Old Holborn is going for a walk.
It is a very long way from Redneckshire to London, and to arrive by midday would probably involve what is known at the Villa Underclass as ‘a stupid-o’clock start’. This, together with my medical portfolio, militates against such indulgence.
However, if I can get there, I will.
Not having seen the film V for Vendetta I would be attending as a member of the Guy Fawkes Memorial Fan Club, and, given the nature of the observance, would naturally undertake not to bring any sharp objects, placards (e.g. “5/11: FALSE FLAG”), digging tools or huge four-horse wagons full of barrels of Royal-monopoly Gunpowder.
Some younger readers of this blog may, regrettably, be so culturally deprived as never to have read the definitive work of English History on this point:
There were a great many plots and Parliaments in James I’s reign, and one of the Parliaments was called the Addled Parliament because the plots hatched in it were all such rotten ones. One plot, however, was by far the best plot in History, and the day and month of it (though not, of course, the year) are well known to be utterly and even maddeningly MEMORABLE.
The Gunpowder Plot arose in the following way: the King had recently invented a new table called Avoirduroi, which said:
1 New Presbyter = 1 OLD PRIEST.
0 Bishop = 0 King.
James was always repeating, ‘No Bishop, No King’ to himself, and one day a certain loyal citizen called Sir Guyfawkes, a very active and conscientious man, overheard him, and thought it was the slogan of James’ new policy. So he decided to carry it out at once and made a very loyal plan to blow up the King and the bishops and everybody else in Parliament assembled, with gunpowder*. Although the plan failed, attempts are made every year on St. Guyfawkes’ Day to remind the Parliament that it would have been a Good Thing.
* recently invented by Francis Bacon, author of Shakespeare, etc.
[W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman: 1066 And All That, 1930]
