Testing the eagle

Page 74

Articles THE EAGLE

One week later, Judy and I left Cambridge for Leicester, by train this time, she for a few days holiday and I with her, on my way home to Wigan for the Christmas vacation. Neither of us had ever tasted the port since it was far too expensive for the wine cupboard of a mere student, and so we were really looking forward to a sampling. When we arrived, Freck greeted us with a wide grin and told us again that he really had appreciated the gift, had spent the week having a daily glass after his supper, and had finished it off the previous evening. He hoped that maybe we’d bring another some time! I never really forgave him for that. T Brian Robinson

www.joh.cam.ac.uk Page 73

ARTICLES

the bottle. It also came with a warning to transport carefully and ‘under no circumstance disturb the crust, which would ruin the wine.’ In order to get the bottle to Leicester, we managed to borrow ‘Antigone’, a Cambridge blue Austin A30, from its owner [a student at Girton College], and carefully set the bottle on the rear seat, encased on a mountain of cushions! The journey to Leicester and back was a one night weekend event, with Alan Nisbet (1951) driving since neither Judy nor I had a driver’s licence. It was taken at a very gentle pace, on relatively minor roads and so was accomplished without causing too much anguish for drivers who were obliged to follow us at discreet speed and distance until the rare passing opportunities would occur. The bottle and its contents arrived safely and the port was then decanted carefully into another bottle and delivered into Freck’s hands, much to his delight and appreciation of his future son-in-law’s thoughtfulness. In other words, it worked!


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