St. Paul's Cathedral to the Colonial Adventurer

We visited Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral. And it is quite lovely, with some beautiful mosaics and a gorgeous dome. But what really struck me was how each and every commemorative statue, frieze or painting was to some lord or such who died in a campaign of British colonialism.

As time went on they even began to favor the plebes with a few references, such as the plaque that read "To those who died on the battlefield, or of their injuries, or of disease." I kept waiting to find one that said, "In Memory of Lord Brit-on-Brit, Who Slipped on a Banana Peel in the Tropical Campaigns."

If you think I'm too tongue-in-cheek here, take note that the steeples of St. Paul's are topped with golden pineapples.

31 July 2006; 1 comments