Why Sir Humphrey haunts the visitor’s car park, and the dangers of the Crafty Dog Christmas pudding!
It was Major Humphrey who held Crafty-Dog Towers when it was besieged by a Parliamentarian army led by Cromwell, who was assisted by Colonel Peregrine Crafty-Dog, Humphrey’s younger brother who took the side of Parliament during the war. It was Peregrine who caught Lord Humphrey trying to escape down a secret passageway from the Chapel out into the lower meadows (under the sundial). The tunnel is said to still exist though despite Pendle and Grout searching we can find no signs of it. Humphrey was taken to London and suffered the same fate as Charles I. He is now one of the ghosts of Crafty Dog Towers, and wanders where the east wing used to stand before being demolished by Cromwell and Sir Peregrine to make the towers less of a military structure. Peregrine succeeded to the title in place of his brother. Yes, Sir Humphrey now haunts the visitor’s car park, around the recycling bins, searching for that tunnel to escape down. Or maybe he’s still searching for his head? Sometimes he’s seen with it, sometimes not. Anyway, less of the spirits, back to the pudding.
Christmas Pudding used to be a spiced plum and dried fruit pudding which it still is to some extent. Once again there is, a large (some would say inordinately) amount of alcohol in which the dried fruit is soaked, but instead of the minced meat of the seventeenth century we use a fine fruit mincemeat. Then there is the florin. Sir Humphrey began the custom of adding a silver florin to the pudding, and whosoever found it would have a week’s leave and transport paid for them to go home and return. Not an issue when staff came from the next village or so, but it became a problem in the last century when Cuthbert St .John Crafty-Dog liked to hire governess’s for his children from France or Germany. Rents on the estate’s cottages had to go up just to pay for the tradition, which means it wasn’t popular. Cook today substitutes a florin with a £2 coin, and we are very careful when chewing since the accident when Cook swallowed it and it took four of us to wrestle her to the floor and administer the Heimlich manoeuvre. And even then it shot across the room and nearly killed the Under Footman – it missed his left ear by a few inches. Hit him straight between the eyes and knocked him clean out.
After lunch, if we have survived lunch, and it’s dry, we take a tour of the grounds, albeit the ones nearer the house, so we can retreat to the warm if required. The greenhouses are looking good at the moment as Grout is growing lovely orchids, heated by his spirit stove. It’s a remarkable contraption, all gleaming copper pipes, fed by a large copper tank. It has a bit of a leak it would appear, so Grout keeps an old gin bottle under it to collect the drips. I have suggested I get the local plumber to sort it out but he keeps insisting that it’s no bother. What a considerate chap old Grout is. He even keeps a supply of empty bottles in case the leak gets too severe. Considerate, and thoughtful.