Reflections

A British Heritage commonplace book

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Adorning Britain’s most desirable village (p.8), the cerne Abbas Giant is now thought by many to be a caricature of Oliver Cromwell as the demi-god Hercules. For centuries it was the anual custom to erect a maypole within the 180-foot chalk figure, around which childless couple might in hopeful expectation.[/caption]

‘REGRETS ARE THE NATURAL PROPERTY OF GRAY HAIRS.’
—Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

‘Least said, soonest mended.’
—David Copperfield

‘The clever men at Oxford Know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much As intelligent Mr. Toad.’
—Kenneth Graham

‘VERY NICE SORT OF PLACE, OXFORD, I SHOULD THINK, FOR PEOPLE THAT LIKE THAT SORT OF PLACE.’
—George Bernard Shaw

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.’
—A Tale of Two Cities