“The other day a man came to dinner and I said to him, “You’ve been here before?”.

“Yes.” said the man.

“And,” I conjectured, thinking hard, “it must have been some two years ago?”

“No,” said the man, “You aren’t quite right, it was at tea-time.””

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

John Lentell

29th April, 1969

“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