In telling of work on St. Finbarr’s Cathedral, he mentions a workman who was inclined to cut the tiles on the spire stones a bit on the rough side, and the foreman came along and spotted it: “It won’t do, Jer”, said he.
“Why?”says the ould fella. “Sure, ‘tis going up two hundred feet an’ no one but the crows will see it”.
“God will see it”, says the foreman, “an’ He’s damn particular”.
from: ‘Stone Mad’, by Seamus Murphy, published by The Collins Press, Cork, Republic of Ireland.
As quoted in ‘Sweet Cork of Thee’, by Robert Gibbings, published by JM Dent.
St Anselm, late 11th/early 12th century abbot of the monastery of Bec in Normandy, and later (reluctantly) Archbishop of Canterbury, was fond of quoting from a book of the medieval Latin Old Testament:
Qui modica spernit paulatim decidit – “He who neglects little things falls by little and little.”
Anselm may well have approved of the cathedral-like qualities of the boatshed, but I’m absolutely certain he would have approved of its builder’s attention to detail.
Excellent quote – thankyou. I wonder if St Anselm was born under the sign of Virgo, by any chance….?