Serendipity by grandmaR
One of my goals to see in London was the British Museum. After I visited the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles I wanted to go to one other quintessentially British section of the museum - something that I could see here better than anywhere else. I decided on Roman Britain.It was therefore serendipitous that the museum was also having Roman days re-enactments on the day of our visit. We took advantage of the displays and they enhanced our museum experience.
Another example of serendipity was our visit to the National Gallery. I had certain pictures there I wanted to see, and we went through the National Portrait Gallery on the way. We lucked into an exhibit there on children's authors which was terrific.Horace Walpole coined the word "serendipity" in one of his 3,000 or more letters. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that ?this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word.?
Serendip was the old name for Sri Lanka. Walpole took the name from part of the title of ?a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of....?
This illustrates the beauty and flexibility of the English language, and also the essense of traveling - taking advantage of serendipity.