What’s An Ep Worth?

Douglas Adams (the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) joined with John Lloyd in the early ‘80s to produce The Meaning Of Liff, which provides humorous definitions of place names, mainly in the UK. 

According to “The Meaning Of Liff”, Epworth means:

“The precise value of the usefulness of epping (defined as the futile movements of forefingers and eyebrows used when failing to attract the attention of waiters and barmen). It is a little known fact that an earlier draft of the final line of the film Gone With The Wind had Clark Gable saying ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give an epworth’, the line being eventually changed on the grounds that it might not be understood in Cleveland.”

Epworth is actually in north-west Lincolnshire and was the boyhood town of the Wesley brothers:

• John – Anglican minister & the founder of Methodism.
• Charles – Anglican minister & prolific hymn writer.
• Samuel - a well-known composer and organist in the 17th century.

You can read more about the Wesleys at this web site.

We spent the day on Wednesday looking around the town, their home (The Old Rectory) and the church where their father was the rector – St Andrews.

 

View Full Album

 

When Samuel Snr was appointed rector, the family was not accepted by the locals because he was appointed by King Charles, who was rather hated in the area. The locals didn’t give to the church because the king had appointed him, so his income was very low and he ended up in debtor’s prison a couple of times.

Their clock only had one hand - not because they couldn’t afford the minute hand, but because each hour was divided up into 15 minute segments, so a minute hand was not necessary.

John’s ministry took him all over the country preaching. When he returned to Epworth he was not allowed to preach at St Andrews so he preached outside from his father’s tomb. Each year on Wesley Day (a Sunday near the 25th of May) the minister of the Wesley Memorial Church in Epworth preaches from Samuel Wesley’s tomb at St Andrews.

Why the picture of the Red Lion pub? It seems that King James I “felt the diplomatic need to order the display of the red lion of Scotland in public places all over England to show who was boss; obviously not a man to bear a historic grudge. This would have convinced many a publican a red lion hanging outside his pub was a good idea.”