You may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu. I will explain.
Last week’s Word of the Week was something of a red herring. The subject line of the email said the word was pilgrim but the actual word was chit. There then followed a stream of what can only be described as chitchat. The management would like to apologise for any distress this may have caused. We put it down to the fact that it was late on a Friday evening and the writer had probably been on the Pilgrim* at the time.
*Pilgrim Ale is the local Reigate brew, and very palatable it is too. The name alludes to the pilgrims who historically travelled this way between Winchester and Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas à Beckett. Why they started at Winchester I don’t know. Perhaps they’d gone there by mistake, not having paid attention in History. The road they took is called The Pilgrim’s Way, so there was no excuse for going astray a second time.
Winchester to Canterbury, a walk of around 120 miles through leafy countryside and gentle topography, is one of the less demanding of the many pilgrimages of many faiths that take place around the world. My mother-in-law, for example, once walked for six weeks all the way from Gaudonville in SW France, over the Pyrenees and across to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain, which is pretty valiant by any standards. We only sent her out for a loaf of bread.
So where does the word pilgrim come from? Interestingly, it’s from the Latin word ‘peregrinus’ – a person from elsewhere, a foreigner – which you will immediately, and correctly, conclude has something to do with the peregrine falcon. Falco peregrinus was given its name by 13th century German philosopher and saint (how do you apply for a job like that?) Albertus Magnus (Big Albert), in reference to the fact that young birds were captured during their migration rather than taken from the nest. Easier apparently.
Of course, Falco Peregrinus takes the first part of its name not from Mark Falco, the largely ineffectual Spurs striker (tautology perhaps) of the 1980s, but from the Austrian singer, whose 1988 hit single Rock Me Amadeus topped the UK charts (so chances are at least one of you bought it. Come on, own up). Did you know, by the way, that Falco had died in a car crash with a bus in the Dominican Republic in 1998? I didn’t. I was waiting for his comeback.
Ah well.
Last week, the word chit led us to cheetah, the fastest mammal on Earth – but not as fast, it turns out, as the peregrine falcon, which can dive at speeds of up to 242mph. Frankly, though, if plummeting out of the sky is a valid criterion for measuring an animal’s speed, then surely one of those goats they chuck off that tower in Spain each year must be faster than a cheetah by the time it hits the Dunlopillo. And what about that bloke who leapt out of a balloon in space? I bet he overtook a few falcons on the way down.
If you want to know what 200mph+ feels like, watch this amazing video. This is champion road racer Michael Dunlop, who I had the pleasure of interviewing this week, racing round the Isle of Man TT course, where he holds the lap record. It makes me think I really must try to get more out of my scooter.
My mother-in-law’s average speed was 2mph, not including pit stops, so no land speed records but she did have the Pyrenees to contend with.
