The landlord of “The Jolly Miller” at Cottenham absconded, not having paid the staff & Denise & Harriet asked the brewery if they could take it over, who said yes, not appreciating that the brewery supplied but did not own the building. The girls left their cosy little house, spent an enormous amount of elbow-grease making the pub civilised, scrubbing & re-painting. We went up to see in May & they had a child's birthday party on, for which Denise had rented a bouncy castle. Everything seemed fine. Then, the owners of the premises turned up & used various dirty tricks to get them out of the building. Apparently, bad behaviour from pub freeholders is a well-known phenomenon. Homeless & sleeping on floors, it was a while before they found another flat.

We met Ken's sonewhat distant cousin E-J Baldry in the Tate Britain Members Room after she had come up from Chagford on Dartmoor & whom, we rarely see. She was up for the Burne-Jones' show, a bit out of Avis' time-frame but we had a good old catch up before lunch, then went round what is a most impressive gathering of his work, including much from private collectors, meanly labelled 'no photos'. It was fascinating to see so many sketches for familiar work & some early pen-and-ink of amazing detail & precision. Halfway round, Avis was exhausted, so we said farewell & promised to visit Chagford in the Spring.