Milton pressed the button at the side of the lift door and waited. Eventually, the lift stopped with a jolt, and the doors opened with a disquieting rattle. Milton stooped slightly as he stepped into the large metal box. Turning to face the door, he felt the lift’s bright ceiling lighting begin to warm the top of his head. Though his car was parked in the basement, Milton hesitated over the button marked with a red glowing letter B. Instead he selected the button for reception.
I’ll get a taxi from the rank outside the station, he thought. The notion of going underground made him feel uneasy. After all, he had spent enough time in buried rooms to last him a lifetime.
Chapter 71
Mary read the inscription: Christopher Wren’s design for a memorial to the Great Fire of London was finished in 1703. Squinting against the sun, Mary looked up at the imposing white marble column standing like a solitary oak in a forest of grey concrete office buildings. Looking back at the inscription, she read on. Known simply as ‘The Monument’, the great architect sited the world’s tallest free-standing Doric column close to the location where the fire started in Pudding Lane …’
Mary’s gaze was now drawn to the massive plaque set on the west face of the column. Something in its grand baroque decoration fascinated her. Her eyes darted up and down its carved marble exterior, as if attempting to trace a concealed connection between points on its surface. The design was comprised of a strange collection of figures. Whispering down to the dog, she described the hidden geometry that had stayed unnoticed for over 300 years.
‘See what the goddess is holding in her hand?’ The dog turned its head slightly as if acknowledging Mary’s instructions. Close to the centre of the white marble plaque, pointing skywards, was carved the outstretched arm of the goddess Minerva. In her grip was a rod of the most peculiar design. As if summoning down to earth the blessings of heaven, the rod terminated in the shape of a hand, and though the stone had been weathered badly, the outline of an eye carved into its palm was clearly visible.
‘My friend, it is the holy rod of Aaron, marked with the all-seeing eye of God.’ Mary looked down to the dog and chuckled. ‘It has stood here all along without anyone ever realising it.’
Mary gave the dog’s neck a vigorous rub. The animal pulled itself closer to its companion, luxuriating in the sensation. As it did so, the dog picked up the scent of something enticing, somewhere deep between the folds of her heavy overcoat. Mary smiled, her face looking suddenly youthful.
‘Ah, I know what you’re after.’ Pushing her hand deep into her coat pocket, she searched for the packet of biscuits she had retrieved from a bin outside Kings Cross Station earlier that day.
Her fingertips walked down the length of the sacred rod weighing down the lining of her coat. Mary felt the distinct shape of the inscriptions carved into its smooth surface. God had entrusted her with Aaron’s rod and she would keep it safe until the allotted hour. A homeless beggar and a dog were now the caretakers of God’s most powerful instrument on earth.
She smiled and then slowly withdrew her hand from the pocket. The dog’s eyes followed the movement, its tail wagging excitedly in anticipation.
‘There you go, my friend.’ Tilting its head, the dog snapped up the crumbling biscuit from Mary’s outstretched hand and looked expectantly for the sign of another. ‘No, no.’ She chuckled loudly. ‘It’s time to go.’ A pair of glistening eyes stared back up at her. ‘You lead the way.’
The dog barked its approval.
‘God will speak and reveal His purpose to us, when the time is right … in a time, times and half a time.’
Afterword
The Sotheby’s Sale
In March 1936, a large metal trunk was delivered to John Taylor, the Chief Cataloguer of the Books and Manuscripts Department of the prestigious London auctioneer, Sotheby’s & Co. The trunk contained a substantial collection of the private papers and personal effects of Sir Isaac Newton, arguably one of the greatest thinkers of the modern age. Since his death in 1727, these papers had been kept hidden from public view at Hurstbourne Park, the family home of the Earls of Portsmouth. Believing the trunk’s contents would jeopardise Newton’s untouchable reputation, successive heirs of the collection had concealed the papers from academic scrutiny until 1936, when Viscount Lymington instructed Sotheby’s & Co. to auction the papers in an open sale as a way to clear substantial death duties.
Taylor was tasked with examining the trunk’s contents in readiness for a sale later in July, and within he found a treasure trove of manuscripts and personal notebooks which had sat hidden for more than 200 years. Many of the texts were written in code, some were merely paper fragments only a few lines in length, while others were complete drafts of large unpublished works. Far from being aligned with Newton’s standing as a cold, rational scientist, a large number of these papers reflected his secret obsession with biblical prophecy.
From his New Bond Street Office in London, Taylor organised the papers into 331 separate sales lots. Amongst the buyers was the Jewish scholar and businessman Abraham Yahuda, who eventually acquired a substantial personal collection of the auctioned biblical works. Today, an inventory of the papers making up the 331 sales lots of the Sotheby’s sale remains incomplete. Substantial parts of the collection are held by the University of Cambridge and the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, whilst others have been lost to private collections around the world.
Isaac Newton
A display cabinet containing Newton’s personal effects is on show at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. Amongst the exhibits are his pocket watch, his walking stick and his personal copy of the Principia, complete with annotations in his own handwriting.
It has been estimated that out of Newton’s surviving writings, 700,000 words are concerned with scientific research, 600,000 words relate to alchemy and 1,700,000 relate to his biblical research.
During his later life, Newton became obsessed with unlocking the secrets hidden within Holy Scripture. Certain of its accuracy, Newton described biblical prophecy as a ‘history of things to come’.
Newton was convinced that encoded in the design of Solomon’s first temple was some divine hidden knowledge, and he became consumed with recreating the floor plan of the Temple from descriptions contained within the Book of Ezekiel.
Newton’s analysis of the prophetic writings of Daniel was published after his death. He believed that the scriptural reference ‘in a time, times and half a time’ (found in Daniel 7:15 and 12:7, and also in Revelation 12:14) was of special significance.
An inventory of Newton’s personal possessions showed that he was obsessed with crimson, the colour of blood.
Newton referred to a Mr F many times in his alchemic writings. To this day, the true identity of Mr F remains a mystery.
As Newton is quoted as saying, ‘For the parts of Prophesy are like the separated parts of a watch. They appear confused and must be compared and put together before they can be useful.’
Christopher Wren
Whilst excavating the foundations for St Paul’s Cathedral, Wren’s labourers uncovered many historical artefacts, including relics dating back to Roman times.
During its construction, Wren hid the overall design of the cathedral from his workmen and sponsors, keeping many aspects of the full plan secret.
The question as to whether Christopher Wren was a freemason has been the topic of much debate. The first grand lodge meeting of English freemasonry took place at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern in 1717, just metres away from St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren commissioned his chief sculptor, Causis Cibber (a head of a freemason lodge), to create the sculpture at the base of the Monument, which was built to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666. The mysterious design incorporates a female figure pointing a rod up to heaven. The rod terminates in a hand with an eye at the centre of its palm, indicating its divine nature.
Pea
sants’ Revolt
The events surrounding the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt in England included savage premeditated attacks on the Knights Hospitaller. The Prior of the religious order, Sir Robert Hales, was dragged from the Tower of London during the uprising and decapitated.
The Royal Society
Isaac Newton and Christopher Wren were fellow members of the Royal Society, both serving terms as President.
The headquarters of the Royal Society was at Gresham College in London. Mysteriously, the path of the Great Fire was halted at the edge of its grounds, saving the building from destruction.
The Alignments
In 1185, the Patriarch of Jerusalem visited London to muster support for a new Crusade. He was accompanied by Roger de Moulin, the Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller. With them, they carried several sacred objects that had been liberated from the Holy City. During his visit, the Patriarch consecrated St John’s Church and Temple Church, the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar in England.
In Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Cathedral of St James, (the crusader headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Jerusalem) form the points of an equilateral triangle.
In London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Temple Church and the former location of St John’s Church, Clerkenwell (the crusader headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in London), form the points of an equilateral triangle. Wren changed the axis of the cathedral by 8 degrees to align it exactly with Temple Church.
Vatican Observatory
With its headquarters at the papal summer residence just outside Rome, the Vatican Observatory is one of the world’s oldest astronomical research institutions.
Mastema
According to the ancient Jewish book of the Jubilees, Mastema is the chief of the demons that were engendered by the union of the fallen angels (‘the Watchers’) and their human wives.
Bibliography
The following works particularly inspired me during the writing of this book:
Ackroyd, Peter, 2001, London: The Biography (Vintage).
Defoe, Daniel, 2001, A Journal of the Plague Year (Dover).
Defoe, Daniel, 1986, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (Penguin).
Eve, John, 2006, The Diary of John Evelyn (Everyman).
Gilbert, Adrian, 2003, The New Jerusalem. Rebuilding London: The Great Fire, Christopher Wren and the Royal Society (Corgi).
Gleick, James, 2003, Isaac Newton, (Vintage).
Hebborn, Eric, 1997, The Art Forger’s Handbook (Overlook Press).
Hebborn, Eric, 1991, Drawn to Trouble: The Forging of an Artist (Mainstream).
Hollis, Leo, 2009, The Phoenix: St Paul’s Cathedral and the Men Who Made Modern London (Phoenix).
Jardine, Lisa, 2002, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren (HarperCollins).
Levy, Joel, 2009, Newton’s Notebook: The Life, Times and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (History Press).
Robinson, John L., 1989, Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry (M. Evans).
White, Michael, 1997, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (Fourth Estate).
And finally, a number of the biblical quotations referenced in this novel are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1996, (Zondervan) and from The Authorized (King James) Version, reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
About the Author
Duncan Simpson spent his childhood in Cornwall, England. As a teenager he gained experience in a variety of jobs, from working in a mine to doing shifts as a security guard in an American airport. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a physics degree, he spent a year backpacking around the world. On returning to the UK, he embarked on a successful career in business. Along the way, he became the finance director for a technology company and a partner in a leading management consultancy firm.
His debut novel, The History of Things to Come was born out of his lifelong fascination with the relationship between science and religion. A keen student of the history of London, he loves exploring the ancient stories and myths surrounding the city. When he’s not writing or consulting, you’ll find him playing guitar in a rock band, running by the Thames, or drinking tea with his wife and three children in their home in Berkshire, England.
He can be reached through his website at:
http://www.duncansimpsonauthor.com
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my readers and community at:
http://www.duncansimpsonauthor.com and also to my friends on Twitter.
Thanks to my production team: Gale Winskill, at Winskill Editorial and Amy Butcher of the Book Butchers for copy-editing and proofreading; Derek Murphy for cover design; and Jake Muelle at Creativindie for interior print design. Also a big thanks to Jill Munro and Kathryn Moore, who did a great job beta-reading the book.
As always, my biggest thank you goes out to Katie, my master editor. I am constantly in awe of her love, patience and keen eye. Thank you for allowing me to dream and for riding shotgun on the journey. She is the brightest star in my sky.
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THE HISTORY OF THINGS TO COME: A Supernatural Thriller (The Dark Horizon Trilogy Book 1) Page 27