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It was one of those rare occasions when a game of cricket had not been interrupted by the weather, but would the Church be so forgiving?
Charles Dickens was very much frustrated with the behaviour of religious campaigners who declared that playing games on Sunday was a sin. During one Sunday evening walk, he stumbled across a meadow where there was a cricket match in full swing, not a stone’s throw from the parish church, and he trembled to think what the ecclesiastical authorities would say if they knew about it.
Picture: By Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), via WIkimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 30
20
Every Sunday, the Englishman is raised to heaven by the choir, and then taken to her bosom by Mother Earth.
In 1819, while on a five-year visit to England, American author Washington Irving began publishing his ‘Sketches’, which included the famous tale of Rip van Winkle. There were also a number of affectionately teasing reflections on the English. This extract from ‘Sunday in London’ picks up the Englishman as he makes his devotions in the parish church.
Picture: By Edmund Blair Leighton (1852–1922), Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 29
21
David, fresh from another close encounter with Saul’s men, shares his advice for living a charmed life.
Psalm 34 is said to have been written as a thanksgiving by David, when he was on the run from the madness of King Saul. He took refuge with Achish (Achimelech or Abimelech) the King of Gath, and to ensure that news of him did not get about, passed himself off as a harmless lunatic. This extract comes from the elegant translation made in 1535 by Yorkshireman Myles Coverdale.
Picture: By Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 28
22
Hamlet cannot understand what his mother could possibly see in his uncle Claudius.
Hamlet, young Prince of Denmark, has returned home from studying in Wittenberg to find that his father is dead, apparently of a snake-bite, and his mother has married his father’s brother Claudius, who is now styling himself King. Utterly disgusted, and far from convinced by the supposed cause of death, he tells his mother exactly what he thinks of the bargain she has made.
Picture: British School, ca. 1600, via the Royal Collection and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 27
23
John Galsworthy shared his unease at the rise of two competing forms of national speech.
In his Presidential Address for 1924, entitled ‘Expression’, John Galsworthy reminded the English Association that London’s inner-city English was washing away all rivals, and becoming our national speech. Was this desirable? And would the talk of ‘cultured’ people be any better? It was a rather serious point, he said, though we must hope his solution was not meant seriously.
Picture: © PaulTurner, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted January 26
24
The dazzling throne of the Mughal Emperors has vanished from history, but not before Abdul Hamid Lahori had seen it.
The Peacock Throne in the Hall of Private Audiences in the Red Fort of Delhi was the high throne of Mughal Emperors, built for Shah Jahan, who ascended it for the first time on March 22nd, 1635. The throne was looted and taken to Persia in May 1739 by Nader Shah, but we do have this eyewitness description from Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah Jahan’s court historian.
Picture: By Abid, son of Aqa Riza (fl. 1600s), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 25