"But grubbing up the dust of an unsuccessful barbarian on the wrong side of the Dark Ages seems to them, I suppose, a most smart form of modernity."

I received the other day a circular from some people who wanted to revive in England the religion of the heathen Saxons- whatever it was. They said (with admirable cheerfulness) that they were "continuing the work of Penda, King of Mercia," who was killed in a tribal skirmish somewhere in the seventh century. I like the phrase "continuing the work." Seeing that poor Penda's work has certainly suffered a slight interruption, having been temporarily suspended for about twelve hundred years, one might have expected that his followers would at least have said "resume the work." But, no; they are in full continuity; they are vividly in touch with Penda; and they do not offically even admit the delay, any more than Charles II. would officially admit the interregnum of the Protectorate. Yet I hear of these people calling themselves Pantheists and talking in Hyde Park in a most modern style. And if you and I were to appeal to the Prayer Book or the Parish Church, or the Council of Trent or the principles of Rousseau's "Social Contract," I daresay they would think us old-fashioned. But grubbing up the dust of an unsuccessful barbarian on the wrong side of the Dark Ages seems to them, I suppose, a most smart form of modernity.

-January 21, 1911, Illustrated London News