BecketAt my school in north-west London I belonged to the ‘House of Becket‘. This meant little more than wearing the green of the house on sports days. But the historical Becket connection, which interested me more, came through the old manor house at Harrow, which was “formerly the occasional residence of the archbishops of Canterbury. In the year 1170, Thomas à Becket, being about to visit Woodstock, for the purpose of paying his respects to the young Henry Plantagenet, then lately crowned, and associated with his father in the government of the kingdom, received a command, whilst he was on his journey thither, to forbear his visit, and repair immediately to his own diocese. The prelate obeyed, and at his return spent some days at his manor of Harrow, keeping great hospitality. During this time he received many civilities from the Abbot of the neighbouring monastery of St. Albans. Two of his own clergy, Nigellus de Sackville, who is called the usurping Rector of Harrow, and Robert de Broc, the Vicar, treated him with great disrespect, and maimed the horse which carried his provisions, for which they were both publicly excommunicated by the Archbishop on the ensuing Christmas-day at Canterbury. This happened a few days before Becket was murdered.” (From: ‘Harrow on the Hill’, The Environs of London: volume 2: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 559-588) That would have been in 1180. It was therefore a funny coincidence to find a church, built only a few years later, dedicated to Thomas a Becket, on the banks of the Lago di Como, in the village of Corenno Plinio (so named because it is thought Pliny’s second villa on the lake was located nearby). Sometimes coincidences go somewhere; sometimes they are enough in themselves. This is probably one of the latter, but it would be interesting to find out how the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury came to be commemorated just a few years later on the shore of an Italian lake…