Attack of the nude prudes
QUESTION
How did the famous Cerne Abbas Giant survive not being covered up in Puritan or Victorian times?
The Dorset giant is a nude figure created by cutting into the turf to expose a white chalk outline. It is almost 180ft tall and brandishes a 120 ft knotted club.
The purpose of the figure is shrouded in mystery. The earliest recorded mention dates to 1694.
Theories range from an ancient spirituality symbol and a depiction of the GrecoRoman hero hercules to a caricature of Oliver Cromwell, with the club referring to repressive rule and the phallus a mockery of Puritanism. Local folklore has long held it to be a fertility aid.
During the Victorian era, when the hill was owned by the Lane Fox and Pitt families, there is no evidence of calls to cover him up.
This is in contrast to other public works of art, the most famous being the cast of Michelangelo’s David presented to Queen Victoria by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1857. It was immediately given to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). Victoria was said to have been so shocked by David’s manhood that a detachable 2ft plaster cast fig leaf was provided to protect the blushes of visiting ladies. This can still be found on a hook behind the statue.
It wasn’t until the Cerne Abbas Giant was donated to the National Trust by Alexander and George Pitt-Rivers in 1920 that the prudes became involved.
In 1921, Walter Long, of Gillingham, Dorset, conducted a campaign to cover it up or convert it to a simple nude.
In 1932, the Bishop of Salisbury made representations to the home Office that the 26 ft ‘indecent pubus’ be made ‘less objectionable’.
The nameless civil servant charged with dealing with the complaint described it as a ‘serious charge of indecency against a prehistoric national monument’.
The National Trust rejected the objection on the basis it had a duty to ‘conserve and not to deface’. In a letter to the Chief Constable of Dorset, the exasperated civil servant asked: ‘What does the complainant want us to do?
‘Commit a nameless outrage? We cannot contemplate that. Plant a small grove of fig trees in a strategic position? We have not got the power.
‘The Secretary of State regrets that he cannot see a way to take any action in the matter.’
Hannah McKenna, Sherborne, Dorset.
QUESTION
What has caused a massive fissure to open up in the Arizona desert?
ThIS rift was first noticed in 2014 during a review of Google earth images. It is the result of the ground drying out owing to farmers emptying an aquifer.
Agriculture in such an arid region relies on the drawdown of underground sandstone aquifers for water.
As it is extracted from the porous rock, the structure may collapse in on itself. After long-term depletion, compaction may cause fissures to appear.
The Arizona Geological Survey has measured this giant rift as two miles long. Its extent underground is probably significantly larger.
Marcus Fisher, Wellington, Somerset.
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