Sunday 23rd April 2006
Day 491

"For there is none of you so mean and base that hath not noble luster in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slip straining upon the start.
The games afoot. Follow you spirit, and upon this charge.
Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!"

Henry V, by William Shakespeare (born April 23rd 1564)

I've always wondered how a dragon-slaying Palestinian Roman Soldier became patron saint of England (amongst many other places, including Bulgaria...), and how he would have coped in the cold and damp of the Dark Ages in England

For more on St George... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George

The image is of the parish church in Okehampton, the cross of St George hanging limply in the calm!