Shrieval Lunch at Stationer's Hall
24th June 2016The elections done with (they weren't heavily contested!) we trooped off to our various allotted Halls for lunch. We were, as last year, at Stationer's, a Hall we know well as we also store our Company's treasures in its vault. They have a most agreeable courtyard and so I was able to enjoy a small cigar with some very welcome chilled white wine - the horrors of the previous day's floods but a distant memory. I was accompanied by our Senior Warden, Ralph Edmondson, and Liveryman Fran Morrison, but found plenty of friends already arrived, notably Past Master Framework Knitter Linda Smith who was part of a large contingent from that Company. Proceeding to to the dining Hall, the Master Stationer, Helen Esmonde, made an amusing welcoming speech in which she said that, despite Brexit, we're British and can make the best of any situation, a sentiment that was also shared in an excellent grace and applauded by the Room. A fine lunch of marinated salmon; duck; and tart with sorbet followed and was washed down with an excellent group of wines before the newly installed Master Cooper rose to thank the Stationers for their welcome and hospitality. Mindful of our Clerk's absent but watchful eye, Ralph and I then broke free and hot-footed back to Guildhall Yard for the Raising of the Flag...