14 1984ed: ‘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 goes
on I don’t remember, but I do know it ended up, ‘Here comes
a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop
off your head.’ It was a kind of a dance. They held out their
arms for you to pass under, and when they came to ‘Here
comes a chopper to chop off your head’ they brought their
arms 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 church
belonged. It was always difficult to determine the age of a
London building. Anything large and impressive, if it was
reasonably new in appearance, was automatically claimed
as having been built since the Revolution, while anything
that was obviously of earlier date was ascribed to some dim
period called the Middle Ages. The centuries of capitalism
were held to have produced nothing of any value. One could
not learn history from architecture any more than one
could learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memori-
al stones, the names of streets—anything that might throw
light 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, ‘though
they’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