A London day...history, heritage, and the happiness of a wedding...

...of the most delightful sort.

It began on the steps of Westminster Cathedral where I met the group of Americans who had asked me to take them on a Catholic History Walk.  They were delightful, and we set off for a couple of hours to walk through centuries and centuries. We started  w. the Cathedral itself with its joyful recent memories of  visits by St John Paul the Great and  beloved Papa Benedict, and then off down Ambrosden Avenue  and some history of Archbishops from Wiseman and Manning through to Heenan and Hume and so on...and thence along past the Horseferry Road and some history of London's bridges and the revenue from the ferry which went to the Archbishops of Cantrerbury for hundreds aof years.

And so down to Parliament, with a glimpse at the coat-of-arms of the Westminster City Council which shows Our Lady cradling the Christ-child, and down past Abbey Orchard Street and along Great Peter Street...and we finished along  by Richard Coeur de Lion and then Big Ben.

The organiser of the group had asked me in a phone call if she could bring me anything from New York and on a sudden whim I siad Ooooh yes, how very kind.,.perhaps some of those lovely chocolates with peanut-butter inside?  And she brought packets and packets and I'm enjoying a delicious nibble as I write this...

All the time we were walking, members of the group had taken charge of the big plastic  bag containing my Hat and the suitcase containing my Wedding Gift - because immediately the walk ended, I had to dive into a cafe cloakroom and scramble into Best Clothes and hurry to Brompton Oratory, for the marriage of William Jolliffe to Pia Vogler...

It was a lovely traditional wedding, with bridesmaids in floaty apicot chiffon, and the Prince of Denmark's March, and assorted friends-and relations with some squeaking babies and some pretty hats ,  The bridegroom's father, Lord Hylton, did the  Old Testament reading, and the Psalm was a most beautifully sung The Lord's my Shepherd. I love the wedding prayers, with the lovely bit about marriage being the one blessing not destroyed by Original Sin or washed away in the flood... Afterwards, lots of champagne and nice things to eat and old friends to greet and lots of lively chatter and a great sense of joy...