« The Random 8 | Main | Reform of child courts »
July 15, 2007
St Swithin, Agincourt - oh, and it's raining ....
St Swithin's day, according to Shakespeare, the day on which the Battle of Agincourt was fought, something we are supposed to forget these days I think. Far too patriotic or something. But legend says that if it rains today, it will rain for the next forty days. Guess what, I woke up this morning to find it was pouring ....
Interestingly an e-mail from my brother, resident in Cape Town, complains of the cold there, so I looked up his weather. It is winter there at present. OK, it IS Africa, and it is a lot closer the equator than the UK is, but it just dopesn't seem fair that their overnight temperature is only just lower than mine in wet and soggy Gloucestershire, and his daytime temperature is higher than mine. Still, given that they did have snow within forty miles of Cape Town much ealier this winter - while I was basking in nice warm sunshine, I suppose I should not complain.
Yes, and Agincourt. I wonder how the archers kept their bowstrings dry? Apparently one of the factors that led to the French defeat was that it had been raining, was raining and would continue to rain. Armoured knights and armoured horses, soggy ground and confinement for a charge don't tend to be a good mix. THose the archers wounded, fell, those behind fell on top of them and others trampled the fallen. And all the time the archers maintained the hail of deadly long bow arrows. The French lost twelve thousand the English six hundred and most of those were the sick and the women and children in the baggage train which the ever so brave Dauphin found and slaughtered in rage.
Ah well, old history now, and its raining still. I shall have to invest either in webbed feet or waders.
Posted by The Gray Monk at July 15, 2007 11:00 AM
Comments
You probably don't want to hear this, but here in Sussex it's glorious. The tide is hardly audible, it's so calm as it laps the beach. Occasional thunder can be heard in the somewhere in the distance. Indeed it's so hot in the back garden this afternoon that GF has come in because he hasn't put on any sun-block.
Posted by: Gorse Fox at July 15, 2007 03:40 PM