Years ago, many years many years ago, I worked in Inverness with an old English fellah called Tom. He’d had both legs amputated below the knee and got around with the aid of a grotty old brown National Health Service walking stick. I knew that he often took a short-cut home along an alley which was notorious for muggings. I asked him if he felt safe doing that. And that’s when I discovered that grotty old stick had a secret. I don’t think National Health Service sticks usually contain a rapier-like Wilkinson Sword blade. Tom told me it was a British Officers’ sword stick. I’ve often wondered what happened to it after he died. Did the folks that cleared his house know what it was or did it end up being thrown out?