Jottings
TREVOR GROVE
Hadrian in the Orient Candida Lycett Green and Christopher Thynne (Collins lOs 6d)
SATURDAY—SUNDAY
I spent the weekend quietly in Wiltshire with some young friends of mine—Horace and Hester Hedgehog. Readers of this diary will recall that their wedding last year was one of the brightest events of the season. (Hester tells me they `spent their hone- moon/Playing golf and going fishing/From a quiet hotel in Troon'.) As a few chosen friends may know, the Hedgehogs ha‘e just returned from a most tremendously exciting adventure in India, and after a delicious dinner—the pMce de resistance was a rather divine garnished beech-nut soufflé—Horace and his gay young friend Sir Wilfred Weasel, who accompanied the daring couple on the expedition, were kind enough to tell me about their experiences ..• They set off by British Eagle—ser) properly, I thought, as it remained one of our few surviving independent airlines and the eagles were so very handsome-looking Sir Wilfred, whose lovely bride. 1-adF Wilhelmina, happened to be out of the room reminded us in a jovial aside that :
The British Eagle hostesses Were very glamorous mice In mini skirts of gaberdine To comfort and entice.
But dear oh dear, the heat when [lief arrived there must have been quite stupen-
donr, soignd Sir Wilfred, of course, had come well prepared .. .
With a special hat from 'Blades', Made of some new material Which never shrinks or fades. So here they were in Delhi Awed by the banyan trees, Stunned by the perfect sunlight, Weak at their English knees.
Too numerous to relate their adventures on the long and dangerous way to Agra— an opportune meeting with the celebrated guru Mousarishi and his acolyte C. . . a beetle decked with bells/Who turned out to be English/From the see of Bath and WeW); 4nd the delicate matter of Hester's kidnapping by the notorious local potentate, King Cobra. But I'm glad to say everything turned out extraordinarily pleasantly, despite some prickly moments for Hadrian. And I must add that for anyone in search of a distinctly prosperous-looking tan, a rare shrub or two for the estate and an immacu- late Indian mongoose for a servant, India is obviously the place to find them . . .
Sir Wilfred drove me back up to London in his skate on Sunday evening: we dined a deux at a- rather dashing little place that's just opened nearby, La Pciubelle Farcie.
Oh, and by the way, an amusing record of the Hedgehogs' journey is now in circulation, delightfully written, not so delightfully illustrated, but an absolute must when you next pop in to Harrods.
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