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15th july 2003August 1899 * * * Regarding today's date: Swithun or Swithin was an early Bishop of Winchester, who died in the year 862. On his deathbed he asked to be buried outside the north wall of his cathedral where passers-by would walk over his grave, and raindrops from the eaves fall upon it in benediction. This wish was granted, but for less than a century: they dug him up in 931 and put him in a flashy shrine inside the building, where rain never falls unless the Roof Appeal isn't doing very well.
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