LONDON -- To paraphrase the poet, Robert Browning: Oh, to be in England, now that Tom Brady's here.

Tom Terrific isn't here quite yet. He and his Patriots teammates will be taking an overnight flight after practicing today in Foxboro. But there were Patriots fans aplenty who got the jump on Tom and the team, flying out of Logan Airport Wednesday morning to Heathrow on American AIrlines to spend a long weekend in London.

Patriots apparel was a popular fashion choice on board-- including, of course, a few of Brady's number 12 jerseys.

Upon landing, the flight attendant gave this message to departing passengers: "On behalf of your Boston-based flight crew: Go Patriots -- Give Us A Win!"

Which didn't seem like too much to ask, considering that the Patriots' opponent on Sunday at famed Wembley Stadium, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have yet to win a game this season.

As for Mr. Browning, who was to Victorian poetry what Brady is to quarterbacks, he is buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, in the company of the likes of Chaucer and Tennyson.

There are not, unfortunately, any British sportswriters buried there.

For those with a literary bent, the opening lines of Browning's poem "Home Thoughts, From Abroad" are: Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there