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A GAME OF 3 GUESSES"The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon was FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1776. Mr Gibbon was a schoolteacher (i.e. not a professor or a lecturer) who wrote "TDAFOTRE" (this being what Alan Partridge would probably call it) in an attempt to make children (or, more specifically, boys) "interested in learning" - and in 1776, this was a "novel" concept, in both senses of that word! In terms of literary style, it is highly seminal and light years ahead of it's time - it still reads as conversational and engaging, even entertaining. Which may explain why it still shows up, almost inevitably, on classics department reading lists - and is normally somewhere at the the top of such lists. This is something of a cause for concern, as is the fact that the current Mayor of London is something of a classical pagan, and a devotee of Edward Gibbon. All of which may or may not be "clues".
This game is very easy, and short. I give you an extract from Mr Gibbon's book, and you have to guess / name the historical character / personality whom Mr Gibbon is here describing:
The character of the prince who removed the seat of empire, and introduced such important changes into the civil and religious constitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided the opinions of mankind. ... By the impartial union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without a blush. [good luck with that!]
His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his strength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise...he preserved the vigour of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic vitues of chastity and temperance....
The disadvantages of an illiterate education [SIC!!!] had not prevented him from forming a just estimate of the value of learning.
He is represented [in Art?] with false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by the skilful artists of the times; a diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets; and a variegated flowing robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. [Well, if that were true, and I'm not going to say that it isn't (and I believe that to be the correct grammatical form) then I imagine that the embroidered flowers of gold were the least curious thing about his appearence.]
Answers on a post-card?
A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN TWICKENHAM, chapter 1
When the Prince Albert died, he was buried; not at Westminster Abbey, but in the back garden of the house where he had lived for most of his life - which was Syon House, in the leafy suburb of Twickenham. Like the beloved pet labrador that he was. On all hallow's eve, the ghostly spectre of Prince Albert arises from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living. The good folk of Twickenham put up "christmas trees" and yule logs to encourage him. TO BE CONTINUED?
LOVE + LIGHT ~ 5
More: http://www.hsengine.com/s_westminster+abbey.html
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