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On the Trail of St.George of England

© Stuart Buchanan MacWatt

Travelsleuth Stuart Buchanan MacWatt visits Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's Birthplace on St.George's Day, his Birthday. April 23rd. He compares the paucity of festivities in England for their national Saint's Day with those for St. Patrick in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, Britain, New York, Montreal and Melbourne where there are enough Irish to drink a pub dry of Guinness.

The English are laid back when it comes to St.George, their Patron Saint, and his Celebration Day, on April 23rd.

The irrepressible Irish, the turbulant Scots, and the fiery Welsh, celebrate their National Saint's Day with pageantry and joy at home, and a fervent show of patriotism abroad. The recent St.Patrick's Day festivities in Dublin, New York, Montreal, Melbourne, and everywhere else in the world where there are enough Irish to support an Irish pub, spring readily to mind.

Not so the English. There is no public holiday for St. George of England, no pause in the Corridors of Power, no Carnival through town and city streets, no colorful Civic procession led by His Worship, The Lord Mayor of London to a Divine Service at Westminster Abbey. No resounding blast by the State Trumpeters of the Queen's Household cavalry from the steps of Buckingham Palace. No flag of St.George fluttering from Government buildings

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It was not always so. Venerated by returning Crusaders, St.George was declared the Patron Saint of England in 1222. With Royal encouragement from warriors such as King Henry V, Basher of the French at Agincourt,
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and St.George!'
Act 3,Sc.1 Henry V. Shakespeare
his Day soon became an occasion for public parades and revelry throughout the realm. Such jollity was short-lived, however: he was a casualty of Henry VIII's Reformation, and later Puritan zeal for divesting Christian worship of all veneration of Saints.

It is to Stratford-upon-Avon that we must turn to for vestiges of past St.George's Day revelries.

Shakespeare, England's national poet, was fated to be born there on St.George's Day, and Stratford celebrates its fame and good fortune as the Bard's birthplace on this day with a procession through the town.

Stratford lies about two and a half hours by road north of London, within easy striking distance of the one-day coach trip operators. However, its close proximity to historic Warwick and its gem of a castle, and Ragley Hall, the magnificent 17th-century Palladian Stately Home at Alcester, provide us with a good reason for renting a car. We can spend some rewarding days touring Warickshire and driving liesurely back through picturesque Cotswold country villages with evocative names like Stow-in-the-Wold, and visiting Oxford and its dreaming spires on the way.