Friday
Matthew Taylor arrives at the Hall to pick my brains about rural housing. I am pleased to be able to tell him that there is a good turnover of properties hereabouts, with the result that people seldom have to wait long for a cottage. Only yesterday, for instance, I had to evict a labourer and his family after he been heard making favourable comments about David Cameron in the Bonkers‘ Arms, and I am sure that my Bailiff will have seen to it that someone else is occupying the property by now.
How times passes! Taylor a member of the great and good, and asked to chair some sort of Government inquiry! It seems only yesterday that he was sitting in parliamentary party meetings doing his maths homework. Nowadays, of course, one would simply toss it over to Cable or Webb or Laws for them to dash off in a moment, but when young Matthew was first elected it fell to me to help the poor child wrestle with the internal angles of a penhaligon.
Before he returns to Cornwall I take him on a tour of the Hall, and when we reach the kitchen Cook insists on presenting him with a long spoon ("I hear you are working with that Gordon Brown," she says. "You’ll be wanting this.") and I daren’t record what Meadowcroft says when we surprise him in the Orchid House. I thought the gift of a pitchfork was a nice touch, though.
Back to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
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