November 5 is one of the few surviving popular festivals in Britain. It is one that should not properly be celebrated by Catholics. But if you happen to be in a train on the night of that day, you will see thousands of backyards lit up by bonfires. And very pretty it looks.
They celebrate, of course, the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, which was intended to blow up King James I and "the three estates of England" in 1605. The conspirators were Catholics and they were given away by a Catholic peer.
