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Following on from the Tudor Pull David, my bailiff and I attended the 360^th festival of the Sons and Friends of the Clergy at St Paul’s on Tuesday last week followed by dinner at Merchant Taylors’ Hall.  St Paul’s was well filled.  The service was attended by the Lord Mayor Locum Tenens along with the majority of Masters.  I enjoyed the music and singing.  The choir of St Paul’s was joined by the choirs of Peterborough and Wakefield Cathedrals.  The dinner was exceptional in that there were bishops and other senior clerics seated at close centres among the guests.  The dinner itself was fine too.

On the following Saturday David and I were guests of the Master Glass Seller Andrew Parmley at a dinner to mark the completion of the Glass Sellers company visit to South Wales.  We share our beadle with the Glass sellers, and continuing from demonstrating his linguistic prowess at my events, Tony introduced Andrew in Welsh; we had practised it a few times beforehand.  Andrew began his response to the toast with a very passable Welsh introduction.  It was a very pleasant evening.

Some of us will miss Tony’s introductions at next year’s Conservator events when I guess that we will revert to a Barbarian tongue.

The Clerk returns from two week’s holiday today!

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On 11^th May I took part in the Tudor Pull which began with a colourful ceremony at Hampton Court where, after a short speech, I presented the Stella (which I think is a piece of a Myddelton elm water pipe) to the Duty Manager at the Palace who then passed it on the Royal Bargemaster.  The Royal Bargemaster was accompanied by a party of Royal watermen. After another short speech we three, Duty Manager, Bargemaster and I took a drink from a ‘River Cup’ and then we all proceeded down to the Gloriana at the river’s edge.  The Beadle and I were transported from Hampton Court to Richmond on the Queen’s Row Barge Gloriana under the control of the Queen’s Bargemaster.  Bob prentice, Master Watermen and Lightermen was part of the crew.  We had a ‘comfort break’ at Richmond and then the Beadle and I transferred to our cutter, the ‘Water Forget me not’ and were propelled down to the Tower by four young ladies.  Mr Bargemaster and his crew were working the safety boat somewhere alongside us.   There were several Livery Company cutters in our flotilla of ‘small boats’. 

Thank goodness the day was dry.  We started at Hampton Court at 10.00am and arrived at the Tower sometime after 4.00pm.  At the Tower there was quite a scramble to get ashore from the cutters so the Beadle and I missed the handing-over ceremony at the Tower.

I was delighted to meet Richard and Jackie Waller at Hampton Court; they followed us down to Richmond which involved a great deal of waving, but not waving goodbye as it turned out.

My sincere thanks must go to all the people who either assisted me during the day or occasionally came to my rescue.  In particular I must thank our crew of four ladies and their cox who saw us safely down to the Tower of London.

It was an exceptional day.

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I mentioned the 100 Club lunch in my last entry.  Well it was a very friendly and informal event in the hall of the Information Technologists.  I was ‘on my feet’ responding on behalf of the guest for just a few minutes.  There were seven Masters in attendance, along with eight clerks and members of the Court of the World Traders.

The following morning I met Judy Ling Wong to discuss possible projects for the Trust and then I attended a lunch at Goldsmiths’ Hall.   This lunch is an annual event that follows the Trial of the Pyx; which is of very ancient origin and involves the Assay Office conducting an examination of the coinage and reporting its verdict.  The principal guest was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, who made an interesting and what I thought was a light hearted speech.  The chancellor has attended every year.  I was sitting close to Miss Ransome Wallis, the Art Director and Curator at Goldsmiths who was interested in my stories about Hugh Myddelton, the lead mines and his chalice in Ruthin.   After lunch she took to me to see the portrait of Sir Hugh by Cornelius Janssen.  I also met the Assistant Librarian Eleni Bide who was most pleased to send me images of the portrait.  I have included one here.

Image, courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company

I also met the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, who recognised me as a Water Conservator; I confess that I was wearing my tear drop; he is an honorary member of the Company.