For three days now London has been shrouded in fog. I am loving it. My city has become a new landscape. I know it will not last but it reminds me of a hazy impressionistic painting. I imagine this is what London must have looked like in the Victorian period when there was smog from coal fires.
On the way home this evening as I was walking away from work and down Aldwych in the misty fog, I heard the sound of church bells and realised they were coming from St. Clement Danes, one of the many famous churches on The Strand and along Fleet Street. Remember that famous tune 'Oranges and Lemons?'
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
The bells were all muffled in the fog, but they got louder as I approached and I recorded it all, as I am doing occasionally now. Capturing the sights of London life with my camera and the sounds of everyday life with my recorder....
https://soundcloud.com/clara-jean-jelly-bean/the-bells-of-st-clements-dane
Great bells! Think I heard the fog, too.
ReplyDeleteI love those bells! Heard some bell ringing at Winchester cathedral recently and noticed how the bell sounds seem to be tumbling over each other like a waterfall. It's all maths, I know, although I don't understand it myself.
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