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The Cardiff & County Club's ram's horn snuff mull -
With the Master of the Welsh Livery and a bottle of Chateau Meaume
Making use of August
24th August 2026Various places including the Cardiff & County Club
As any Past Master will tell you, becoming Master of a Livery Company suddenly provides you with a whole new group of wonderful friends that you never knew you either wanted or needed! It is one of the unexpected pleasures of the year.
I’m particularly lucky this year that so many of the Masters are women — around 25 per cent of the total (although it varies from month to month). Apart from making for a good deal of fun and camaraderie, it also provides an opportunity to compare notes on everything from the practicalities of leading a Company effectively for one short year to more mysterious questions about dress and etiquette!
Although there is always much Company admin to do, August is a relatively quiet month in the Livery calendar, and so it’s a welcome opportunity to meet some of my fellow Masters one-to-one. I’ve had enjoyable meetings with the Master of the Chartered Secretaries on home turf and, separately, with the Master of the Welsh Livery across the Severn Bridge. There is something very different about sitting down over lunch and having a proper conversation, rather than trying to exchange views in the few minutes between arriving for a Livery dinner and being gavelled in to dine. It is always fascinating — and reassuring — to discover that, whatever the size or character of the Company, many of us are grappling with remarkably similar issues.
It was particularly gratifying to discover that our Liveryman Mark Johnson-Hill’s famous Chateau Meaume is on sale at the venerable Cardiff & County Club. I sang its praises loudly within earshot of members and bar staff. However, I discovered that the Club’s ram’s-head snuff mull contained a quantity of rather elderly snuff, so I passed on the information about where to obtain a new supply. Apparently, it is very popular with the members.
You’re never far from a Livery connection, wherever you go. So there we have it: Livery networking and snuff procurement — all in the course of one lunch!
This Bank Holiday weekend it's the Master Architect's wedding in St Lawrence Jewry: a big Livery event that kicks off the September calendar which is already crammed with meetings and events, so our relatively peaceful August will soon seem a distant memory.