Another Bowl of Norwich Porridge: Duff and Diana Cooper

Since the first post about these elegant fowl was so popular, here is another one about Duff and Diana Cooper. Above, they were photographed in August 1952, at the wedding of their only son, diplomat, broadcaster and historian, John Julius Norwich to Anne Clifford. Apart from managers of bankers Coutts & Co (who continued to wear frock coats in the office until the drooling, rabbid, dogs of 'modern Britain' recently engaged their poisonous fangs a little deeper), maybe Duff was one of the last men in England unselfconsciously to wear a real frock coat and here it is perfectly carried off with cashmere striped trousers, a stiff shirt collar, white vest, shining topper, galosh-topped boots and chamois gloves. A gardenia in the buttonhole would have been better than the pocket handkerchief and I know, from a better print of the photograph, that he is carrying a crooked partridge cane (of the family Palmae).