I finally finished Edward Rutherfurd's LONDON yesterday.
Okay, it took 4 weeks, BUT it was 1300 pages (which, at a rate of 2 weeks for each 500 pages, still keeps me "on schedule". Not that I care...)
And I really enjoyed it. It is not great literature, but it is a really good and interesting read. Chock full of interesting historical info.
If you think you might not have time to read all 1300 pages, I will give you a little of that interesting historical info below. Here goes:
To begin with, a few Saxon words that inform English today:
-ham (meant hamlet, for example, Fulla's-ham)
-ton (meant farm, for example, Kensing's-ton)
-hythe (meant Harbour)
The name for Chelsea comes from the saxon "Chalk Island", which sounded like "Chelch Eye"
The name for Battersea comes from the saxon "Badric's Island", or "Batter's Eye"
The Saxon for market was "cheap", hence "Cheapside"
Each London county, as you may know, is called a "shire". The person who collected taxes was a "Shire Reeve", or "Sheriff".
Fireplaces as we know them came from France. Before the Norman Conquest, rooms would be heated by a central brazier . The Tower of London was the first place to have fireplaces in the wall, though they did not yet have chimneys, but just emptied out a hole in the wall.
The word "Exchequer" comes from a large checked table which served as a primitive abacus to keep track of the revenues and expenses of the kingdom.
The Normans called English Pennies, "Esterlin". Twenty dozen pennies weighed a pound. This was how the unit of account became know as the "Pound Sterling".
The Normans had a custom of adding their father's name with the prefix Fitz to their own name. This is where we get names like "Fitzgerald".
The Saxon word for brothel was "horhus", hence our whorehouse.
"Charing Cross" is so named because when King Edwards wife died, he had crosses placed at all of the places her funeral procession stopped on the way to Westminster Abbey. "Charing" is the old English name for "turning". Charing Cross was the final cross placed before the procession turned West towards Westminster.
In the early days of Parliament, Commons accused ministers of improprieties and they were found guilty and dismissed. This was called, in the Norman French "ampeschement" or embarassment, and became our "impeachment".
Since there were no laws of copyright in the time of Shakespeare, playwrights did not have their plays printed, so they would not be stolen.
"Soho" were the old hunting grounds in London, and were named after the Huntsman's cry " Soho!"
"Tories" and "Whigs" were derogatory names, meaning "Irish Rebels" and "Scottish Thieves", respectively.
"Piccadilly" came from a merchant who made his fortune in that area selling "picadils" (ruff collars) to the Elizabethan Court.
"Mayfair" took its name (I guess this is obvious) from the May Fair that had been held in that area for hundreds of years.
It was only when railway travel began that England developed a standard time, so that train schedules could be followed.
There is lots more. And this may have been fully boring to lots of you, but was very interesting to me, so was a big reason I liked the book.
I need a shorter book next, though!
AZ
