1984 - Planet eBook

ed: ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s!’‘What’s that?’ said Winston.‘Oh—‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s.’That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy. How it goeson I don’t remember, but I do know it ended up, ‘Here comesa candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chopoff your head.’ It was a kind of a dance. They held out theirarms for you to pass under, and when they came to ‘Herecomes a chopper to chop off your head’ they brought theirarms down and caught you. It was just names of churches.All the London churches were in it—all the principal ones,that is.’Winston wondered vaguely to what century the churchbelonged. It was always difficult to determine the age of aLondon building. Anything large and impressive, if it wasreasonably new in appearance, was automatically claimedas having been built since the Revolution, while anythingthat was obviously of earlier date was ascribed to some dimperiod called the Middle Ages. The centuries of capitalismwere held to have produced nothing of any value. One couldnot learn history from architecture any more than onecould learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memorialstones, the names of streets—anything that might throwlight upon the past had been systematically altered.‘I never knew it had been a church,’ he said.‘There’s a lot of them left, really,’ said the old man, ‘thoughthey’ve been put to other uses. Now, how did that rhyme go?Ah! I’ve got it!‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s, You