As you know very well, here in England we have pubs with all sorts of glorious names such as Bull's Head, Shepherd and Crook - and White Horses and White Stags aplenty. But I have never come across a pub called the White Rabbit. Another of the common names is the Red Lion. According to one source, the reasons behind the popularity of this name are twofold: this was the emblem of John of Gaunt, at one time the most powerful man in England, and it was also the emblem of King James I of England, who was already King James VI of Scotland. Publicans knew which side their bread was buttered!Far less common is the name White Lion. Basically, the design is the same as for the Red Lion but the colours are changed to (obviously) white for the lion and blue instead of yellow for the background.
But this is just taking us away from those white rabbits I was going on about.
During the week, I accompanied Leo to the Children's Hospital to deliver a load of soft toys. These were mainly rabbits, but there were no white ones. There were pink and blue, purple and green rabbits - and Gayle - the nurse cuddling Leo - promised that she would see one was put on the bed of each child so that they would have a surprise when they woke this morning.Leo then went on to create his own particular brand of chaos in the outpatients' department.
I left the Lions when I retired and one thing I miss is the Easter egg hunt we sponsored for special education kids. All the work to stuff plastic eggs and scatter them in the park was over in two minutes in a mad scramble of excited kids. It is good work that the Lions do.
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