Monday, June 17, 2024

A hidden gem spotted in Hereford, England

Those who remember My Fair Lady, the movie version of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, may recall hearing the phrases "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" and "In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen". 

Those lines are not in the original version of Pygmalion, but are heard in the 1938 movie version. According to The Disciple and His Devil, the biography of Gabriel Pascal by his wife Valerie, it was he who introduced the famous phonetic exercises into the script of the film. Both were4 later used in the song in My Fair Lady.

[Where are you going with this? We haven't got all day! Ed.] OK, OK... I wanted to mention Hereford because Agent 34 has sent us an interesting photo from All Saints Church, which has been a focus of Hereford life for over 800 years.

When you visit -- and I know you'll want to -- be sure to look carefully at the interior decorations, which include this gem of medieval carving.


According to 34, this went undiscovered for centuries, until five years ago a  higher floor was built to accommodate a restaurant, with new, bright lighting added to dispel the medieval gloom. He didn't say if there's a dimmer switch!

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