Peripatetic Pianist and a Plot

As can be seen by the clothing this is not an October scene but the middle of summer and a warm day in York (tourist central by York Minster). I can't remember what the peripatetic pianist was playing but he was in prime position as this is a joining of many pathways.  When he gets thirsty for a pint it is possible to call into the pub on the far right  which was built on the site of where a notorious plotter was born, and takes his name -

Guy Fawkes, 

And as the rhyme goes:-   

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, ’twas his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match."

 That was way back in  1605 and everybody still enjoys the bonfires and fireworks that November 5th brings every year.  Fast forward a couple of centuries and a overheated chimney flue meant the whole edifice burnt to the ground anyway (wonderfully captured by JMW Turner who painted the blaze in watercolour sketches from a barge on the Thames). 

Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament, London

Look there is still a barge there today ready to prop up an easel if anything catches alight in the Parliament buildings, but that would be to deprive us of Augustus Pugin's wonderful Gothic towers and spires.

So I'll  just keep it to a virtual disaster with a heat map.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet sojourning this week at P