Ah, yes, Jerusalem. Written by William Blake, as you probably know. But what you almost certainly didn't know was that the "dark Satanic mills" referred to in the hymn are not the harbingers of industrialized Britain, but Oxford and Cambridge.

All in all it's a rather strange song, what with the reference to a youthful appearance of Jesus in Britain (taken to Glastonbury by his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who in the rather sophisticated legend was a tin-trader who made voyages to the west of England for the purposes of swapping commodities with the barbarians). Funny that it should be so popular.

But so it is, and they sing it with gusto on the "Last Night of the Proms", the final concert in a traditional BBC summer classical music series. The English Intelligentsia naturally see it as a terrifically jingoistic occasion, all very embarassing. Naturally it is instead very polite and sweet. The week after September 11th the BBD orchestra did not play Jerusalem as part of their traditional closer, which seemed rather strange to me. Hadn't they read the bloody thing? Seemed like that was the best of all times to sing it once more, with feeling.