Everyone was busy during the morning getting the lunch ready. Robert Leiper got up late and had his breakfast alone in the Dining Room. He then came to stand in the Outer Kitchen while I helped do the washing up, expressing surprise at the amount of food being prepared.
He gave me a present (unwrapped) of two eighteenth-century engravings he had bought at Christies in New York. They were magnificent steel engravings, mounted and in plain varnished frames. The subjects were two medieval towers in a neighbouring county (one was a church tower, the other was a castle fortification).
Above: Robert Leiper also gave me some very expensive French wine which he brought over from New York in a Kenneth Cole bag.
At noon we began to drink Champagne, and Robert Leiper changed into a Banana Republic blue mohair suit. At one o’clock we had lunch of roast turkey, Brussels sprouts (from a stalk chucked over the fence by the farmer), roast potatos, roasted parsnips with black pepper, chestnut stuffing, sausagemeat, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy. Then a homemade Christmas pudding, round in shape, which we had with brandy butter and a glass of sauternes (Robert Leiper was fascinated by the pudding which is not common in America - they have pumpkin pie).
Above: Brussels sprouts (from a stalk chucked over the fence by the farmer).
The meal lasted until three o’clock when we took our drinks into the Sitting Room. The Queen’s Speech came on and Robert Leiper stood up for the (British) National Anthem, the only person in the room to do so. Her Majesty talked about family life.
Most of the afternoon I spent talking and reading. At one point I must have dropped off for about an hour. Later Robert and I took the dog for a walk as far as The Grange, a distance of about half a mile. No-one else was about. Robert talked about the band he had been in last year and the attempt to generate interest via MySpace. The enterprise had been a complete failure.
Back at the house tea was ready – including cold turkey, ham, bread and butter, Gala pie, savoury biscuits, chocolate biscuits, Brussels pate, cheeses (eight kinds, including a large Stilton), Tunis cake, Christmas cake. The meal was interrupted by telephone calls from friends and relations (including calls Robert Leiper made to his family in San Diego) so that we were not finished until past 11pm. This did not mar the meal in any way – it was the sort of meal that benefited from being drawn out.
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