to create the unfriendly and challenging context in which Ambrose lived and served
as a minister.^207
Using place as the locus for experiencing God opens a new horizon for
observing how Ambrose experienced God. The most intimate place of any person is
his or her home. Previously the ways that Ambrose experienced God in family
worship were examined. However, there were other dangerous domestic ways in
which he also noticed God. On February 5, 1642 he records, “[t]he Lord wonderfully
this day (as once before) delivered one from the danger of fire, which had begun in
his house, but was discovered by the smoke.”^208 Ambrose’s marginalia of Isaiah
24:15 further amplifies his experience, “[w]herefore glorifie ye the Lord in the fires.”
By moving out in expanding concentric circles from Ambrose’s house to the
woods for his annual retreats reveals the porous nature of the various dimensions of
Ambrose’s life and how his retreats connect the Intrapersonal and Geo-Environmental
experiences of his life. One of his favourite places was Weddicre Woods, near
Garstang. Presumably Ambrose first discovered this welcoming place when he
served in Garstang as one of the Kings’ Preachers. Clearly Weddicre Woods was
unique for Ambrose. Belden Lane employs Yi-Fu Tuan’s term topophilia, which
describes those places that are attached with great meaning.^209 Similar to symbols,
geographical places collect meaning and store memory over time. Sheldrake asserts
that “[p]lace is space that has the capacity to be remembered and to evoke our
(^207) Fishwick, History of Garstang (^) , 166.
(^208) Ambrose, Media (1650), 104. Seaver addresses the reasons for frequent fires in
homes. Wallington’s World, 54-5. cf. Walsham, Providence in Early Modern
England (^209) Belden Lane, , 117-27, 137Landscapes of the Sacred-8. (^) , 6.