“Once this mess with the Pandorica is sorted, I’d be glad to take you on a little trip.”
Rory chuckled. “Well, I used to do quite a lot of reading. Not as much time for it now of course… ” He was referring to his time guarding the Pandorica. When he’d been under Stonehenge there hadn’t been much opportunity to read, but once he and the Pandorica had moved to the city he’d been able to get plenty of reading done.
“You know what’s funny- I mean, none of the plants and things are really hanging. It’s just the translation gone a bit wrong.”
“I can imagine.” Romana glances over at Rory, thoughtful, clasping her hands behind her back, “How many books do you think you managed to read while waiting for the Pandorica to open?” She asks curiously, stepping up beside him now to look out over the garden.
“Oh? And what does the original say?” He’s like a walking, talking encyclopedia and she found that completely fascinating. It’s amazing how much information he had retained over two thousand years. How was it possible? Romana couldn’t help but be entranced.
Rory exhaled sharply. “I couldn’t even begin to guess. A lot. I mean, two thousand years… Still, sometimes it wasn’t so easy to get my hands on something to read. Some people were just reluctant to lend things out to a man in Roman armour. I think I was intimidating.” He grinned.
“Okay, well, having the gardens hang - like literally be hanging would’ve been cool looking but way more work to be sure. And the Latin word for hanging, pensilis - it can also be used to mean overhanging. Like balconies and things. And they have a lot of those here.” Rory shrugged. “They haven’t found any ruins. Back home, I mean. And without any proof they’re relying on centuries old writings and paintings and things to know what it looked like. Can’t blame them for getting a translation wrong. It’s misleading. Anyway, ‘Hanging Gardens’ sounds better than ‘Garden with Balconies.’”
