Friday, October 08, 2010

Lamplight in the Mall...

...where I walked after catching the Tube from Brixton (see below). Buckingham Palace looks splendid in the glow of an Autumn evening: it was flying the Union Flag not the R. Standard, so HM obviously still in Scotland. As I walked down the Mall with golden and russet leaves falling, I was thinking of the triumphant Papal ride along this route just a couple of weeks before...our own Union Flag intertwined with the golden and white Papal one, and a kindly white-haired grandfatherly figure bestowing blessings left and right, and scooping up babies to kiss, and responding to the cheers and joyful geetings, and the happiness of it all...

Dinner at Brooks's with an old friend, much talk until a late hour. Settled with brandies and those comfortable leather armnchairs, the men started to tackle the whole question of Al Gore's nonsense about climate change, and also the ghastliness of the European bureaucracy, and more...I left them to it, and enjoyed the excellent library, was soon deep in books. They have a superb range on modern and 19th century history. I found myself absorbed by Gen. de Gaulle's WWII memoirs, which for various reasons I have been wanting to read for some while...

Home very late, catching a last Tube trundling out of London to the suburbs...

1 comment:

Nancy Waters said...

Joanna, I have been trying unsuccessfully to submit Fr. George Rutler's wonderful Pastor's Column (Church of Our Saviour, NYC) to you because it is all about his shrine to Blessed Newman. Having failed, I will give you the site which you can reference and read for yourself. This from Nancy.
www.oursaviournyc.org/pastor-s-corner
His column for October 10, 2010