… as far as the Army and Navy Co-operative store in Victoria, in company with Captain Sturgeon , who is a ticket holder . Billy Sturgeon is a gallant old cock with probably the worst-fitting wig in Europe , made from gypsy hair gathered ( or harvested ) in Spain. He is a gentleman usher of some kind at Windsor and has some very scandalous stories about the Queen’s incurable stinginess – visitors to the Castle lavatories are met with squares of newsprint cut from the Times, etc,etc.

The Army and Navy very crowded, especially the food hall , where I was astonished to find tinned sausages , counted a great delicacy in the more far flung parts of the Empire . Went from there to Rochester Row where Captain Sturgeon’s sister has a house . Every single person in it was drunk. Lydia Sturgeon groped her way about the room, patting people on the head , including the befuddled journalist Morton Stanley , who is of course not American at all, but Welsh. Why everyone should have been so elevated escapes me. Billy Sturgeon greatly shocked.