Well, Vaux of Sunderland may think twice in future after running into a spot of bother in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.Now Thirsk is where the late Alf Wight, better known as James Herriot, lived. He set his stories in a town called Darrowby, so Vaux decided it would be a wheeze to rename the Red Bear the Darrowby Inne. Well you do need a dinner jacket to take a decent picture, don’t you?The thirst in ThirskTHE other week I was banging on about the brewers’ habit of changing pub names, usually to something daft. He wanted to go downstairs to play squash with a chum, but the porter wouldn’t let him cross the foyer because he was wearing .. squash kit He had to ring his friend, who sent up his own suit. He put it on over his sports gear, went downstairs and played his match.

The real problem came after the game when the two men had only one suit between them: they had to bribe someone to let them out of a fire exit.Which all goes to show that etiquette and formality are splendid things. He is referred to the lawyers, and is never heard of again.I WAS interested to note that photographers at next week’s big groove rave, the Mansion House Dinner, will have to wear black tie.This reminds me of a story about a man who was refused entry to the RAC Club in Pall Mall because he was inappropriately dressed. Curtain.But there is a footnote: in 1960 a man called Douglas calls at one of the company’s factories and says he has a claim on the firm. The Lawson family, which has just learnt that Charles, the eldest son, has been killed on the Somme, is impoverished Tom sets to and rebuilds the business. He wins the case, which the judge says is “one of the most remarkable that has ever come before a Court of Equity”, but Douglas disappears abroad without paying a bean. Soon after he is arrested to face accusations that he has been embezzling Douglas.

After an eight-day trial he is acquitted, but Douglas keeps pouring abuse on him and also takes money from the business account Lawson then takes Douglas to court, demanding recompense. The year is 1913 and the London Fancy Box Company is jointly owned by Tom Lawson and Sholto Douglas. Relations between the two men have deteriorated, and when the Lawson family receive fish patties that make the family violently ill, Tom Lawson is convinced Douglas is responsible. All that has been proven is that the instrument is unreliable. The next year a heavy package is delivered to the Lawsons’ house: Tom is suspicious and takes it into the garden, where it explodes.Despite this, Lawson and Douglas keep working together until May 1916, when Lawson receives a solicitor’s letter informing him that Douglas is dissolving the partnership. And if you buy a pair of false teeth, it will probably come in a Fancy Box.Now to the melodrama.