Thursday September 16, 1982

 New Moon

Back to the YP. Surprisingly, the girls are holding out from returning to the union. 

Princess Grace.

Poor Princess Grace is lying-in-state in an open coffin. Someone in the office phoned to ask who was the last British monarch to have a lying-in-state in an open coffin. Never, says I. I cannot state how things were done in Ethelred the Unready's time, but I know that the first lying-in-state of a monarch, with lid firmly nailed on, was for Edward VII, in May, 1910. Victoria didn't have a public lying, and the Hanoverians didn't do it. Can you imagine people queuing to file past George IV, for instance? In those days the passing of the sovereign was a time for celebration. The first lying-in-state at Westminster Hall was for Gladstone in 1895. I suppose the next one will be for David Steel. Ally doesn't approve of Princess Grace being on public display. She gasped. She has never seen a dead body.

Ally grouted the kitchen tiles. Watched 'High Society'. Very sad. Princess Grace put Monaco on the map. Salad butties and cocoa. To bed after a programme about the extermination of the jews. Such a depressing night.

-=-