In one of my morose moments, I was contemplating the idea of war. Our recent wars have been mishandled, to be sure, by our Politicians. Our politicians are not always to blame. During the Napoleonic wars, the British were so short of good commanders that they invested their trust in Sir William Erskine. On hearing of Erskine’s promotion to command, the Duke of Wellington wrote to the war office saying that Erskine ‘was insane’. This was fair comment, as Erskine had been committed to an asylum - twice! If that was not enough, he was virtually blind. In one of his first battles he was put in charge of a force of cavalry and light infantry. Unable to see the enemy, he ordered his troops to charge in completely wrong direction, allowing the French to avoid a crushing defeat. This strange man died after jumping out of a window in Lisbon. His last word’s were ‘Why on earth did I do that’.

I went lawn bowling with old ‘nobbin’ Williams the other day. It made me think; who did invent the beautiful game of lawn bowls. Apparently, the game was probably invented in Russia in the 12th century. Their game, however, involved earthen wear bowls thrown at a fireplace. It would be a few hundred years before the idea of balls came into the game.