“Oh! on Coronation Day, on Coronation Day/ We’ll have a spree, a jubilee/ And shout Hip Hip Hooray…” No, that’s not from the book of Ecclesiastes, as you might expect, but instead it’s a music hall song from 1901. And we’ve been singing it on repeat here at Reid Towers to celebrate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III. I was something of a republican in my youth, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to understand the real purpose of an event like this: it’s a chance for the country to just feel good about itself for a day, regardless of politics, colour, or creed. It’s a sort of national birthday party.
Scurvy Grass
The coronation to beat was, of course, that of William the Conqueror, which took place on Christmas Day, 1066. William had posted Norman guards outside Westminster Abbey in case of trouble from the natives. When these guards heard the shouts of Vivat! (“long life!”) coming from inside they assumed they were being attacked and responded, in a custom that is still honoured in France to this day, by setting fire to nearby houses. It’s in moments like this that the true English character comes to the fore. As the Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis recorded, “Nearly everyone else ran towards the raging fire, some to fight bravely against the force of the flames, but more hoping to grab loot for themselves”. So proud.
Rhythm in Foam
As for King Charles’s coronation, these are the sorts of things Britain still does rather well: a ritual that feels like it dates from medieval times (and not the 1950s, when most of it was invented), a sort of comfortable, faded, down-at-heel, yet curiously moving touch of mystery and grandeur, a splash of fancy dress, and some frankly outstanding hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck-raising music. At least this time it was raining, which fortunately stopped Charles’s Norman guards setting fire to anything.
Fulmar in flight
The Coronation Day song would probably be forgotten now, but James Joyce has Buck Mulligan sing it mockingly—“out of tune with a Cockney accent”—in the first chapter of Ulysses. “O, won’t we have a merry time/ Drinking whisky, beer and wine/ Or in my case ginger tea to help with the nausea from the antibiotics/ On Coronation/ Coronation Day?” The answer is, yes: yes, we will.
Good to know you are back to your industrious self. Keep well. An excellent reading of Ullyses is on YouTube read by Paul Whitacre. Recommend . Take care.
Hi Kevin, thanks for the good wishes! Yes, well on the mend here.
I have the Naxos audiobooks reading of Ulysses and it’s the one that got me over the line after starting and running out of steam several times. Suddenly I understood just how funny (and tragic and joyous and sad) it all is!
A beautiful color and pattern in this gansey, both delightful! This American (actually an ex-pat Texan) cannot figure out what the third photo is, unless it is mail? Nah.
Yes, glad to see you being productive, keep taking care.
Hi Annie – the third photo is a multiple exposure of flecks of foam in the river.
I suppose it is unlikely that some people were safeguarding things rescued from the flames to return them to the owners…
Scurvy grass – I have recently read that potatoes were commonly used to prevent scurvy on ships.