Sarum

But on one thing both visitors – to whom it was a novelty – and townspeople came to a surprising and total agreement; this was the benefit of British fish and chips, eaten off British newspaper.

“Our boys were like a bunch of bananas,” a cheerful G.I. informed Patricia: “some green, some yellow, some plain rotten.”

“Our best men seem like coiled springs,” Patricia had once remarked to Forest-Wilson; “theirs are like rubber.”
“And just as indestructible,” he assured her.

For during Ralph Shockley’s lifetime, one of the most convenient discoveries ever to aid the administration of British justice was made: the continent of Australia was found.

“You know it is true that the Corsican adventurer has caused the death of nearly one and a quarter million men. Can you not see that, even if the old regimes were imperfect” – this was an astonishing admission from Porteus, Ralph had to admit – “yet the legitimate monarchs of Europe at least preserved order in the world?”
“I agree that all Europe believes so,” Ralph replied. “And that itself may be enough to preserve peace.”

At the third glass of port there came over him that sudden sense of unreality which tells a wise man not to drink a fourth.
It was with the third glass that the talk turned to philosophy.

In short, they practised the art, known then as condescension – which meant not at all what is meant by the word today, but rather the art of letting a man know, through perfect politeness, that you do not seek to patronise him.

Besides, the Stuarts were still tainted with Catholicism. No sane man in England wanted that trouble again.

“In my concern for the poor, Master Shockley,” he had announced, “I would neither be mistaken of purpose, neither misconstrued of munificence; I mean to work for the poor – for I am not mean; but in order that the poor may work – for I am not foolish.”

Unlike her half sister, Elizabeth had little religious feeling. She only knew the fear of persecution. She would, she said, make no window into men’s souls; let them believe what they liked: so long as they went to her church, or paid a small fine.
And up and down the country, while strict Catholics or extreme Puritans denounced the changes, men like Edward Shockley heaved a sigh of relief.
It was imperfect, hypocritical, cynical – and absolutely sensible.