I will be conducting a portrait tour of the Ladies of Lydiard at Lydiard House on Saturday, January 23, at 2.30pm. as part of the Behind Closed Doors programme of events. All the events are free but you do need to book. Phone Charlotte Thwaites on 01793 465277 or email CThwaites@swindon.gov.uk. We might even take a passing glance at John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, died on July 26, 1680, aged 33 years old. It had been, how can I put it, an eventful life. The son of Anne St John and her second husband Royalist hero Henry, Viscount Wilmot, John was a bit of an embarrassment to his mother. It wasn't just the lewd poems or the bawdy plays, his dismissal from court or the drinking and whoring that upset her. It wasn't even the attempted abduction of his future, fabulously rich heiress, wife to be Elizabeth Malet that made her raise her eyebrows. Well actually it was, but what really upset her was that he...