The Honourable Artillery Company takes pride in being the oldest regiment in the British Army, founded by Henry VIII in 1537. It is irksome for the HAC that Pope Julius II founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard in 1506.
If you have visited the Vatican you will surely have seen them on duty in colourful uniforms looking like something out of Alexandre Dumas. The HAC have a similar ceremonial unit, the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers, that strut around in uniforms of the time of Charles I, giving quaint orders such as “adopt a lazy posture”, although in fact the company was only formed in 1925 for the first Royal Tournament.
At Westminster Cathedral there is a small exhibition, ‘The Life of a Swiss Guard, a Private View’, that has taught me there is more to the Swiss Guard than adopting a lazy posture in St Peter’s Square. Unlike the HAC pikemen, candidates must have completed basic training in the Swiss army, be between nineteen and thirty and unmarried. Not quite the SAS but nonetheless a serious fighting unit as these pictures from the exhibition show.
They aren’t very good pictures so if you want to learn more you will have to pop into the cathedral. Part of the exhibition is in the Chapel of St Patrick and the Saints of Ireland, in itself of interest. Here is how it is described on the Westminster Cathedral website.
In the chapel, which awaits completion, green is the dominant colour, with much of the marble originating in Ireland. Celtic designs are inlaid on the floor and at the foot of the altar. The image of the shamrock (used by St Patrick to explain the Trinity) can be seen throughout the chapel: on the rear wall, in the marble screen separating the chapel from the gallery, behind the altar and on the decoration of the wooden furniture.
Above the altar is a bronze gilt statue of St Patrick, in the style of an ancient Celtic carving. The statue was designed by Arthur Pollen and placed in the Chapel in 1961.
Nearby is a mosaic of St Patrick, erected in 1999. The saint is shown holding his shepherd’s crook with his right hand and the shamrock leaf in his left. St Patrick appears old – tradition has it that he lived to a ripe old age.
The snakes which curl around the altar and in the mosaics around the chapel recall the legend of St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland.
Around the chapel walls are the badges of the Irish Regiments which fought in World War I. In a casket by the altar are inscribed the names of 50,000 Irish soldiers who died at that time. In 2001 the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, prayed in the chapel and laid a wreath to the dead commemorated here – a visit also made by President Mary Robinson in 1996.
Outside the chapel, a mosaic commemorates St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh. St Oliver was the last martyr in England to die for the Catholic Faith, and was executed at Tyburn in 1681.
I was passing the cathedral this week on my way to lunch at the Vincent Rooms in Vincent Square. My host had been trying to get me there for ages but does not live in London and the Vincent Rooms are only open in term-time. The chefs and staff are all second or third year students studying catering and hospitality at Westminster Kingsway College. It makes for an unusual experience, mostly in a very good way. They had mislaid his booking but fitted us in anyway. The service was charming if a little unsure. The food was well-priced: wine £18, starters £6 and main courses £12, although the helpings are small, which suits me. The dining room in the Brasserie is rather beautiful and I took a picture but, sorry, it is too blurred to publish so I got this online.
