Random query

[sam_t]

The phrase "The Empire on which the sun never sets" is ringing vague Flanders and Swann bells for me at the moment, but I think that the phrase I'm remembering is "... on whom the sun never sets". If I'm correct, then the second phrase is obviously a pun on the first, but what is it referring to? Or have I just gone completely barmy?

Comments

[biascut.livejournal.com]

The British Empire was always described as the Empire on which the sun never sets, because at its height, it stretched right the way around the globe so it was always daylight somewhere in the British Empire. I don't know who coined the phrase, though.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I do, though, or at least I do in the sense that I know in which chapter of which book I have read it recently and where the book is - the down side being that it's back in the library. Grrr.

Anyway, what I was apparently remembering was Tried by the Centre Court (http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/tried_tried.html) by Michael Flanders, which ends:

Wimbledon. June. Ladies' Singles, third round.
Groundsmen are asked, "How's the state of the ground?"
Players are photographed jumping the nets,
But here sits a figure one always forgets.
The Umpire upon whom the sun never sets!

Thanks anyway, though! (not meant to sound sarcastic)