Extract from a letter to me in July 1960:

“During the course of Wednesday afternoon people in Princes Street Gardens saw a young man carrying a gas lamp in a westerly direction. It seems he had read in a newspaper of the sale of 70 of these to an American Museum village and had nipped round to the corporation’s lighting & cleansing department to purchase one for himself. These rather quaint objects are apparently made of sheet copper and will when cleaned shine brightly. But until such time as he can strip 20 years of paintwork off it the lantern stands in his room.”

After we were married John cleaned the lamp and it formed a cheerful decoration our first Christmas in Well Court.