... a corner of London all rich in Dickens and centuries of history...to Ashwell House to give a lecture. This University Hall of Residence has young women from all over the world as well as from Britain: I gave them a Tube map and explained the origins of the place-names: Angel, Blackfriars, Westminster...and we looked at the centuries of history, Saxons and Normans, and the Medieval era, and the arrival of the Tudors with Henry VII attempting to evoke powerful folk-memories by naming his first son Arthur...then the tragedy of Henry VIII and so on and so on...
We tackled important historical events and ideas, but there was also room for other stuff, and they knew about the local pub, the Eagle, featuring in the famous nursery rhyme, and I told them about the horrid origins of the jack-in-the-box toy: it seems to date back to militant anti-Catholicism and be a mockery of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Taberbacle (old versions of the toy have thw words "Hocus Pocus" on the lid, a corruption of the words of the Consecration)...
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2 comments:
Yes, I was sad when you told me that, some years ago.
I used to have a Jack in the Box as boy.
Thank you for being a bright spot in my day!! Love your blog.
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