Monday, December 04, 2006
Having Fun Today in the Ancient City of Rochester
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Today in the ancient City of Rochester, where I live, there were over 5,000 visitors; making the place as busy as a beehive.
Because a famous Victorian Writer called Charles Dickens lived here, 150 years ago, we have a ‘Dickensian Xmas’ to celebrate the fame he brought to our City.
This is done by closing the old city to traffic and filling every space with stalls, ‘Morris Dancers’, and people dressed up as famous characters from Mr Dickens books, such as Scrooge, Mr Pickwick, etc.
Whilst wandering through the throng, I met an Elf-like fellow in a Victorian outfit, with a pencil stuck in the band of his top hat.
This indicated to me that he was a character artist, so I took my life in my hands and let him produce a likeness of my phizzhog ( face ).
What do you think of it? That’s a LiveWood Cudgel ( walking stick ) that I’m holding in my hand; as I’m not so lively on my pins ( feet ) as I used to be.
Incidentally, Rochester is in my opinion, is the oldest continuously lived in City, in this country and probably Europe as well.
It was a famous Victorian City, and before that a Medieval City, and before that, a Norman City, and before that an Jutish City where the first Roman Catholic Church in this country was built.
Of course, it was a Romeo-British Town before that, and a Roman Citadel before that and a Celtic Town before that.
And originally an Ancient British Encampment.
We have graves going back through all these times and before.
The one in my garden was radio carbon dated to 3650 BC and one in the suburbs was radio-carbon dated to 42,000 BC, but I’m not sure that we had towns in those far off days, as my BackBrain Memories don’t go back that far, mores the pity.
Likewise with the Mastodon Elephant they also dug up by our local river.
This place is steeped in history, like mulled wine.
Today in the ancient City of Rochester, where I live, there were over 5,000 visitors; making the place as busy as a beehive.
Because a famous Victorian Writer called Charles Dickens lived here, 150 years ago, we have a ‘Dickensian Xmas’ to celebrate the fame he brought to our City.
This is done by closing the old city to traffic and filling every space with stalls, ‘Morris Dancers’, and people dressed up as famous characters from Mr Dickens books, such as Scrooge, Mr Pickwick, etc.
Whilst wandering through the throng, I met an Elf-like fellow in a Victorian outfit, with a pencil stuck in the band of his top hat.
This indicated to me that he was a character artist, so I took my life in my hands and let him produce a likeness of my phizzhog ( face ).
What do you think of it? That’s a LiveWood Cudgel ( walking stick ) that I’m holding in my hand; as I’m not so lively on my pins ( feet ) as I used to be.
Incidentally, Rochester is in my opinion, is the oldest continuously lived in City, in this country and probably Europe as well.
It was a famous Victorian City, and before that a Medieval City, and before that, a Norman City, and before that an Jutish City where the first Roman Catholic Church in this country was built.
Of course, it was a Romeo-British Town before that, and a Roman Citadel before that and a Celtic Town before that.
And originally an Ancient British Encampment.
We have graves going back through all these times and before.
The one in my garden was radio carbon dated to 3650 BC and one in the suburbs was radio-carbon dated to 42,000 BC, but I’m not sure that we had towns in those far off days, as my BackBrain Memories don’t go back that far, mores the pity.
Likewise with the Mastodon Elephant they also dug up by our local river.
This place is steeped in history, like mulled wine.
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