“Hubert Brinton told me he took it down in a notebook at the time how a verger was escorting a party round Westminster Abbey, when one of the party knelt down and prayed: “Come along, sir,” commanded the verger – “But mayn’t I have a few moments of private devotion?” – “No, we can’t ‘ave that, or we should soon ‘ave people prayin’ all over the place.”

(An Innkeeper’s Diary by John Rowland Fothergill, 1876 – 1957)

John Lentell

October 20th, 1968