Happy New Year

If you own a Smythson’s Panama diary you don’t count the pennies. Their entry-level model is priced at £35 and if you want a little flap at the back and a cedar pencil …

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Categorised as Shopping

The Last Rose of Summer

An old friend died yesterday. We were contemporaries in the Irish Guards and at Durham, so go back a long way.

Castles in the Air

This is the view from the top floor looking north. The futuristic office building on the left is The Ark. To the right, the chocolate and white striped building is a Novotel.

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.

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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.

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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.