SarahTheCoat

The Union Jack

If you think the “red, white and blue” flag is all about America’s Old Glory or The Stars and Stripes, think again. 

The flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (to give the country its proper name) is red, white and blue. 

There has been a lot of flag waving over the past week due to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, so it feels timely to consider how the UK’s flag came about and why it is called “Union Jack”. 

To start with, the current flag isn’t the first version; that was a flag adopted for use at sea from 1606. Commonly called the King’s Colours, it celebrated the unification of Scotland and England under James (the Sixth of Scotland and the First of England). It combines the red cross of St George (patron saint of England) with the saltire cross of St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. 

Following the various acts of union, it became the official status of “the Ensign armorial of Great Britain”.  It later became used by the land forces, too. The Welsh are not represented on the flag because at the time of the union with Scotland, the Welsh principality was already a fully integrated part of the English monarchy due to the Tudors. The Queen’s heir, Prince Charles is The Prince of Wales.

A naval version (“The Red Ensign”) was flown on British ships (for you OFMD fans).

The flag’s official use came to an end in 1801 with the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. At that time Saint Patrick’s saltire red cross flag was added to the flag of Great Britain to create the present-day Union Flag.

So why is it called a “Jack”? It dates from Queen Anne’s time (r. 1702-14), but its origin is uncertain .It may come from the ‘jack-et’ of the English or Scottish soldiers, or from the name of James I who originated the first union in 1603.Another alternative is that the name may be derived from a proclamation by Charles II that the Union Flag should be flown only by ships of the Royal Navy as a jack, a small flag at the bowsprit; the term 'jack’ once meant small.

British bathrooms  - the lightpull

One thing that tends to surprise a lot of non-Brits when they visit a bathroom or WC in the UK is the fact that they can’t find a light switch. 

After fumbling around in the dark for a while, you might encounter one of these hanging from the ceiling: 

A tug on it will close a switch in the ceiling and let there be light. More modern homes and most hotels will have the bathroom light switch on the wall OUTSIDE the bathroom, looking like any ordinary light switch. 

So why the difference? This eccentricity is due to the fact that building regulations in the UK do not permit a light fitting to be inside the bathroom anywhere near the basin or the bathtub because well…. water and electricity don’t mix. Remember that British power sockets and switches are twice the power of American ones, at 240 volts, so it can kill you! Steamy bathrooms mean that light fittings are fixed to the ceilings or walls a specified distance from any water. 

So non-Brits who want to use a hairdryer to style their hair can’t do it in the bathroom. There is only one exception to that rule and it is this thing: 

A shaving point. Because hidden behind that plate is a transformer, manufacturers now make them dual voltage, offering a 115 volt outlet for shavers for visitors from 110-120 volt countries. The shutter interlocks so only one socket can be used at a time. to prevent the transformer being overloaded.

Manufacturers of products like rechargeable electric toothbrushes worked it out. They all now come with the two-round-pronged plugs so you can indeed use them in the bathroom in a shaving point. 

BUT if you tried to use an adapter to plug in your hairdryer, it won’t work.  Extremely big NO. The shaver socket is likely to be rated at 1 amp or less. If you are foolish enough to try a hairdryer, you will blow the fuse if there is one or blow the transformer -costing a lot to get it fixed.

If your fanfic has Sherlock spending hours in the bathroom using a hair dryer to style his hair, think again. 

British Foods     Bovril

Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick and salty meat extract paste similar to a yeast extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston. It is sold in a distinctive bulbous jar which has changed over the decades. 

This is the one I found buried under my collapsed chalk wall. This particular size (2 oz) and shape was produced between 1890 and 1918. 

Johnston was a butcher in Edinburgh who hated wasting the beef trimmings after selling the cuts that housewives wanted. So he boiled them down until they became a highly concentrated thick glaze that had a very long shelf life. It could be added to soups or gravies, diluted with not water to make “beef tea”. 

He emigrated to Canada in 1871. By 1874, the French Army gave him a contract to supply the army with preserved beef products, Britain not having enough beef to supply the French demand in the Franco-Prussian War. While there, he developed Johnston’s Fluid Beef (brand Bovril). This was somewhat different from conventional meat glaze in that the gelatin, present in all meat glaze and making it solid at room temperature, was hydrolysed with alkali to make the mixture semi-liquid, and thereby easier to package, measure and use. For his services, he was awarded the Order of the French Red Cross. 

He returned to Scotland, marketed the Bovril and made a fortune out of it. During WW1 the frontline troops were supplied with jars with which they could make “bully tea”. 

It was also very popular during WW2 rationing, when meat was very scarce; it could be added to vegetable stews and give the flavour of beef. 

I can’t say it’s a favourite of mine, but I do know that I’d rather have it than marmite or vegemite! 

I can see John Watson having acquired a taste for it while serving in the army. 

i don't think i have ever had bovril. i do like adding marmite to soups, and when i cook grains like rice or barley. it sounds a bit like bouillon, but (like marmite) in goop form rather than powder.

British Weather and The Shipping Forecast

Non- British fan fic writers sometimes struggle to grasp how important an element the weather is to their British characters. 

We are just as likely to say something about the weather as we are to say “Good Morning.”  No one is ever stuck for something to say; conversations start with a comment on the weather.  The forecast is given on the radio, television, internet, newspapers. Because we are a SMALL country in size compared to the USA, forecasts are national. So I get to know what is happening in the north of Scotland, down at Land’s End in Cornwall, how warm it will be in London. 

The amusing consequence of this is that we in the southern counties will heave a sigh of relief that the prevailing winds will generally take the wettest weather up the coast to the middle of the country and the north, rather than soaking us down here- a bit of schadenfreude. 

Online maps are all zoomable; I can see what time the rain showers are working their way from west to east, so I can time my dog walks to avoid the worst. 

We do get a lot of “weather”- it’s very changeable. Yes, it does rain here quite a lot, but not as much as in Ireland. And it doesn’t rain all day, every day for weeks on end. So knowing whether you should carry an umbrella or not is yet another reason to keep an eye on the forecasts. 

Another thing to take into account: Britain is an island nation. Before the “land” weather report on BBC Radio Four, you get the shipping forecast.  The waters around the British Isles are divided into 31 sea areas shown on the map.

A lot of Brits will know what you say the words “German Bight” where that actually is!  If you were to reel off a list of these places “eg Cromerty, Fourth, Tyne, Dogger, Humber) you would get a knowing nod from a surprising number of Brits, especially the older generation. 

The Shipping Forecast celebrated its 150th year anniversary in 2017. The shipping forecast is issued four times a day at 2300, 0500, 1100, 1700 UTC and covers a period of 24 hours from 0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800 UTC respectively. The forecast contains details of gale warnings in force, a general synopsis and sea-area forecasts containing wind direction and force, sea state, weather and visibility. Gale warnings are issued as required throughout the day (for winds of Gale Force 8 or more).

Advice versus Advise

If you’ve seen my earlier two posts (license vs licence and practice vs practise) you are approaching the above pairing with some suspicion. Which will it be? Will it be the Brits who use the -ce to mean the noun and -se to mean the verb, as in licence, leaving the Americans to use the -se (license) for both? Or will it be like practice, where the Brits who use the -ce to mean the noun and -se to mean the verb, and the Americans opt for the -ce version (practice)? 

Just to confuse the hell out of all fanfic writers who are American English speakers, it’s none of the above.   In both British AND American English, advise is the verb (e.g., she advised him against smoking), while advice is the noun (e.g., he ignored her advice and smoked anyway).

Thankfully, we can finally agree on one thing; regardless of the variety of English you’re dealing with, advice is always a noun and advise is always a verb.

I just wish other things were quite as clear. I still struggle with the difference between device and devise. The one saving grace I have is that the American lust to -”ize” everything (even nouns) means I automatically switch this in my brain to a -ise and know that it is a verb. 

British Spelling     Those Verbs with T Endings

I mentioned in a couple of previous posts that some British English verbs will get a T instead of an -ed ending. A number of comments asked for a source. These are what I have been able to cobble together. I’ve not included really obscure or archaic versions, just the ones I have run across as a reader. 

There are thirty-three verbs that take a t rather than an -ed ending in British English, including some ubiquitous words (like left and shot) we may not even think of as having irregular forms because they are the only forms we know — for example, leaved and shooted are not options, not even in American English.

1. Bent: the only correct form of the past tense of bend, although the archaic form bended is used jocularly, for example in the phrase “on bended knee” 2. Blest: a variant form of the past tense of bless 3. Built: the primary form of the past tense of build, though builded is used in some dialects 4. Burnt: a variant form of the past tense of burn; used in favor of the primary spelling in names of pigments such as burnt orange and burnt sienna (familiar to Crayola crayon aficionados) 5. Clapt: a variant form of the past tense of clap 6. Cleft: a variant form of the past tense of cleave; also, a noun or adjective referring to a split 7. Crept: the only correct form of the past tense of creep, except in the slang sense of being creeped out, or unsettled 8. Dealt: the only correct form of the past tense of deal 9. Dreamt: a variant form of the past tense of dream 10. Dwelt: a variant form of the past tense of dwell 11. Felt: the only correct form of the past tense of feel; also, a noun referring to a type of material or a similar substance 12. Gilt: a variant form of the past tense of gild; also, a synonym for gold or a noun or adjective referring to gold plating or other surfacing, or a young female pig 13. Girt: a variant form of the past tense of gird 14. Knelt: the primary form of the past tense of kneel 15. Leant: an alternate form of the past tense of lean, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well (pronounced “lent”) 16. Leapt: a variant form of the past tense of leap (see this related post) 17. Learnt: an alternate form of the past tense of learn, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well 18. Left: the only correct form of the past tense of leave, meaning “go,” although the past tense for leave in the sense of forming leaves is leaved 19. Lent: the only correct form of the past tense of lend 20. Lost: the only correct form of the past tense of lose 21. Meant: the only correct form of the past tense of mean (pronounced “ment”) 22. Pent: an alternate form of the past tense of pen, meaning “confine,” although the past tense for pen in the sense of writing is penned 23. Rent: an alternate form of the past tense of rend 24. Sent: the only correct form of the past tense of send 25. Shot: the only correct form of the past tense of shoot 26. Slept: the only correct form of the past tense of sleep 27. Smelt: a variant form of the past tense of smell; also, a noun referring to a type of fish or a verb for melting or reducing metal or another substance 28. Spelt: an alternate form of the past tense of spell, used mostly in British English but occasionally appearing in American English usage as well; also, a noun referring to a type of wheat 29. Spent: the only correct form of the past tense of spend 30. Spilt: a variant form of the past tense of spill 31. Spoilt: a variant form of the past tense of spoil 32. Wept: the only correct form of the past tense of weep 33. Went: the only correct form of the past tense of go

I hope this helps, @deelaundry and @spiffytea!

Britpicking the Difference Between Sarcasm and Irony

My previous post on British use of irony provoked a couple of interesting replies, which leads me to attempt to deal with the difference between sarcasm and irony. 

In my experience as both an American and a Brit, the Americans are masters of sarcasm and the Brits are masters of irony. There is a difference, however, so if you are writing your fan fic set in the UK, it is worth trying to grasp the slippery concept of how they differ.

Irony is the opposite of what you would expect. Sarcasm, on the other hand, has a condescending tone meant to embarrass or insult someone.

How to tell the difference?  Verbal irony and sarcasm have one distinct difference, which is negativity. Sarcasm is typically witty mockery. Therefore, it has a negative connotation, whereas verbal irony doesn’t.

I can give you two examples from my own experience today. I walk the dog no matter what the weather. Telling my black Lab that it is raining like a monsoon makes no difference at all. So, kitted up for the gale force wind and driving rain, I walked along the path and met another dog walker. I smiled and said “Whatever the weather…” and he replied, “Lovely out, isn’t it.” I walked on to the path alongside the allotments where two guys were digging holes to plant a new beech hedge. “Lovely afternoon for gardening,” I said to which they replied with an ironic smile, “At least this will water them in well.” 

This is how irony is used constantly in British conversations. 

That said, it isn’t easy to spot the dividing lines between irony and sarcasm. Sherlock, for example, is a master at verbal irony, saying one thing that actually implies the exact opposite, but he does so in a sarcastic manner . 

Maybe an example or two might clarify things:

Irony - A client saying, ‘I quite enjoy muddy boot prints on my new white carpet.’

Sarcasm - Sherlock saying to that client, ‘White was a fabulous choice for your new carpet. It goes great with 2 kids and 3 dogs.”

Sarcasm is like irony with attitude. Sarcasm doesn’t have any other purpose but to insult or embarrass, even yourself.

In his wedding speech, Sherlock demonstrated both irony and sarcasm and I will admit that find it hard to tell the difference between them or exactly where the boundary was crossed.  

He was being ironic when he said to a room full of wedding guests, standing at the top table with the bride and groom,  “Today we honour the death-watch beetle that is the doom of our society and, in time – one feels certain – our entire species.”

It turns to sarcasm, however, when he later says “Indeed, any reputation I have for mental acuity and sharpness comes, in truth, from the extraordinary contrast John so selflessly provides.”

However, he then goes on to admit

Because he is admitting his earlier irony about weddings should not be taken seriously and that he is the one being ridiculous, he is reverting back to sarcasm, that is, insulting himself.

If a native speaker like me has problems dealing with this, imagine how tough it is for someone who has learned English as a second or third language!

British Words          Pernickety vs Persnickety

adjective (Informal)

Are you English, American or Scottish? 

I have a bit of all three in my background, so wondered why the English (and then Americans) put an s into the word when the Scots don’t. 

The original Scottish dialect form was “pernickety” in the 19th century. Interestingly, I have heard it both with and without the s in my time in England, so it wouldn’t necessarily mark the person who uses the s version as a non-Brit.  I think I tend to use the Scots version more than the one with the s.

I think Mycroft fits the bill, don’t you?

Practicable versus Practical

Something that often gets confused by writers is the word “practicable”. It doesn’t mean the same thing as “practical”, but often writers will use the latter when they should have used the former. 

Something that is practical is  defined in a dictionary as (1) of or relating to practice, (2) capable of being put to good use, (3) concerned with ordinary, tangible things, and (4) being such for all useful purposes. So, most people will think of it and use it as a synonym for useful.

Practicable is more narrowly defined. It means capable of being put into practice; it is used most often to refer to plans or ideas.

I used the term practicable while writing the latest chapter in PRESENTS- A Periodic Tales special, as Mycroft realises that his nine-year-old brother has come up with a very practicable plan for their mother’s birthday. Of course, he later had to help with those thirteen practicable plans…

A lesson in words

I’m minding my own business, reading a fic that I am enjoying, sipping my tea, smiling and then: 

“There are less people than I thought there’d be.”

YIKES! This writer has failed to grasp the difference between the words “less” and “fewer”. 

Fewer is used to refer to a number of things that are counted, as in “fewer choices” and “fewer problems”; less is used to refer to quantity or amount among a single thing that is being measured, as in “less time” and “less effort.”

Another way of understanding the difference is that less is used when describing singular or uncountable nouns. Fewer is defined as not as much and is used when describing plural or countable nouns.

So, it’s sort of understandable that the writer might make that mistake, because they have not realised that “people” is a plural, meaning that their sentence should have been written as “There are fewer people than I thought there’d be”. OR “There is less of a crowd than I thought there would be.” 

British Christmas  Day 23   MUMMERS!

Mumming is an ancient pagan custom that was an excuse for people to have a party at Christmas! It means ‘making diversion in disguise’. The tradition was that men and women would swap clothes, put on masks and go visiting their neighbours, singing, dancing or putting on a play with a silly plot. 

The custom of Mumming might go back to Roman times, when people used to dress up for parties at New Year. It is thought that, in the UK, it was first done on St. Thomas’s day or the shortest day of the year.

Different types of entertainments were done in different parts of the UK, particularly in England. In parts of Durham, Yorkshire and Devon a special sword dance was performed. There were also different names for mumming around the UK too. In Scotland it was known as 'Gusards’ or 'Guising’; in Somerset, 'Mumping’; in Warwickshire or 'Thomasing’; and 'Corning’ in Kent.

In Medieval times, it had turned into an excuse for people to go begging round the houses and committing crimes. It became so bad that Henry VIII, made a law saying that anyone that caught mumming wearing a mask would be put in prison for three months!

Nowadays, the performances are done in aid of charity. Our village collects on behalf of the nearby market town’s food bank and a school in Uganda. 

The top photo is one taken in my village three years ago. You get the idea of how long a village tradition it is by comparing it to a photo taken in front of the same house 100 years ago. 

aww, i love love love rag tunics! makes me miss the sword team i used to dance with, we did the dance in the context of a mummers play. that was real magic.

British Christmas     Day 21/22   Winter Solstice

When you have the world’s best/oldest astronomical clock, you tend to make a big deal of it.  I live less than 20 miles from Stonehenge so perhaps that makes me more aware of it than most. 

This year, based on advice from the druid and pagan communities, the Solstice will be marked at Stonehenge on the morning of Wednesday 22 December - the first sunrise following the astronomical solstice which occurs after sunset the previous day.  This is also when the days begin to get longer again. Both the sunset on Tuesday and the sunrise on Wednesday are part of the “winter solstice”. 

In normal years, there are gatherings of pagans, druids, and the simply curious onlookers who want to mark the shortest day and longest night of the winter. In non-Covid times, the rules that keep tourists out of the middle of the standing stone circle are often relaxed. 

Stonehenge was built between 3000 and 2000 BC, and it is aligned to capture the setting sun on the winter solstice, more precisely than the dawn the following morning. Archaeologists think that the sunset of winter solstice was more important to the people who built it than the dawn. Both the sunset and sunrise at the winter solstice were more important to the builders than the summer solstice. 

Because of COVID restrictions, English Heritage is asking only those people who have had a negative lateral flow test result to attend on Wednesday morning.  The sun will rise around 8:11am on Wednesday 22 December and the monument field will be open as soon as it is light enough for people to go in safely - usually around 7.45am.

English Heritage is live streaming the solstice. It all starts at sunset at 16:01 GMT TONIGHT on Tuesday 21st December. English Heritage will be live for about 45 minutes before and after both the sunset and the sunrise. 

You can watch it live here.  

After the events English Heritage will have a video of both. 

This post is a gift to @anyawen, who celebrates the Solstice!

British Christmas  Day 18  Turkey or Goose?

For those of you who have read Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, you may recall that Scrooge sends the Cratchit family a “prize turkey”, this in many ways reflects the fact that he’d spent time in the USA and that turkey was a very fashionable up-market meal. The other thing is that one turkey will feed more mouths- and that was a factor in Scrooge’s decision. 

However, the standard fare of a Christmas meal in England used to be the goose. Even Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Present had to agree: “There never was such a goose…Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness were the themes of universal admiration.”

There is a nursery rhyme that says it all: 

Goose had been the meal of choice for centuries, as this medieval manuscript demonstrates.

The goose is a perfect Christmas meal. Sustainable because geese are free-range, grass fed poultry. Geese are ready to be eaten twice a year. Once when they are young or “green” in the early summer and again when they are at their fattest and ripest toward the end of the year after having feasted on fallen grain, feeding amongst the stubble after harvest. 

And of course, the feathers were so useful! Quills, fletching on arrows, down for pillows and mattresses. 

In 1886, in London the largest market for geese was Leadenhall, where 880,000 geese were sold compared to 69,000 turkeys. That has been overturned in the 20th century when industrial poultry farming turned to the turkey instead. 

However, something of a come-back is occurring! Goose is a healthier and more environmentally friendly meat than turkey.

Geese were the traditional meal for a lot of reasons. Firstly, they are easy to raise and a whole lot smarter than turkeys. Keeping a few to lay eggs and produce the next generation is easy. They’ll live for 20 years, are less messy and cleverer than ducks, healthier than chickens, make excellent burglar alarms and fine lawnmowers – a pair of geese will happily keep a quarter of an acre of grass trimmed, so long as its reasonably short when they find it.

Farmers could afford to have some around, being fed mostly on grass. They are regularly turned out onto the pastures and will stay in a flock. It is still a country sight to see a flock going from the farmhouse to the field. 

Because geese are too independent and cantankerous to be farmed intensively, they suit the trend towards small-holdings and farmers who rely on traditional methods. That, too, is a plus that is making them more popular. 

Roast goose is a dark meat, full of flavour and it doesn’t dry out the way a turkey does. Goose also has the softest fat in its category of animal. The fat turns to liquid at 111 degrees Fahrenheit (compared to duck fat, which liquefies at 126 degrees) making it easier to cook and its fat easier to consume, so much so that it is often sold in a jar!

Even if modern Brits now eat more turkeys than they do geese, the supermarkets all sell goose fat in which to do the roast potatoes. The result is a potato that is soft and fluffy inside, crispy and crunchy on the outside. 

Somehow, I see goose being on the menu at Sherlock’s parents’ house. 

British Christmas     Day 20              The Flowers

Everyone knows the poinsettia. Amidst the holly, ivy, mistletoe and pine, there are flowers, too. Lots of people are familiar with potted cyclamen, forced indoor paperwhite narcissi, potted azalea, even the jasmine and orchids that are all pushed out by florists and supermarkets in time for Christmas. 

However, what many fan fic writers don’t always understand is the fact that the winter climate in England is MILD. Thanks to the gulfstream, snow is unusual and so are frosts- at least before Christmas. So, let me introduce you to some more unusual plants that are in British gardens which flower at this time of year. 

This is Helleborus Niger; the black hellebore is often in flower at this time of the year and for that reason is also called “The Christmas Rose”. 

“Christmas box” Sarcococca confusa, is a dense, winter-flowering evergreen shrub, bearing tiny sweetly scented, pure white blooms, in contrast with dark green leaves. Grow it  in moist but well-drained soil in sun or shade, ideally near a path or in your front garden, where you can appreciate its stunning scent.

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is a fantastic winter-flowering shrub, bearing densely packed clusters of rose, pink or blush white, sweetly scented blooms, on bare stems. It’s perfect for growing in the front garden or near an entrance or walk, where its fragrant, pretty blooms can be best appreciated. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it its prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM). The scent is utterly amazing, we can smell it from anywhere in our front garden. 

Chimonanthus fragrans  “Wintersweet” is an ornamental shrub from Japan originally, in cultivation in Korea, China and the USA as well as England.  Flowers solitary or in small groups, almost stemless, borne in winter at the joints of the previous summer’s shoots. Highly fragrant, the outer tepals almost transparent yellowish-green, inner tepals shorter, dark reddish purple. We cut a stem or two and bring it indoors to waft near the PC where I write. 

Jasminum nudiflorum or winter jasmine flowers in shady and cold places when little else is in bloom. It’s reliable and pretty, but, alas, no scent!

Wallflowers come in two varieties. The one native to North America is NOT the one that grows in England. The wallflower (genus Erysimum) includes about 180 species of plants belonging to the mustard family (Brassicaceae). They get the common name from their habit of growing from chinks in walls. The one in Britain is the Aegean wallflower (Erysiumu cheiri), which is native to cliffsides and meadows of southern Europe and is naturalized in Great Britain. There are varieties that will flower in summer, spring, autumn or winter. This one is a “sugar rush”, which blooms now and then again in spring.

And then there are the primroses. This is the wild/garden variety that will naturalise under hedges and along verges. No scent, but pretty! 

Except for the Christmas box photo, the rest of the photos were taken today. I pruned my Christmas box back hard in the autumn to encourage a bushier growth, and lost most of the flowers as a result!

So, your fan fic characters should go walking at Christmas time (and a LOT of Brits will do this), these are the flowers they will see blooming. 

British Christmas    Day 13      The Panto

“Oh yes I did!” says the actor dressed in drag. 

“Oh no you didn’t!” shouts the audience. 

If this exchange is familiar to you, then you already know about the Christmas pantomime and the role it plays in celebrating the festive season. 

Live theatre is something that a lot of British children are exposed to at a very early age because they are taken by their parents to see a pantomime (or “panto” for short) at the run up to Christmas. 

Using stories that most children will know (Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Sinbad, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Dick Whittington, Mother Goose, Cinderella) the pantomime script writers will create a short theatre performance of music, singing, dancing, lots and lots of colourful ridiculous costumes and laughter.

Generally updating the story, they throw in a lot of jokes, mostly aimed at children but enough designed to go right over the heads to give the adults something to laugh about, too. There is ALWAYS gender swapping- the “Principal Boy” role is always played by a young girl; the panto “dames” are always men. 

I can SO see Mycroft as a pantomime dame. A right perfect Widow Twankey, a character from the Aladdin pantos, who is his mother. 

There is a lot of slapstick action on stage and a lot of to-and-fro dialogue with the audience of children, all of whom are expected to shout back. They are encouraged to boo and hiss when the villain arrives on stage.

The panto is the origin of the “pantomime horse” - the two humans wearing a costume and falling about because the back end cannot see what the front end is doing. 

Almost every panto will have set pieces in it- the villain or monster will be creeping up behind the main character and the audience will shout out “He’s BEHIND you!” 

The history of panto links it back to many traditions: the 16th century commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century masques and music hall. The harlequinade is also an ancestor, especially to the slapstick comedy routines. 

Can you imagine John Watson taking Rosie and Sherlock to a panto, and Sherlock explaining in all seriousness to Rosie how wrong and silly it all is. 

“But that’s the WHOLE POINT!! shouts John, while everyone in the audience turns around to stare.

British Christmas    Day 12    Oranges and Cinnamon

It is a time of spices! Christmas has its own aromas in England in which both cinnamon and oranges play an important role. 

Originally native to Sri Lanka, references to cinnamon date back in ancient Chinese texts to 2800BC. Cinnamon is  the bark of an evergreen tree known as Cinnamomum zeylanicum. Cinnamon is native to several countries including Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and India.

Indeed it was so treasured in antiquity, up to and throughout the Roman Empire for example, that Pliny the Elder in first century CE records that cinnamon was being sold for around fifteen times the amount as silver! Cinnamon would have come to Britain with the Romans.

The reason for this is that cinnamon is a preservative. People have known this for centuries and it has been confirmed by scientific analysis that  cynammyldehide from cinnamon extract has the ability in inhibit Staphylococus aureus growth. its antibacterial properties makes it very valuable in the northern hemisphere when winter months make fresh meat more difficult. Only the very wealthy could afford to feed their animals from stored fodder during the winter months, so sheep, pigs, geese and young cattle would be slaughtered in the autumn when the natural food ran out. 

This is why cinnamon is associated with Christmas -because in England, Christmas is the big meat feast- and has been for over a thousand years. Meat butchered in the autumn when grazing and natural food became scarce had to be stored for weeks. To keep it safe to eat, cinnamon imported into the UK would be converted into an oil, This allowed meat to be preserved in a cinnamon oil in the run up to Christmas to ensure that a good supply of meat was available for the feast. 

Original recipes of “mincemeat” from Tudor times include meat preserved this way, combined with dried fruits like raisins and sultanas, both of which were considered luxuries because they were imported from southern Europe and the Mediterranean climates. 

To those in northern climates, oranges and other citrus fruits are also a luxury item, especially in winter. For ordinary citizens, fresh oranges and other citrus were considered to be a real treat. Sweet oranges did not reach Europe until the 16th century, probably brought by Portuguese traders it was only after this period that they then became widely grown. Because they will not stand severe frosts, they did not come to be grown in Britain until the Baroque period in the 17th century when wealthy landowners created extravagant ‘Orangeries’ to protect them from the winter weather. 

So, oranges at Christmas were also considered to be a real treat and finding one in the toe of your stocking was a welcome surprise.

To enhance the experience, housewives would take a fresh orange and poke cloves into it, hanging it up in the house to provide a Christmas scent.

Because oranges were cheaper in the summer months, the English would also buy them then and dry them, using them to decorate their homes.

Candied orange peel features in many Christmas recipes for the same reason- by preserving them in sugar, the fruit lasted longer. 

So, for the English, Christmas is a time of showing off your ability to have cinnamon and oranges tied onto your evergreens - as my photo from Hampton Court Palace shows here: 

British Christmas   Day 3   The Christmas Tree

The symbolic use of evergreens brought inside to celebrate a winter festive occasions is ancient (Egypt, Greece and Rome all did it, as many pagan religions in Europe did too). A lot of people are aware that the Christmas tree really only made an appearance in a lot of British homes once Queen Victoria imported the idea from Germany. The “O Tannenbaum” carol is in praise of the Christmas tree, where they were part of the Protestant family’s celebrations of the birth of Christ.  One tale says Martin Luther himself was responsible for the idea of putting lit candles on the trees. 

The Puritans in England were not so keen. In the 17th century Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.”

So, it wasn’t until much later that it became a central part of the Christmas events. This one below is a photo I took at Queen Victoria’s home, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where she spent most of her Christmas holidays (unlike the current Queen who does it at Sandringham in Norfolk). 

Here’s another one also from Osborne House: 

Things to notice are: 

NO TINSEL. Tinsel “icicles” are a very American thing not found on many British Christmas trees. 

No “Scotch Pine”; most of the Christmas trees in England are less bushy and have shorter needles than the American trees.  Nordmann Fir, Norway Spruce and Fraser Fir are the top three varieties.  

This is what my Nordmann looks like up close (and yes, it was outside in the snow when I took the photo): 

Outside the cities, if you have a garden, many people will buy a root-balled or potted Christmas tree and after the season is over, plant it out, digging it up and re-potting it to bring it indoors for the season and then back out planted in the garden. We’ve done that twice. This one below was planted out and then eventually cut down because it had outgrown the garden (LOL- and our living room). 

Below is the latest incarnation- it’s been in and out of the garden for the past nine years. 

And because it is getting a bit scruffy, we’ve bought a baby potted Nordmann to start the process all over again. 

The scent of a living tree is wonderful and it is the most sustainable, climate friendly version of a Christmas tree. Very little needle drop, too. 

I think that the British Christmas aesthetic was well portrayed in His last Vow, even if the camera work made Mummy Holmes’ tree rather blurry.