Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Monument...
...in the City of London commemorates the Great Fire of 1666 and I climbed up all its 311 steps with a young niece and enjoyed the wide views from the top...it is years since I last did this, and we also visited St Paul's Cathedral, and the church of St Clement (as in "Oranges and Lemons") and ate cakes and lemonade in a teashop, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I like half-term.
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There's something very fitting about the way the Great Fire of London was blamed on Catholics in the same way as the Emperor Nero blamed us for the Great Fire of Rome. The Monument's famous inscription, which included the wonderful line 'Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched', was only taken down in 1831. It's a salutary reminder though that, although Britain is still the most anti-Catholic country in the western world, we only have to think of the Holy Father's recent visit to realise what a long way we have come.
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