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.

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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.

Restaurants and a Requiem

Oh dear, I’ve gone into reverse. Today’s post is about Saturday evening. Over many years I have had memorable meals in some pretty swanky restaurants, often paid for by a special friend.

Witney

Witney is famous as David Cameron’s constituency from 2001 to 2016  but three hundred years earlier Witney was synonymous with blankets.

Sherborne Park

I am staying for a few days in a village close to Burford in west Oxfordshire to explore the locality. Yesterday afternoon we went for a circular walk in Sherborne Park.