13 JANUARY 1973, Page 5

Virtue denied

Familiar loyalty can be an excellent virtue. It is often denied. I recall how disappointed I was when Randolph Churchill's beautiful, and much-loved house at East Bergholt, where he worked on the early volumes of his great uncompleted life of his father, was sold after his untimely death. I sometimes pass by its gates. It has become a garden centre, an open-air shop.