Dear Christopher
> I know what a palimsest is.
>
> And I know what a pattern is.
>
> Do you mean to say that you are seeing the sacred (as it were) landscape as a
> palimsest, with one epoch replacing the previous "generations'" vocations with
> ones more useful and specific to its own?
Well, that happens and I guess we all have our favourite examples. However, what
I had in mind here was the way in which patterns of dedications in honour of
individual saints can be demonstrated often to be the result of the accumulation
or amalgamation of a number of underlying distributions. Thus to examine the
spread of Leonard dedications, whether to understand the impulses behind his
adoption, or the spatial and/or temporal diffusion of his cult, it's necessary
to be aware that the mapped or categorised cases of Leonard in association with
hunting places need not coincide geographically or chronologically with those
cases associated with healing, and so on. To take another example, the spatial
distribution of Helen churches associated with early royal estate centres in
England is distinct from that involving proximity to 'holy' wells - though both
are non-random, and together they create a larger distribution but one which
remains concentrated north of the Thames. Those few cases south of the Thames
belong to a third distribution, in which coastal sites predominate.
> Was it customary for hospitals (I assume you are speaking here of what in
> France are called "ho^tels-dieu" not leprosaria) in English cities to be
> located near gateways?
I'm following the convention of using 'hospital' in its inclusive sense, and
the answer is that while hospitals _were_ to be found well within the towns (St
Antony's in London is a case in point, converted from a synagogue), in town
after town they clustered in the vicinity of the gates. Leprosaria are not
exempt from this general observation. At Norwich, for example, three were
situated outside the walls but immediately opposite gates, and the remaining
two were 100 and 200 yards respectively beyond.
Extra-mural hospitals benefitted from being close to urban amenities and
potential benefactors among passing travellers. But once the curfew hour was
past, they were literally 'out in the cold' and left to fend for themselves.
At the risk of labouring my point, look at other saints found frequently in such
locations in England and note those with 'wilderness' aspects - Giles,
Bartholomew, Antony come immediately to mind.
Best wishes
Graham
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