Wednesday February 25, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds

Leslie Gledhill appeared at lunchtime and I had quite forgotten about the letter of last Friday. It was he who brought it up and when I, with wrinkled brow and perplexed look, questioned his statement, he gasped and said I had taken it the wrong way and that he did not doubt our capabilities or loyalty to Humphrey Smith, his heirs and successors according to law. LG walked around looking at the proposed alterations and then expressed his view that we are in need of a change, which we know, because having done 60 per cent more trade this year than in '86 we will never surpass that figure and so it calls for fresh pastures. LG sais lots of pubs are currently available and mentioned the Star, at Mexborough, and one in Darlington. Ally came down with a chip sandwich and joined in the debate. LG gave us some complements that went right over Ally's head. "He says the same thing to everyone". Anyway the crux of the matter is that he wants us to move, for our benefit, and not for any other sinister reason. Off he went. We went upstairs and looked though piles of pub vacancy leaflets some dating back three years. Where do we fancy? Oh, dear.

Deaths:  George F. Tibbles, at Palm Desert, California, aged 73, composer and scriptwriter who set the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker's manic 'H-h-h-haa-ha' laugh to music.

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Tuesday February 24, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn

At breakfast now things are so bad - we have broken so much crockery that we are drinking tea from priceless commemorative bone china celebrating royal events down the years. King George V silver jubilee mugs, &c. Today for instance my morning cuppa was in the 1973 'Princess Anne and Mark Phillips' wedding mug. I asked Samuel who was the face on the cup, expecting a negative answer and he said: "It's Mrs Thatcher". Hoots of laughter followed. Such a bright child. He was on the right track.

Henry John Heinz II, who has died in Florida, aged 78, was chairman of the international food company founded by his grandfather and namesake in 1869 ...

Prince Edward is to leave for the Caribbean tomorrow for a nine day visit during which, as chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award 30th anniversary project, he is to visit Barbados and Grenada. His programme allows him three free days.

Monday February 23, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, &c

Pepys.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Mr Samuel Pepys. It is to him who we, and indeed you, owe the very existence of this humble journal. In the volume of words alone I did pass Mr Pepys's outpourings way, way back. Sadly, my worthless ramblings will never catch on as his did. I have had no plague, or Great Fire, or intimate conversations with the monarch, like wot he did. Dad has informed me that Uncle Arnold kept a journal until the very end. Dad thinks that I am so like his late brother. At 9:30 we went to the municipal swimming pool which was dirty and cold. We changed in a sticky changing room - Samuel and I - along with 73 schoolboys who I overheard gasping at the fact that I was wearing jeans and no underpants. I think it must be all part of my George Michael image. Samuel hated the water. The boiler was off, and so we had a tearful 10 minutes. He then sat with Ally and Clemmie as I did a few breathless lengths. Not quite Duncan Goodhew, OBE. More like Sybil Thorndike, DBE. Margaret Isabella did lunch. No staff from 5:30. I gave Mags the genealogical study of the Duchess of York for 12 year-old Tricia. It was a joy to do. Samuel has a a green nose. He went to school to tell Dermot all about his sub-aquatic inactivity. Poor boy. I could not swim until I was eleven or twelve. I made my first breathless splash at Guiseley baths in about '67 just after we arrived in the borough. The 20th anniversary of our move there falls on March 10. Just Ally and I tonight. Quiet. Dean Hemingway's girlfriend works in the office of Neil Balfour, the Tory candidate owner of Studley Royal, and former hubby of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. He's standing for Ryedale. Phoned Dad and Sue. She is better.

Deaths: Lord Talbot of Malahide, who has died aged 87, was the ninth holder of an Irish barony, created in 1831, and Hereditary Lord Admiral of Malahide and the seas adjoining.

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Sunday February 22, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds, LS11 5NQ

Sexagesima

I have been missing my mother lately. I can go for days without any depression and then suddenly slump into a black, anxious mood where I question everything, and scornfully. Why are we here? Just to rot and provide the earth with fertilizer? ________. Supermarkets too, they can bring on a black mood. I can be pushing my trolley down the row of boxes cornflakes when suddenly I see Mum, clad in her anorak and scarf beaming around in Settle Co-op , the light glinting upon her specs. Obviously, I am the victim of some horrid neurosis brought on by grief. I look back upon those 'Pine Tops' days with such pain. We appreciate nothing until the the object of that appreciation is gone forever. 

To Temple Newsam where Samuel looked at the pigs. There was an especially ugly turkey. Back refreshed for 11:30am. Margaret Rushton worked. Margaret Isabella Young began here tonight, the daughter of our Mags.

From the Telegraph: "Percy Potter a retired headmaster, celebrated his 100th birthday this month, and for the benefit of an Eastern Evening News interviewer he recalled his early days as a teacher in Lancashire. In one lesson he wrote some words on a blackboard and told the children to use them in a sentence. One of the words was 'comfort'. He reported than when he was marking their work he found a little chap had put 'I've comfort rent'".

Deaths: Honora, Lady Rashleigh [nee Sneyd], widow of Sir Harry Rashleigh, and the Hon Ronald Leslie-Melville.

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Saturday February 21, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Margaret Rushton, our absentee barmaid, graced our abode with her presence at luncheon. Her mother is flat out in Killingbeck Hospital weighing in at 4st 7lb. Curtains it seems. Grey-faced Margaret's days are also numbered. We cannot cope with unreliability. Here's a little vignette from Bill Gilmore, a former Scots Guardsman with a large red nose. Someone said to him that perhaps Leeds Utd might win the coming FA Cup. "If Queen Anne had bollocks, she'd be t'King", he quipped. Quite excellent. Ally  and Samuel cleaned the car. I cleaned the beer lines. Ate mounds of liver and onions. Just Ally and I tonight. It was good to see Bernadette McCarron back on form. Ally is delicious. We enjoy the intimate 'staffless' weekends. Poor President Reagan is heading for another Watergate. Poor old sod.

This is piquant. The Princess of Wales has asked for a souvenir of her childhood - a grubby window with 500 telephone numbers written on the frame- to be sent to her at Kensington Palace. The old sash window, with four panes of frosted glass, was found at her birthplace, Park House, Sandringham. Mr Frank Chapman, the site agent, said the Princess told him that she had written some of the numbers and would like to have the window as a keepsake because it brought back happy memories. The window was removed from the telephone room at the rambling Victorian house when it was being converted into a hotel for the disabled  at a cost of £1,500,000. The numbers scrawled in pencil, include the chimney sweep, the hairdresser, the laundry, the fishmonger, the Princess's old school, and Sandringham House. Mr Chapman said: "I've also shown the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles round. The Queen likes it very much. She felt it was ideal for the disabled. The Queen, who gave the house to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, will open on July 31. Dennis Maiden, chairman of the management committee said: "It's the only hotel of its kind in Britain. Obviously, because it's Princess Diana's birthplace, it will be a big attraction." The room in which the princess was born has been turned into a double bedroom. Her nursery has been converted into two single rooms. ....

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Friday February 20, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Fuming today. Leslie Gledhill sent us a letter, from which I'll quote later. Winnie, Dad's neighbour at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, phoned and gave me momentary panic, by saying that at 2:30pm today Dad's curtains were closed, his blind in the kitchen was down and his garage door ajar. I tried phoning but had no joy, but eventually traced him to John's, where he was unconcerned. I thought he had 'topped himself'. Poor Sue is abed with gastric 'flu.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was represented by by Lt-Col Sir Martin Gilliat at the memorial service for Dame Ann Parker Bowles held yesterday at the Guards Chapel ...

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, former director-general of the BBC, died last night in the King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers. He was 76.

Princess Anne arrived in Agaba yesterday on a three-day private visit to Jordan as guests of King Hussein and Queen Noor. She was met by her husband Capt Mark Phillips, who arrived in Jordan on Tuesday.

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Thursday February 19, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

The Duke of York is 27 today and celebrating in Klosters with the Waleses. Only a year ago Fergie was seen on the piste with Charles and Diana. What water has passed under the bridge since then?

Pool Knock-Out at home. Ghastly. John the landlord of the Station at Hunslet came. Obviously a worried man and constantly looking over his shoulder. He's terrified about being found out about his various fiddles. He kept mumbling about the five managers who were sacked last week, "all on one day" he kept muttering. He is hoping to move to the Crown at Wetherby. We had no staff.

Sir William Coldstream, the artist and arts administrator, has died aged 78. The Daily Telegraph says he was: "one of the few men to exert a wholly benign influence upon art in Britain.  Seldom have high competence, which amounted in his portraits to something more, and sanity been so finely balanced."

More than five million packs of butter have been distributed in Britain as part of the Common Market's surplus food hand-out and supplies of cheese, milk, and beef are now getting through, Mr Gummer, junior Agriculture Minister said yesterday.

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Wednesday February 18, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

I took Bev to Roundhay winding through the morning traffic. She is such a lovely girl. But a mystery. Uncle Peter says she baffles him. But my uncle is easily baffled. Ally was shattered all day but she never sleeps. Clemmie is such a "wide-awake" thing at 3 or 4 am. I got up in the middle of the night and switched on my video and watched "Blazing Saddles", the Mel Brooks epic.

Strong rumours are ripping through Westminster that Lord Whitelaw, the Deputy Prime Minister, may decide to stand down at the next election. The Leader of the House of Lords, who will be 69 in June, is coming under increasing pressure from his family to quit.

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Tuesday February 17, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

You should see the bags under my eyes, folks. My face looks like two kilos of King Edward's. 

Evening: Ally and I to Rawdon Rd, Horsforth, the Matthews stately pile. Such talkers they are. A sumptuous dinner awash with wine. Marita had creeping lobelia all over her chest. They are set on this hotel in Harrogate, but are wary and nervous. The shop is sold and their house goes on the market next week. Such a loving couple through. That is obvious. Chatter, chatter, chatter. A very pleasant night. Home at 2. Bev stayed, and looked shattered.

A group of Conservative MPs launched a campaign yesterday to replace the May Day bank holiday with a bank holiday commemorating the life of Sir Winston Churchill. An early day motion signed by 19 backbenchers calls for May 10 to be set aside as a national holiday to allow "British people to commemorate properly the life and achievements of Britain's greatest statesman within living memory". May 10 was th date in 1940on which Sir Winston first became premier.

Lord Crowther-Hunt, the political theorist and constitutional expert, who has died aged 66, had been Rector of Exeter College, Oxford since 1982 and was a Junior Minister at the Department of Education and Science and Privy Council Office in Harold Wilson's last administration.

From the Daily Telegraph: "People who eat African green monkey appear to be more vulnerable to Aids, a leading African researcher said yesterday. Prof. Olufemi Williams, executive secretary of the Organisation of African Unity's Scientific and Technical Commission, said research had found traces of the Aids virus in people who ate green monkeys in Zaire and the Central African Republic. No traces had been found in the Casamance region of Senegal where the animal abounded but people did not eat it.
Obviously, I have now removed green monkey from the pub menu.

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Monday February 16, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Washington's Birthday Observance

Clemmie woke at 7:30 and we had tea in bed. Samuel could be heard rambling away to his treasured grandad. Dad went down to 'bottle up' after breakfast and put the Christmas tree lights away - because I find such chores impossible. I went out t the bank and to Morrison's, &c, and returned for 10. Lynn and Dave came 'en familie' including Audrey Baker walking with a stick and looking more ill than on previous occasions. Lynn is thin as a lath. They took Dad to Horton at 12. The poor man is pulled from pillar to post. His business is in tatters. He has only had one guest for B & B since September. God only knows what will become of him. He is deeply upset at the loss of his brother 'Dear Bill' and is so drawn towards his brothers and sisters. Dorothy has recently had gallstones removed.

From the Darlington and Stockton Times: "The Rev Chris Shreeve's Bible study was on fasting. The Hawes meeting heard that several religions practiced fasting as a means of growing nearer to God. Refreshments were served."

Luis Robledo, who has died at Bogota, aged 65, was a Colombian diplomat who secretly married the society beauty Lady Bridgett Paulett in 1948. The marriage at Tunbridge Wells register office was kept a closely guarded secret with the couple maintaining their separate flats, and was only publicly revealed 15 months later when they were in Germany where he was negotiating a trade pact.

From the Telegraph: Weddings: The marriage took place on Saturday at the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy of Mr Mark Thatcher, son of Mr & Mrs Denis Thatcher, of 10 Downing Street, London, SW1, and Miss Diane Burgdorf, only daughter of Mr & Mrs T.C. Burgdorf, of Dallas, Texas. The service was conducted by the Rev John Williams, Chaplain of the Queen's Chapel, and the marriage ceremony by the Bishop of Ely. The bride, who was given away by her father, was attended by Miss Debra Grisham, Miss Theresa Flores, Miss Sharon Wood, and Miss Gloria Zapffe. Mr Stephen Tipping was best man. A reception was held at the Savoy.

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Sunday February 15, 1987

 Moorhouse Inn, Leeds LS11 5NQ

Septuagesima

Andrew 23. John and Janette came this afternoon with JPH, Catherine, and Charlotte. Then, Lynn, Dave came at 8, bringing Dad, and stayed until 10:30. They went to sleep at Pool-in-Wharfedale, leaving Dad here. A jolly evening. Lynn chatters aimlessly and is so larger than life. Clemmie woke when we came upstairs.

The Marquess of Hertford last week paid a stiff penalty for ploughing up the remains of a Roman settlement on his estate: £10,000 with £4,914 costs. His forbear the first Earl of Hertford was imprisoned in the Tower by Queen Elizabeth I and brought before the Star Chamber in 1561 for seducing a virgin of the blood royal, and had to pay only £86 more: a fine of £15,000.

The Prime Minister's son, Mark Thatcher, was married to Diane Burgdorf, of Texas, in a St Valentine's Day ceremony at London's Savoy Chapel. 

Here are the heraldic arms of Harold Macmillan, first Earl of Stockton. They were publicly displayed only for the first time on Tuesday, adorning each copy of the order of service for his memorial in Westminster Abbey. Although he delayed applying for a grant of arms until his 91st year, the new peer took a characteristic delight in their preparation by Sir Colin Cole, Garter King of Arms. The two-handed sword of the crest is borrowed from the badge of the Macmillan Clan, with one of the fists clad in mail armour to mark his service in World War 1. Surmounted by an earl's coronet, the arms are taken from those of both Macmillan of Knapp and of the University of Oxford. Three books, reflecting Macmillan's life as a publisher, bear the motto Miseres Discere Succo [I help the disadvantaged to learn]. It is an elegant corruption of the Macmillan Clan motto Miseris Succere Disco [I learn to help the disadvantaged]. The gold background of the upper part of the shield indicates that the family fortune comes from trade, as opposed to green for land or red for military service. For supporters, the new Earl chose a Scottish lion and an American bald eagle, reflecting the ancestry of his parents. The eagle embraces a Scottish thistle, the lion an American juniper. The castellated arch joining two sheets of water comes from the arms of Stockton-on-Tees, but also symbolises the Atlantic Ocean joining Scotland and the United States.

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