London Country

Famous quotes containing the words london and/or country:

    You owe me ten shillings,
    Say the bells of St. Helen’s.
    When will you pay me?
    Say the bells of Old Bailey.
    When I grow rich,
    Say the bells of Shoreditch.
    Pray when will that be?
    Say the bells of Stepney.
    I am sure I don’t know,
    Says the great bell of Bow.
    —Unknown. The Bells of London (l. 13–22)

    It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the rollercoaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.
    Carson McCullers (1917–1967)