18th May 1942

Monday
Up at 6, got away at 6.30, under a canopy of high, bluey-grey clouds, the air very clear and rain-washed.  Cuckoos everywhere.  Went round the back lanes to Harvey's Farm, Ardleigh, with a repair job for Parrington, and got into Colchester at 20 to eight.  The little cob never seems to tire.

Funeral of Dennis Jeffrey, the jeweller, this afternoon at 2 o’clock.  He was a great friend of Dr. Laver.  I saw a motor hearse and three taxis outside St. Nicholas.  In the whole of the High Street only Jeffrey’s own shop and that of Sach[?] the butcher were closed (it occurred to me later that perhaps he does not open on Monday, having no meat?) and Joslins’ the ironmonger put up black boards.  Until quite recent years all the High Street shopmen closed when a prominent trader died.

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