That’s what they ask you when you ask them if you may climb up the most excellent tower at Durham Cathedral. If you answer yes, then they ask you if you have five pounds. Surely you see where this is going.

Here’s the tower as contemplated from the cloister below:

And — cutting right to the chase — here’s the opposite view, from the top, looking down at the cloister:

Another view, this one of the cemetery:

Elsewhere in the cathedral are the remains of two well-known monks: the hermit Cuthbert and the historian Bede (mentioned here not that long ago). I did overhear a comment that the bones of these two men might not be resting where they’re advertised to be, but that one or the other may in fact be buried in the cemetery in an unmarked grave! I really don’t know just what to make of that sort of talk.

The tower also affords a fine view of the palace green and the castle beyond:

It was a certain academic function at the castle that brought me to Durham to begin with, one that signaled the winding down of my English sojourn, and that proved very much a “night” to the “day” of my usual and admittedly somewhat monkish activity in the archives. I was glad, though, to catch a glimpse of these scholars in full flight, and for their stories of manuscript heists and Parisian antiquities dealers. Also appreciated was their cautious optimism regarding future prospects for the determined and more-or-less young academic!