Tuesday, November 20, 2007

GKC's Baptism

I always mean to run this factoid on July 1st, but I never remember:

"According to the 1874 Registry of St. George's Parish (page 45, item number 359), on July 1 the Reverend Alexander Law Watherston baptized the son of Edward and Marie Louise Chesterton of 14 Sheffield Terrace. The father's occupation was listed as "auctioneer." The child was given the Christian name of Gilbert Keith. The location was described in G.K.C.'s Autobiography as "the little church opposite the large Waterworks that dominated the ridge" of Campden Hill in Kensington. Chesterton did not claim the two buildings were related. "I indignantly deny that the church was chosen because it needed the whole water-power of West London to turn me into a Christian," he wrote.

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