Saturday, 30 January 2010

In the meantime



General James Wolfe, who commanded the British Forces
at Quebec against the French and won a great victory
at the cost of his life,


surveys London



from the top of the hill


at





The donkeys at Duke Humphrey Way.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester enclosed Greenwich Park and had a tower which was demolished to make way for the Royal Observatory.
'To dine with Duke Humphrey' was an Elizabethan saying used 
by poor people to avoid mentioning 
that they did not have the money to pay for food.
 At dinnertime they would excuse themselves 
by saying they would be eating with the Duke.
I am indebted to Wikipedia for this piece of information
 although it does rather bring to mind  a game called 'Call my Bluff'.





2 comments:

  1. Great post. Thanks for popping over to my blog and for your comment - with the title of your blog you must look out for Selvedge - it fits both the useful and beautiful criteria- more than any other!

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  2. Oh, I know General Wolfe . . .
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_General_Wolfe

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