In the north-west tower chapel of Westminster Abbey, where Britain’s great and good are memorialised, there is a bronze bust of Major General Charles George Gordon with downcast eyes. Born 1833. Killed at Khartoum 1885. It is a memorial because his body was never found, slain after enemy forces broke into Khartoum after a long […]
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Dr. Samuel Johnson, creator of the Dictionary of Modern English, would often visit two sisters in 18th-century London – Mrs Digby and Mrs Brooke. On one of these visits, the two ladies were paying Johnson many compliments about his recently published dictionary, particularly commending him for not including any ‘ghastly’ rude words. Johnson responded, “What! my dears! then you have been looking for them?”. Embarrassed, the ladies immediately dropped the subject.
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An short excerpt from the prologue. Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearðfeasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendraofer hronrade hyran scolde,gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning. Lo! the glory of the kings […]
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