St. Clement's Day Many legends surround Saint Clement, some suggest he was the first man to refine iron from ore, and to shoe a horse. Clementine customs may be survivals of earlier pagan rituals, a confusion of Saint Clement with the early Saxon Wayland, or Wayland the smith, a mythical metalworker. He shares this feast day, which marks the beginning of winter, with the saint. In Charles Dickens’s "Great Expectations" Miss Havisham insists Pip sing for her and her ward Estella, and Pip responds with a ditty from Joe’s forge ‘that imitated the measure of beating upon iron’: ‘... hammer boys round -
Miss Pross Miss Pross Miss Pross is a character in Charles Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities". Miss Pross is Lucie Manette's no-nonsense governess and friend. She accompanies Lucie to Dover when Lucie goes to France to retrieve her father, Dr. Alexandre Manette, after his release from the Bastille, but her stout English patriotism causes her to stay in England. She is Lucie's constant companion accompanying her to the trial of Charles Darnay, to church, to just about everything. She is Lucie's shadow and protector, and overcomes her dislike of everything not English to accompany Lucie to France when her husband