Competition | 9 January 2010

In Competition 2628 you were invited to submit a contemporary version of the 18th-century satirical song ‘The Vicar of Bray’.

The model for the Vicar was purported to be Simon Aleyn, a 16th-century parish priest of Bray, who hung on to office by cheerfully reinventing himself to fit in with the prevailing orthodoxy. He found a defender, though, in the 1930s, in the shape of George Orwell, who was moved, by a magnificent yew he had planted in the churchyard at Bray, to write in an essay entitled ‘A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray’, ‘a beautiful tree, which has rested the eyes of generation after generation and must surely have outweighed any bad effects which he produced by his political quislingism’.

Thanks to Victoria Lane for suggesting this competition, which produced a colourful cast of contemporary chameleons. Commendations go to Gillian Ewing and Dr G.W. Tapper, while the winners, printed below, earn £25 each.