The List

WHO? Father Christmas; the tooth fairy; angel of Mons; the Giant Pumpkin; Harvey, the six- foot rabbit; Bunbury; Godot; a happy Yorkshireman; a sober Young Tory; the MEP for Mercia

WHAT? Chimera; unicorn; Yeti; a free lunch; Surrey puma, gremlins; Loch Ness monster; the humility of Lord Archer; the excitement of John Major; the forgiveness of Norman Lamont; a farmer on a bike; Lord Tebbit's map of Europe

WHERE? a land flowing with milk and honey; Atlantis; Tir na nOg; Never-Never Land; Eldorado; Narnia; Cloud Cuckoo Land; Utopia; Wonderland; Erewhon; Shangri- La; Xanadu; Brigadoon; over the rainbow; Land of Nod; Seventh Heaven; Brussels' Mercia

TODAY is the feast day of Saint Hedwig, a widow in Bavaria who died in 1243. Married at 12 to the Duke of Silesia, she had seven children, most of whom turned out to be ungodly and quarrelsome. She herself lived a holy life going barefoot and wearing only a thin tunic in the middle of winter. Given a pair of shoes by an abbot, she obeyed his injunction to wear them, but only under her cloak rather than on her feet. Most of her children died before her, but she learnt of their death and that of her husband with fortitude, comforting those around her. She was believed to possess the power of healing the sick.

16 October,1759: The third Eddystone Lighthouse, designed by John Smeaton, English civil engineer (above), was officially opened. The first two wooden structures, built on the hazardous Eddystone Rocks, 14 miles from Plymouth, had been short-lived (one was swept away by a storm, the other burned down). Smeaton, born in Austhorp near Leeds in 1724, established his reputation with the novel use of dovetailed stones and this became standard lighthouse design. Eddystone remained in use until 1877 when it was moved to Plymouth Hoe as a memorial. Smeaton's other engineering works include Ramsgate Harbour and the Forth and Clyde Canal. He died in 1794.

1834: The Houses of Parliament were almost destroyed by fire.

1881: The People was first published.

1902: First 'Borstal' detention centre opened in Borstal, Kent.

1964: Harold Wilson became prime minister.

BIRTHDAYS: Gunter Grass, novelist, 67; Angela Lansbury, actress, 69; Emma Nicholson, MP, 53.

(Photograph omitted)