Autumn and British Summertime
The countryside has definitely taken on its autumn coat! Or maybe I should say it’s taken off its summer one! The once green leaves have either taken on a variety of colours or fallen, brown and crispy onto the dry ground! Last weekend British Summertime ended, treating us to an extra hour in bed. A phenomenon, which we Brits either love or hate. (That’s the putting the clocks backwards or forwards, not the extra hour in bed!) Is it better to have an extra hour of light in the morning and one less in the evening (or vice versa?), I suppose it depends on what you do with your day! Last Sunday seemed a long one!
Halloween, Bonfire Night and Guido Fawkes
Halloween, with its Jack o Lanterns and 'trick and treating' has passed and Bonfire Night looms, although fireworks have been spied in the ever darkening sky for a week or so! Good old Guy (also known as Guido) Fawkes! He hadn’t a clue what he and his fellow pyromaniacs were starting when they tried to render the Houses of Parliament useless (not much has changed there over the centuries!) in 1605 with his Gunpowder Plot! Since then his effigy has been burnt every year accompanied by an array of colourful sparks being propelled willy-nilly into the night sky. Safely one hopes!
Hang Him High
Guy Fawkes was sentenced to hang on the 31st January 1606 after being caught guarding the stash of gunpowder with a view to blowing up King James 1st as he opened parliament! There appear to be conflicting views as to how Guido (a far more charismatic name than Guy!) actually met his end! Some say he evaded being ‘hung, drawn and quartered’ (the thought really makes your eyes water, and his as well I shouldn’t wonder!) by jumping from the scaffold where he was about to be hung and breaking his neck, and others maintain that he did endure the end to which he had been sentenced!! The former being a far better option I would think! But a bit of a disappointment to the hangman, drawers and quarterers! Wages would be definitely be ‘down’!
Warts an’ All
One of the hangman’s perks was to sell the hanging rope by the ‘inch’, hence the expression ‘money for old rope’! And a rather grotesque treatment for warts was to rub the afflicted part against the body’s hand as it still dangled after it’s ‘dance of death’! (Quite a feat, depending of course, on where the wart was situated!)
Believe It If You Will!
And, I’ll leave you with an old saying, ‘A woman is always truthful, except when the holly is green’!!
Thanks for your time!
The Bumpkin Rambler xx
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