Cherry Stones Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan, an English Puritan, preacher and theologian, was born in 1628. Like St. Paul before him, he had a "day job" and was, in fact a tinker. As a Dissenter, at that time, he was not licensed to preach but he preferred to face years of imprisonment rather than give up his testimony to God and his faith.
"Pilgrim's Progress" was conceived during his first term of imprisonment, finished during the second and came out in 1693.
His blind daughter, although only ten years old when he was first imprisoned, took on the care of the whole family, which at that time comprised several younger siblings and a pregnant stepmother, as well as visiting him in jail and supplying him with food. The relationship between them was an extremely rare and loving one
"Pilgrim's Progress" is an allegory telling of Christian's journey to the Celestial City. Part Two tells of the same journey taken by his wife Christiana and their children. The story is entertaining as well as instructive, telling of Christian's encounter with Giant Despair, in the dungeons of Doubting Castle; his adventures and misfortunes at Vanity Fair, where he loses his friend Faithful, at the hands of a mob; and his friendship with Mr Valiant-for-Truth and Mr Greatheart.
Perhaps the best known and most inspiring quotation is of Mr Valiant-for-Truth :-
"My sword I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him who can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who will be my rewarder."
As he goes over the river of Death, Bunyan says of him - "So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side."

Answer: Jerry Bock

"Fiddler on the Roof" is the bitter-sweet story of life in a small Russian shtetl in 1905 and the lives, loves and hardships of a close knit community, trying to uphold Jewish tradition and culture in a hostile world.
Tsar Nicholas II was a weak ruler. In 1905 he ordered his Cossacks to fire on a peaceful demonstration by workers led by a priest. This led to the 1905 Revolution characterized by strikes and riots. 'Soviets' (workers' and soldiers' councils) were set up to protect workers and soldiers. Nicholas backed down and in the October Manifesto he promised to create a parliament or "Duma". Nicholas and the secret police released a great deal of anti-Jewish propaganda which led to a horrifying succession of anti-Jewish pogroms. As the musical begins the people of Anatevka have just learned of their imminent eviction. Teyve want to marry his daughter to the rich butcher rather than the tailor she loves. Tzeitel and Motel are allowed to marry in a traditional Jewish ceremony and later the tailor buys a second hand sewing machine. Poignantly, the Rabbi pronounces a blessing on it: "Yehi Ratzon, Sheh-Tishreh Shechinah b'Ma'asey Y'daychem " The blessing means: "May it be His will that the Divine Presence of God rest upon the work of your hands."
Later a constable arrives who informs them that they have three days in which to pack up their belongings and leave the village. Hodel, another daughter, has already left for Siberia to wait for her husband, Perchik, the young Bolshevik, who has been exiled there. Motel the tailor and his wife and baby go to Poland where after a few decades the gas chambers of Auschwitz probably await them. The others leave for the uncertainties of America.

Answer: Thomas Hardy

The novels of Thomas Hardy are generally pessimistic and tragic. He sees God as an all-seeing chess player moving characters around in an arbitrary and almost cruel way. In "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", he admits this, saying that the Almighty now ends his sport with Tess.
"The Trumpet-Major" is unlike his other novels. The lives of his characters interact with historical events. While this book is not one of Hardy's major tragedies, there is a shadow of a darkness that will follow after the book's conclusion:
"It was just the time of year when cherries are ripe, and hang in clusters under their dark leaves. While the troopers loitered on their horses, and chatted to the miller across the stream, he gathered bunches of the fruit, and held them up over the garden hedge for the acceptance of anybody who would have them; whereupon the soldiers rode into the water to where it had washed holes in the garden bank, and, reining their horses there, caught the cherries in their forage caps, or received bunches of them on the ends of their switches, with the dignified laugh that became martial men when stooping to slightly boyish amusement. It was a cheerful, careless, unpremeditated half-hour, which returned like the scent of a flower to the memories of some of those who enjoyed it, even at a distance of many years after, when they lay wounded and weak in foreign lands."

Answer: Lady Emma Hamilton

Born at Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk in 1758, Horatio Nelson went to sea when he was twelve years old and from then on suffered from seasickness until the day he died. He became a captain at the age of twenty and served on the "Agamemnon" under the command of his uncle. He fought in the American War of Independence and in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He lost the sight of his right eye at the Battle of Calvi although, contrary to popular belief, he never wore an eye patch. (There is no patch on the statue in Trafalgar Square). Three years later, in 1797, he lost an arm at Santa Cruz. He defeated the French at Copenhagen in 1801, where he famously put the telescope to his blind eye and said that he could not see the signal to withdraw. After destroying Napoleon's fleet at the Battle of the Nile, he was posted to Naples, where he met Lady Hamilton.

A letter written to Lady Hamilton by Lord Nelson in about 1801 has just come to light. Their child had just been born and the affair was well known.
He refuses to give up his mistress and eventually he left his wife. On his return from sea he openly lived with her and his daughter Horatia. She moved with Nelson, the baby and Sir William Hamilton and they all lived in a "ménage à trois" despite a scandalized but also fascinated nation. After Nelson's death in 1805 Parliament made no provision for her; her fortunes declined and she died in poverty.

Answer: Ralph Vaughan Williams

The Parable of The Rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16: 19-31 (RSV).

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is probably best known for his composition "The Lark Ascending" though he also wrote operas, symphonies and film scores. He was also a great collector of English folk music.

There are references to the story of Dives and Lazarus in other media.
Edith Sitwell for instance in her poem "Still falls the Rain" writes:-

"Still falls the Rain
At the Feet of the Starved Man upon the Cross
Christ, that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us -
On Dives and on Lazarus
Under the rain the sore and the gold are as one."

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, the 15th child of his parents. He became a printer and eventually purchased the "Pennsylvania Gazette". As well as being a writer, he was no mean scientist, inventing, among other things, the lightning rod, bi-focals and a flexible catheter! He did a great deal of work on demography, electricity, wave theory and meteorology. He also became involved in politics and, in 1776, he was appointed to the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence,

"Poor Richard's Almanack" was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin between 1732 and 1758. Some examples of his sayings are:

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Love your enemies for they tell you your faults.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Women are books, and men the readers be...
There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.
To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.
Wine ... a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.
Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It
is not so. It is so; it is not so.

Answer: Tennyson

"Her arms across her breast she laid;
She was more fair than words could say;
Barefooted came the beggar maid
Before the king Cophetua.
In robe and crown the king stept down,
To meet and greet her on her way;
"It is no wonder", said the lords,
"She is more beautiful than day."
As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen;
One praised her ankles, one her eyes,
One her dark hair and lovesome mien.
So sweet a face, such angel grace,
In all that land had never been,
Cophetua sware a royal oath,
This beggar maid shall be my queen."

Alfred Lord Tennyson was born in 1809 and was Poet Laureate for most of Victoria's reign.

Answer: Golgotha

In the Bible (NIV) the story is told in Luke 23:39-41 of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. One hurled insults at Him but the other said "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom" The answer that Jesus gave him was "Today you will be with me in Paradise".

Here is the relevant text:
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise."
There are prophecies in the Old Testament which foretell that Jesus would be executed in this way alongside wicked men.
In the non-canonical "Gospel of Nicodemus", the name Dismas is given to the Penitent Thief, while the name Gestas has been attributed to the other but there seems to be no real authority for this. In Russian tradition the Good Thief's name is Rakh. An Arabic source calls them Titus and Dumachus. The Catholic Church remembers the Good Thief on March 26.
The town of Dimas in California is named after him. In Kingston, Ontario, a church built by the convicts of Kingston Penitentiary is called the Church of the Penitent Thief.

Answer: Charles Dickens

Cherry had a sister who was called Merry. They were the daughters of the sly scheming architect, Seth Pecksniff. Merry was as sunny as her name but she was tricked into marrying a bullying miser.

The book is interesting in that it includes much of Dickens' impressions of young America, which were in some cases rather unfavourable - perhaps unfairly so.

Answer: The original Rolling Stones

If you knew the answer to this one you're either very old or you're cheating!

In the aftermath of this quiz at the beggars' banquet some girls went undercover in the Voodoo Lounge. Can you spot the items of The Stones' discography?
There are five but I'm not telling!