chervil, lost to history, pockets

"It is good for old people, " says the seventeenth century herbalist, Gerard: "it rejoiceth and comforteth the heart and increaseth their strength." I grow it whenever I can. With a flavour, suggestive of anise or liquorice, but milder, when it is chopped with parsley, tarragon and chives, it makes a good omelette aux fines herbes. Its use as a herb is more common in France, where it is called cerfeuil, than it is in England.

I am reminded of a recent discussion here about diaries and manuscripts destroyed, when I read in this morning's Financial Times a review of a biography of Madame de Maintenon entitled the Secret Wife of Louis XIV. Apparently she burnt her 60,000 letters including those from the King, because , she wrote: "We should leave as little of ourselves behind as we can."

Pockets are important to me. I like to have my hands free for taking photographs or notes. Hence my fondness for fishing jackets. One, which I possess has a broad pocket horizontally arranged above the lower part of the back. Today, it makes a suitable respectacle for a newpaper, and I proceed home across the Grove, ready for the unexpected.