Rokeby Hall is a fine Georgian house in Co Louth not far from Grangebellew. It was built for Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby and Archbishop of Armagh. My brother, also a Baron, is at present only a Diocesan Reader in Armagh but I have hopes that he may follow in Lord Rokeby’s ecclesiastical footsteps.
The intricacies of the Peerage are well-nigh unfathomable. Richard Robinson, being without issue, contrived that the son of his second cousin should succeed him and it is to the 2nd Lord Rokeby we turn. His perfectly respectable career as a Whig politician and Fellow of the Royal Society is over-shadowed by his supposed eccentricity in retirement. He liked to bathe in the sea at Hythe in all weathers, grew a long beard and espoused drinking water. This was considered almost scandalous in the second half of the 18th century.
When he saw someone drinking at a public drinking fountain he would reward them with half-a-crown. So Burlington Drinks in Witham are taking the piss calling their gin Rokeby’s Half Crown. I bought every bottle at Majestic because of the Rokeby connection and, even more importantly, it was on offer at £17.99. There has been a policy shift at No 56. I buy cheap gin and dilute it with expensive mixers made by the London Essence Company, Fevertree, etc. They are low calorie and there are lots of interesting flavours to choose from: grapefruit and rosemary, orange and elderflower, citrus, Sicilian, Mediterranean, aromatic. There seems to be a new one every time I go to Waitrose.
Lord Rokeby would approve of Seedlip gin, distilled in Lincolnshire by Ben Branson. It is a brand I have yet to try but may have to turn to if there is bad news from the liver dept: it is alcohol-free.
How about some Mellow Yellow tonic?
If Bru is to make the bench of bishops he would better get his skates on and seek ordination before he enters his dotage, but how magnificent for the Church of Ireland once again to be able to boast of a Baron Bishop. He is, of course, very suitable episcopal material: well read, well bred and judiciously liberally minded, although his literary and creative temperament may, like that of Jonathan Swift, result in that bishopric proving somewhat elusive.
Another Irish Archbishop, Archbishop Bolton (a contemporary of Rokeby) perceptively stated ‘A true Irish bishop has nothing to do than eat, drink, grow fat and rich and die’. Evidently Bru has some way to go.
I wonder if your brother is going to read the Queen Esther lesson this Sunday; I know I am. Queen convinces King A to hang Haman on Haman,s own gallows (50 cubits worth of dead drop). Whole business painfully current with a schlemozzle of a Supreme Court nomination in an unhinged
Environment. At least Esther got her man so to speak and got a holiday on the 14th of Adar. ..now called Purim. Unsure as to what Dr Ford gets ditto Judge Kavanaugh.
A Rokeby gin? I’ll have one,thanks.
Seedlip is indeed extraordinary stuff. I don’t think I had ever heard of distilled nonalcoholic drinks before or imagined that such an oddity could command such a price, let alone that my rich hostess would have found it in Tesco rather than Waitrose. It seems entrepreneurially rather like that Anglo-Swiss watch you like. The taste of this artisanal treat is IMHO sensational.