, for some reason lost to rock history, retains his clothes…
TK Bedford
From our website
Betty Important
I enjoyed the Betty Parsons exhibition last year. I agree the title was a misnomer, but as a researcher who’s written about a number of mid-twentieth century women artists, I found it very interesting to see the work from Betty Parsons, who supported women artists at a time when macho personalities dominated the world of abstract expressionism while ignoring the women. She was important.
Susan Gilbert
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Re: Norman horses
I suggest they must have bern hobbled for the Chanmel crossings to stop them jumping about, kicking the crew or otherwise asserting themselves. The tapestry seems to show their heads low down, ie forced into a kneeling position.