Friday, 14 December 2007

A full day at Watford for once. I set up annual review meetings with each of the WCVS staff, met with the Connexions PAs, had some discussions about volunteering and IT and training, and focused a bit better on HIC’s Development Planning.

Jackie was at the Hitchin Priory for her Office Xmas Dinner. She had rejected the Xmas dinner in favour of Dry Salted Cod on a bed of something or other with a white wine sauce. But she was served a Christmas dinner complete with roast potatoes and brussel sprouts; the only difference was that the Turkey had been removed and a portion of cod substituted. Yuck.

I’d have expected better from the Hitchin Priory which dates from the fourteenth century and was held by the Radcliffe family from the dissolution until the twentieth century.

I know this because I spent the evening finishing An Open Elite? England 1540 – 1880 by Lawrence and Jeanne Stone. This is based on some very good research and explores the proposition that England's relatively peaceful transition to modernity was possible because England had a relatively open ruling class. The authors make some interesting points and the research is extremely impressive, being based on detailed analyses of country estates in Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Northumberland. But they seem to miss a trick in assuming that the "ruling elite" comprises only the owners of large landed estates.