‘Bird stump’
Henry recounts, "Lady Schrapnell had the idea that if the bishop's bird stump survived the fire, it might have been put in storage somewhere in the new cathedral, so she sent me to interview the bishops' wives." Lady Schrapnell is interested in the original stump because she wants the restored cathedral to be analogous to the original cathedral. A replica of the stump would not satisfy her because she is obsessed with authenticity and originality. The stump is a fundamental symbol whose exclusion from the cathedral would make it incomplete.
Monuments
Henry explains, "Before she assigned me to the bishop’s bird stump, it was monuments. She wanted a copy of every inscription on every monument in the cathedral, including the one on Captain Gervase Scrope’s tomb, which went on forever." Having the same inscriptions would help her to reconstruct the cathedral to its original form. Monuments are central to the design of the cathedral. The requirement to compile the exact inscriptions affirms her commitment to the restoration. Altered inscriptions would distort the cathedral's original imagery; hence, Lady Schrapnell insists that the inscriptions should be as in the original monuments.
Bombs
Henry explains, “The majority of the bombs that had fallen on the cathedral had been incendiaries, but Carruthers was right. Concussions can do peculiar things, and there had been a number of explosions in the vicinity, from HEs to gas mains going. The bishop’s bird stump might have been blown into the central aisle of the nave, or the choir.” The bombs are the leading cause of the destruction of the cathedral which Lady Schrapnell intends to reconstruct. The explosions disorganize and destroy the majority of the contents of the cathedral. After the explosion, it would be difficult for the bird stump to remain in its original location.
Irritability
Willis writes, “Irritability was a definite symptom. And the net guidelines specifically stated that time-lag sufferers were to be immediately ‘removed from the environment’ and from duty, but if I did that, I would have to explain to Lady Schrapnell what we were doing in Oxford instead of Coventry.” Time-lags occur as a result of the time travels which Henry and his associates engage in. Irritability is attributed to fatigue and the lack of adequate sleep. Time travels are timed-consuming and they exhaust the historians involved in them making them irritable.
Sleep
Henry contemplates, “No, so long as Carruthers wasn’t completely incoherent it was better to stay here, find the bishop’s bird stump, and then go back and be able to tell Lady Schrapnell, yes, it had been in the cathedral during the raid, and then get some sleep. Sleep, that knits the ragged sleeve of non-AFS uniforms, that soothes the sooty brow and shuts out sorrow, blessing the weary soul with healing rest-”
Sleep is the sole remedy to time-lags, however, Henry and Carruthers must forfeit it to please Lady Schrapnell. They can only sleep once they have fulfilled her orders of tracing the bird stump. Sleep is essential in their wellbeing for it would heal them from the symptoms of time-lag that they are all manifesting.
