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In polite company after dinner, one never asks one's neighbour at the table "Pass the port". The appropriate question to address to him - the ladies have of course withdrawn - is "Do you know the Bishop of Winchester?" which, in those of any breeding, invariably initiates a drift of the decanter in the desired direction. But lest you move in circles where the question may be taken literally, let me tell you about the most meteorological incumbent of that famous see.

In AD836, King Ethelwulf of Wessex, father of the great King Alfred, rewarded his old teacher, Swithin, for his academic tutelage by appointing him Lord Bishop of Winchester, a very influential and rewarding post in those days. Humble to the last, however, Swithin left instructions when he died in 862 that he was to be buried outside his cathedral "in a vile and unworthy place", where water from the eaves might fall upon his grave.