LIZZIE MEADOWS
A British Heritage Commonplace Book
In which we reflect on themes introduced in these pages
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
G.K. Chesterton
“The Rolling English Road”
“Cos a coachman’s a privileged indiwidual,”
replied Mr. Weller, looking fixedly at his son.
“Cos a coachman may do without suspicion
wot other men may not; cos a coachman may
be on the wery amicablest terms with eighty
mile ’o females, and yet nobody think that he
ever means to marry any vun among them.”
Charles Dickens
The Pickwick Papers
Could you ask our captain to go a little faster and land a little earlier? My husband would tip him handsomely.
Hyacinth Bucket
from Keeping Up Appearances
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism.
It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
If I wasn’t an actor, I think I’d have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights. Art is a little bit larger than life—it’s an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.
Sir Laurence Olivier
And all that we can always say
Is: true democracy begins
With free confession of our sins.
In this alone are all the same,
All are so weak that none dare claim
“I have the right to govern,” or
“Behold in me the Moral Law,’”
And all real unity commences
In consciousness of differences.
W.H.Auden
from “New Year Letter”
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
W.H.Auden
from “September 1, 1939”