The books that my wife had kind of kept are the Lord and the Lieutenant's Futures, and
we've got a bit of the clothes, I think, in here.
This is the start of the musical picnic, and it was both musical and a picnic, but
it had to be inside because of the rain.
When the Prince of Wales came for one of his many visits, helping with the appeal for
the cathedral, and this was the clothes, but we had to go in because it was raining so
hard.
The picnic was supposed to be all over the clothes.
But in the middle of all this picnic, which was lovely, it was sort of late afternoon,
there was a cloudburst, and we all had to rush in, pick up our picnic and run into the
cathedral.
And then he was one of those who had to rush in as well.
And so I last remember seeing him sitting by one of the pillars in the nave, eating
his picnic the same as we were, sitting on the pew and enjoying himself.
And then he specced to us all as he went out, it was lovely.
I had about 200 picnickers in the clothes, making a terrible mess of our lovely clean
cathedral.
I remember Mike and I went to spare that day, because we were just praying it wasn't
going to rain, but our prayers that day weren't answered, I'm afraid.
And it went very well, and he enjoyed it, and I certainly enjoyed it.
I didn't think one was allowed to have alcoholic drink, but you can.
The bishop certainly enjoyed it too.
Originally, before this new building to house the Mapamundi and the Chain Library, it used
to be on top of the north entrance, I believe, or part of it did anyway.
And during one of our visits, the official that was guiding us showed us the equipment
that was in place to rescue the Chain Library in case of fire, which consisted of a wicker
basket and a rope, lower half a dozen books at a time, made through the window down onto
the cathedral close.
The Mapamundi was one of the big occasions, the big dramas that I experienced in the cathedral,
because the Mapamundi was put up for sale, and it caused consternation, both in the
Darcy's and outside it, being one of the great treasures.
And we had a huge help from English heritage, and Sir Martin Chargers used to be the private
secretary of the Queen.
Martin Chargers went to see Paul Getty, who at that time was a fairly eccentric figure
living in London.
And he was told that he wasn't worried too much about what was going on, but that he
was just to ask if he would help with the Mapamundi.
And Martin Chargers, very apprehensive, went into this London house and shown up in a rather
dark room where there was a young man, because he was quite a young man at that time, lying,
watching the television.
I think he's watching cricket, because he was a tremendous fan of cricket, and drinking
Coke girls.
And he offered Martin Chargers a Coke in a tin, and then he said, what can I do if you
were?
And he said, I want you to save the Mapamundi.
And Paul Getty's reply was just a very, very important document, and says the Chair and
I would do anything, let me know what you want.
During the excavation, there was probably 15 or 20 people working, but you've got to
imagine this hall has been quite a problem, because you're talking about a hall that's
going down 10, 12 feet, so we had to have shoring put in on all sides, great beams across
to hold the shoring in place.
Everything you could catch your head on was there, and then you had people dealing with
individual skeletons and buildings, and the whole excavation probably took about six months.
When the Mapamundi was finished, it was an obvious moment to have a great celebration.
So we duly had one, and the Queen was invited to come down, and she did, and she opened
the Mapamundi.
And Paul Getty came down, and his wife came down, and anybody was involved with it.
When the Queen comes anywhere, there is always a big tunnel, quite amazing, and how many
people do come.
And it was a lovely day, and you can really rest assured that if she's coming, everybody's
spirits go up, and everybody turns out, and it's quite amazing how many people do come.
All I remember is that my mum had picked me up, and I was holding out the flowers, and
as she went past, I dropped them, but the Duke of Kent, I think it was, noticed it,
and he came over and asked my mum if he could take me to the Queen, and he just picked me
up, and held my hand to the Queen, where I was very embarrassed and shy, just handed
her the flowers, and she was like, thank you, and I went back to my mum as soon as I could.
I think I was a bit excited, because I knew it was the Queen, but also, as I was so young,
it was a bit scary without my mum being right next to me.
Because we were a cathedral, I remember the occasions when the royalty came here, and
of course, although they were in the cathedral of services, they always were outside to meet
people and have their photographs taken by the west door, particularly when we had our
anniversary of the foundation of the cathedral, 1300 occasion, we rang for that, and the Queen
came down, and it was, she used to, any occasion that was dealing with the cathedral, she used
to try and confuse it on some important occasion for them, so this, of course, was our occasion,
and she came down on morning Thursday and gave out the morning money, and that I remember,
because we rang for it, and I watched the procedure, because we didn't come down, we rang before
and after service, from the gallery, overlooking the Chancellor, so I saw her giving the morning
money out there.
Well, these are pictures of my daughter's wedding when she arrives at the cathedral,
coming out of the clothes.
My daughter got married there to her present husband, her own husband, who's called Ruth
Serbs, and Princess Diana came to that, accompanied by a very young Prince William at the age
of about three, but I think it was the first occasion that he'd ever done anything in
public, just a bite.
It was a private wedding, but there were, because by the time, I probably saw more people
in the clothes on that occasion than I ever subsequently saw, or there yet again, it was
a wet day.
It was a very dark day, but full of light, sort of flashing cameras and things like that,
and it was a very enjoyable occasion.
And people came, all my friends came, from far and wide.
And the car leaving the clothes, and it was a 22-mile journey home.
