Viscount Norwich, CVO

Lord Rothschild represented The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. I represented you, readers who share my admiration for John Julius Norwich, on Wednesday.

Sloppy

Reading old posts (rather narcissistic but checking what I’ve written) I find typos un-noticed by me and Principal Proof Reader, Mrs Dog-Lover. Mrs D-L gets on the job at about 7.00 a.m. so by the time you read, it has all been tidied up. When I went to stay with my cousin in Essex she… Continue reading Sloppy

History Matters

The Kilkenny Archaeology Society was founded in 1849. The County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society is a relative newcomer dating back only to 1903. There are hordes of other county historical societies and many of them have been publishing annual journals since their inception.

Published
Categorised as History

The Dining Room

Come into the dining room. The walls are painted dark red; not quite Farrow & Ball’s Eating Room Red but similar. Around the cornice are shields of Bellew wives and Irish provinces. Not enough wives are armigerous and there are only four provinces so they repeat themselves.

Published
Categorised as Family

Dead Man’s Penny

The first I’d heard of a Dead Man’s Penny was by chance yesterday. If you know all about them you may want to skip to a digression at the end of the post.

Shrouds of the Somme

My grandfather was shot through the back of his neck by a sniper at the Somme. He was fortunate not to bleed to death. Three other Bellews died and have no graves.

Put Bull in Box

On the whole I had an idyllic childhood at Barmeath. I enjoyed the company of my mother, my grandparents and especially my much older siblings, though they were seldom around.

Design for Living

Last month, my theatre-on-the-doorstep LAMDA put on Design for Living, a Noël Coward play I’ve never seen but I was too slow off the mark to get tickets.