[MR] History Blog: Laussane's Night Watchman

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the History Blog is offering a story of considerable interest to us,
a tale of some charm, but with a social warning. Lausanne, Switzerland, is
one of but seven cities which still employ a full-time night watchman, Renato
Häusler or his assistant Marco Carrara. As someone has done every night
since 1405, from the bell tower at the Cathedral of Notre Dame (Protestant
since the Swiss reformation) the watchman calls the hours, and if needed
rings one of the bells. These days they ring the bell as a warning for the
corona virus: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58245 .

The other European cities which employ a regular night watchman are Annaberg,
Celle and Noerdlingen in Germany; Ripon in Britain; Krakow in Poland and
Ystad in Sweden.

For more on the history of night watchmen (chiefly in England) see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchman_(law_enforcement) .

A brief story about the Laussane's Protestant Cathedral is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lausanne_Cathedral .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆