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W A T E R G A U G E M I K E C H I S H O L M
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W A T E R G A U G E
M I K E C H I S H O L M
W A T E R G A U G E
M I K E C H I S H O L M
S h e p h e r d ' s C r o w n B o o k s 2 0 0 8
Copyright © 2008 Mike Chisholm
ISBN 978-0-9544273-7-5
Shepherd's Crown BooksSouthampton SO16 6QRUnited Kingdom
email: [email protected]
The spring at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire, is a circular pot set in the ground, about 12 feet in diameter and about 12 feet deep,neatly lined with chalk rubble, and surrounded by an iron railing. It is filled with clear water, constantly replenished from theunderlying natural chalk spring, which runs off steadily into a shallow, gravel-bottomed channel, which in turn curves away andfeeds, via two cascades, into the River Test. There is something uncanny about gazing into its constantly upwelling, gravity-defying water: it has something of the quality of a film run in reverse or of an illusion, such as a Moebius strip. It is easy to believethat such places were once sites of veneration: liminal places, places where land and sky are confused, a thin boundary betweenour world and the Otherworld where some kind of communication might be possible.
Most springs are either muddy corners where you are likely to lose a boot, or semi-derelict constructions, hard to imagine asancient places of worship. The spring at Mottisfont, by contrast, gives every appearance of civilisation. The name "Mottisfont" isthought to reflect its role in Saxon times as a meeting-place (a "moot by the spring"), and the formal integration of the spring intothe ornamental landscape of the Abbey was done in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, perhaps in the same mixed classical,antiquarian and gothic spirit that established grottoes and mazes elsewhere. It is a place where visitors can walk across well-keptlawns, lean on a solid railing, and briefly catch the eye of an unexpected abyss.
I have been visiting the Mottisfont spring regularly for many years, as part of an ongoing photographic exploration of the River Testand the Abbey grounds. The photographs in this book were made during the 2006 season, when the idea grew of a series whichwould be based entirely on the moods and variations of the spring. The colours and shapes of the water's surface and itsreflections were, as always, a constant surprise and pleasure. However, there was an unexpected conclusion to my visits.
It was often said that the font never ran dry. For example, as recently as July 2002 Hampshire Life magazine wrote that "Evenduring the worst droughts of recent years the flow has never been substantially reduced". But, for the first time in the two decadesI have been visiting Mottisfont, the font stopped overflowing into its run-off channel in summer 2006, and for several months thelevel fell. The water became green and stagnant, and the stonework was exposed. Whether this was an ominous indicator ofclimate change, or simply the result of some temporary blockage, I don't know. But it was hard not to respond to thisunprecedented event as some kind of warning, issued at a place where the vast balance of natural forces takes a form that canmeet and be measured by our human gaze.
Mike Chisholm, 2008
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All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place fromwhence the rivers come, thither they return again.
Ecclesiastes 1:7
26th February 2006
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26th February 2006
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18th March 2006
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18th March 2006
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19th March 2006
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26th March 2006
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1st April 2006
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2nd April 2006
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18th April 2006
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6th May 2006
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14th May 2006
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18th June 2006
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9th July 2006
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27th August 2006
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10th September 2006
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And if you gaze long into an abyss,the abyss also gazes back into you
Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
(Aphorisms and Interludes 146)
31st September 2006
