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throughout my period in office; he was quite useful at times, and always very interesting. In return, we arranged a few discrete meetings for him over the years with Prominent Persons; including, amusingly, the future Frederick the Great - who we did give a British education to.
     
    Whilst all this was going on, we were making the traditional UK mess of Anglo-Irish relations. I suppose it was inevitable, and to be honest I’m not sure quite how I would have handled it if I had been in charge. I think the approach was probably wrong, but I suspect the bilious response of the powers-that-be in the Kingdom of Ireland would have been just as awkward and obnoxious under any feasible approach. There were some sensible chaps around, but they needed a certain amount of time to accept the new reality and take in the consequences of the Dislocation. Speaking as a Catholic, it would have probably been best if we hadn’t tried to be so even-handed and modern about things, cut the talks to the very much bewildered trans-Irish RC hierarchy out and removed the cis-Irish who resided in Britain from the equation. With that, we could have moved onwards in a very similar way to what we did, but possibly gaining the trust of those in power first. As it was, we were on another sticky wicket; if it hadn’t have been for the cupidity of James Edward Stuart, heaven knows how long the Hibernian mess would have taken to sort out.
     
    As it was, we had had an Irish Accession council meet and proclaim the succession of Frederick Lewis as the rightful King of Ireland, which was somewhat awkward to say the least. However, the stories that the Queen gave the Prime Minister what we call “an interview without chair” are somewhat fanciful. Like the rest of us, the Queen fully understood that Frederick of Hannover was legally the heir to Ireland and that our ventures had been based on not getting an Accession council until after he had decided to stand down and the new Act of Succession also passed in Ireland.
     
    Of course, with the Dislocated Persons Act being passed, something could now be done with Adrian’s flat. I had expected not to be involved, but Rachel contacted me over the last weekend of March to ask if I could help. She came up to town, and we discussed what to do and how to arrange the trust. Luckily I did know a few competent lawyers and suggested one to her; we went to see him on the Tuesday, and he dealt with everything very well. Of course, it was all quite complex and determined by various matters such as the will. I wasn’t even sure if Adrian had a will; I knew I hadn’t made one - something I rectified a couple of years later. It turned out he had - and, quite surprisingly, he had made certain provisions for me. However, as none of the beneficiaries were considered to be either destitute or dependant, and as the estate was valued at over £40,000 [40] , the will did not directly come into force; nor could it for seven years. Essentially, a trust was set up where the assets would be preserved, but property could be let and investments could be made; reasonable expenses could be charged against the trust. There was a lot of rules about how much could be charged and what investments could be made, which created a few badly needed jobs for financial people and more work for lawyers. Considering the rush of drafting, it was sound law and pretty much stood up to various judicial tests - of which there were plenty. As my share was the flat and contents, it allowed me to let the flat, which I did through an agency, pay the lease and ground rent and the expenses of letting, and sell some of the contents, whilst the rest of the income from it went into an account. I let the place fairly quickly, partly from a fear of squatters and partly because otherwise I was paying for everything involved with it; but I took a much longer time dealing with the contents, some of which remained in store for a very long time.
     
    One of the things I