Strawberries

It was Sydney Smith who asked What is real piety? What is true attachment to the church? How are fine feelings best evinced? The answer is plain - by sending strawberries to a clergyman. The joke is enhanced by comparing the remark to James 1:27

My mother has a story about strawberries. Roy Sinker (BF 1922) was Archdeacon of Stow in the diocese of Lincoln when he and his wife came to the clergy wives' meeting which Mother was hosting. She was nursing me and when I yelled for a feed she was ushered away by the Archdeacon's wife, who also took her strawberries away with the remark that they are no good for the baby's milk.

In reparation I almost always had strawberries on my birthday. When I was 18 my parents brought strawberries and cream up to school and we ate them in my study. I am not sure if I will get any strawberries tomorrow, but of course that is not the point - I ought to send some to Mother.