Friday, April 24, 2015

Happy St. George’s Day

Via Horace  "When I read this yesterday I remembered long discussions, Makers Mark glasses in hand, with my friend Lewis Burwell, descendant of the Carter's Grove Plantation Burwells.  Lewis was a treasure trove of the history of the War of Northern Aggression and he taught me a lot.  But his basic thrust always was that leaving British rule was stupid and would be seen as that in the long run.  I'm glad he's not here to see the chaos."
 

st-george (1)
This royal throne of kings,this scepter’d isle, This earth of majesty,this seat of Mars, This other Eden, Demi-paradise, This fortress, built by Nature for herself, Against infection,and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
Seems a good way to start since we mark three things today, a triptych, if you will. In 1564 William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon, and 52 years later on this date he died there, as well. In between he became the greatest author to ever write in the English tongue, and simply perhaps the best, ever.

A man whose works we have read, and honored in all our generations, and whose phrases like the one above, continue to grace our everyday tongue. There’s little more for me to say, except that it would be a good day to reread some of your favorites.


8 comments:

  1. Leaving British rule was a bad idea? He should see how far Grate Brittin has fallen in the past century. If America was still part of England we would ALL be disarmed and be socialist by edict. No Thanks. Things may be bad here but they are worse across the pond.

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  2. That's why I'm glad he's not here now. He was buying yje booze so I cut him some slack.

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    1. All Country Gentlemen drink bourbon, especially in Virginia. :)

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  3. Not always. As we spoke there was a small keg of Floyd County moonshine in a rocking baby cradle behind the old wood burning heater. Lewis went to the cupboard for he "Mark", as he called it, in my honor. I never turned it down either. I miss the '70s almost as much as the '50s. I have a wealth of moonshiner and bootlegger stories to tell, but most of them involve my relatives so I try to be discreet.

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    1. :) I imagine you have seen the one about my grandfather when he was the police chief of Raleigh and his bootlegger friends, but I also had a g,g who was extremely well off earning all from his operations. He would always be finely dressed and was considered a bulwark of King George county. :)

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  4. I have many times heard "He'd give you the shirt off his back." It was always referring to a bootlegger or moonshiner. Men of above average moral standard who just did not respect dumb laws. I would have trusted every one I ever knew with my wife, daughter, or money. In their presence, even when very young I felt totally secure. I have known celebrity preachers, Senators, Congressmen, and an array of professional types, but no better men than those scofflaws. God bless them all.

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