An Evening at Dillington House

Dillington House near Ilminster, exactly as it looked this evening when Good King Hal left. Except it was night time. To achieve this effect look at this picture with your eyes closed or turn the lights off.

From one of my many appearances at Barrington Court, a fine upstanding chap by the name of Ben Lankester managed to get my details and had booked me for the show I did this evening. Ben is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon (I think) and had organised a big day meeting at Dillington House near Ilminster for lots of other orthopaedic consultant-type people. This culminated in a lavish dinner this evening with me as the guest speaker. I arrived and was immediately told by a man sitting on a chair in the lobby that they had been expecting me. This all sounded a bit James Bond for me, so I checked under the carpet for any shark tanks, but there weren't any.

I got changed in one of the very plush upstairs cloak rooms in Dillington House and then made my way downstairs. I met Ben in the garden on the terrace - a really nice chap. I met his wife and various of his colleagues, and was soon requested to call the guests in for dinner. We were in one of the smaller downstairs dining rooms in the main house, the roof above us was beautifully decorated with bosses and Tudor roses. The main meal was delicious, starting with a choice of either leek and tarragon soup or smoked gravlax - I went for the soup which was absolutely gorgeous. Next up it was trout or chicken supreme - chicken won for me (not a very fishy King I'm afraid). Finally it was blackberry cheesecake to finish off. Wow, this was good stuff. Surely nothing could spoil it - oh blimey hang on, I've got to do a talk now! I launched into my Henry routine and...it went brilliantly! They were a fabulous audience and really joined in and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole thing. When I finished they even kept the applause going till I stood up for a "curtain call" so to speak! Really gratifying! Ben Lankester thanked me profusely and soon I was out of the boiling costume, in my civvies and on my way home. It was a lovely, lovely evening and thoroughly enjoyable. And there was no huge shark tank or bald headed lunatic in a grey suit stroking a white cat while plotting damnation and total world destruction. No, he was appearing at Montacute House this evening.