Saturday, June 30, 2007

Archaeology in London

1902

Archaeology, according to Dr. Freshfield, who lectured at the London Institute, becomes an absorbing passion when once the initial stage is passed and the victim is too engrossed to find time for any other occupation.

He can find no better field for exploration than London — even without the aid of the steel excavator. He can see excellent Roman remains while doing business at the money order department of the post office. With a little more trouble he can study Saxon remains in Edward the Confessor's Chapel or the Chapel of the Pyx, at the Abbey. The Tower and the Bow Church woo him with allurements of the Norman style. Then the parochial records of the city and of the city companies call for the explorer who has caught the fever.

He will have the joy of learning that the plague of London was preceded by three other worse plagues in the same century, and that the dog — not the rat — was officially regarded as the disseminator. After this we may expect to see stockbrokers forsaking golf and gold and rubbing brasses in Westminster Abbey. — London Chronicle.


"Epitaphy"

A man may be simply mulish during his lifetime, but in the obituary notice it is always said that he had the courage of his convictions. — Denver Post.

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