Pricking

My light relief this week was a dip into our country’s history, during an audience with the Queen, to witness the ‘pricking’ the list of high sheriffs of the Duchy of Lancaster. The practice is believed to date back to the reign of Elizabeth I, when, lacking a pen, she decided to use her bodkin to mark the name on the lists presented. You can read more about it here. We should make more of these traditions I think. It’s these links to the past that a lot of us treasure about these isles.