MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

came across to examine the picture. It was a steel engraving
of an oval building with rectangular windows, and a small tower in front.
There was a railing running round the building, and at the rear end there
was what appeared to be a statue. Winston gazed at it for some moments. It
seemed vaguely familiar, though he did not remember the statue.
'The frame's fixed to the wall,' said the old man, 'but I could
unscrew it for you, I dare say.'
'I know that building,' said Winston finally. 'It's a ruin now. It's
in the middle of the street outside the Palace of Justice.'
'That's right. Outside the Law Courts. It was bombed in -- oh, many
years ago. It was a church at one time, St. Clement's Danes, its name was.'
He smiled apologetically, as though conscious of saying something slightly
ridiculous, and added: '"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