He proved too hard for Montagu, and drove him so far backward that he fell into a ditch, and dropped his sword, but with honour would take no advantage over him; but did give him his life: and the world says Mr Montagu did carry himself very poorly in the business and hath lost his honour for ever with all people in it, of which I am very glad in the hopes that it will humble him.Hinch’s self-deprecating humour attracted him to that fourth Earl of Sandwich who held the position of First Lord of the Admiralty responsible for the Navy during the American War of Independence. So to my Lord’s [Sandwich] and he is also gone this being a great day at the Council about some business before the king. Here Mr Pierce, the surgeon, told me how Mr Edward Montagu hath lately had a duel with Mr Cholmeley, that is first gentleman usher to the queen, and was a messenger from the king to her in Portugal, and is a fine gentleman; but had received many affronts from Mr Montagu and some unkindness from my lord, upon his score, for which I am sorry. Montagu himself landed the post of Groom of the Bedchamber to James I and, even more lucratively, Master of the Court of Bequest to Charles I. On the Restoration, Montagu came back from living on the Continent and for his loyalty was rewarded with the earldom of Sandwich.Hinch was fond of referring to his relation Samuel Pepys who described another of his relations thus:Sixth of August 1662 by water to White Hall; and so to St James’s; but there found Mr Coventry gone to Hampton Court.

As a result the Tories had lost Dorset South for a couple of years to Labour.Hinch’s family went back to Sidney Montagu, one of those who objected to the “hungrie” Scots who came south to London in 1603 with James VI and I, and were doing well out of the fact that a Scot had mounted the throne of England. At Westminster he had been an independent politician who had not only resigned the Conservative whip for a time and become one of the leading lights of the Suez group; he had also given deep offence by supporting the popular anti-Common-Market Dorset councillor Sir Piers Debenham at the 1962 by-election caused by his own succession to the Sandwich earldom. does the constituency imagine that its organisers ought to be more concerned with the internal social round than with the governance of the nation’s affairs? That would be an unworthy judgement and dangerous for parliamentary democracy.Hinch continued striking hard at the cult of youth which was then becoming fashionable:Does the North Dorset constituency believe that the younger voters give any readier help if the candidate is nearer to their age group? Of course they do not They never have It is mere guesswork to suppose so. Britain’s plight is now so grave that none but the most experienced politicians can hope to bring the nation back to its faith and standing in the world. The political judgement which only comes from long service and maturity of years is needed now at Westminster more than at any time this century. In a sense much larger than personal affront I find myself heartily ashamed that part of a county which I dearly love should, by patterning its views on a passing cult, do so much disservice to the nation in its extremity.The extremity to which he referred was six years of Harold Wilson’s and Roy Jenkins’s government.Of course, the truth was that Hinch suspected, rightly, that his age was not the only factor against him. He received a letter from Captain Burke, Chairman of the North Dorset Conservative Association, telling him that the selection committee “felt that they should select a man who was under 50 – for that reason only I am afraid that your name has not been placed on the shortlist to be interviewed”.The reply was vintage Hinch.I must ask you what is involved in the present decision to define an age limit.

I recorded at that time a Labour-voting teacher telling me: “If Hinch is eccentric, and he is, people here in Dorset feel at least that he is our eccentric.”For the same kind of consideration that the floating, not particularly political, voter of South Dorset respected Hinchingbrooke, the Conservative hierarchy was very cool to him.Thanks to Tony Benn’s epic and successful struggle not to succeed as Viscount Stansgate, Hinch – we can call him no other – divested himself in 1964 of the earldom of Sandwich and desperately wanted to return to the Commons in 1970 for North Dorset as a successor to Sir Richard Glyn, who had been advised by his doctors to retire. The flavour of Hinch’s style and his attitude to the Tory hierarchy can be encapsulated in this passage of arms. He was hoping to be a Labour MP, and he hardly saw himself as the exact replica of the new Earl of Sandwich. “Oh no, it’s not quite like that – I mean,” persisted the comrade, “are you going to fight the authorities for any of us if we need you?” It was a subtle, if unintentional, compliment to Victor Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, by then 10th Earl of Sandwich – and soon by his own desire to go back to being Victor Montagu – but known to all and sundry as “Hinch”.Having expended so much shoe-leather canvassing in those gorgeous summer weeks of 1962, I can testify at first hand how deeply esteemed Hinch was for the way in which he would battle tirelessly for individual constituents if he thought that they had been wronged by the powers that were. Barnett gave a 10-minute spiel on Labour Party policy and then the chairman said: “Any questions for the candidate?” “Well, Comrade Barnett,” in broad Dorset accent, “can we expect that you will be exactly like `Hinch’?”
Barnett demurred. I can personally vouch for the unembellished truth of one such saga.

We were at an early-evening meeting in a small Dorset village, before the candidate was due to proceed to a more important rally in Weymouth. The late Guy Barnett, fleetingly the only Labour MP the county of Dorset has ever had, who later represented Greenwich and was Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of the Environment 1976-79, used to regale his many parliamentary friends with tales of the never-to-be-forgotten by-election for South Dorset in 1962. The group’s pre-tax figure in 1993 of £101.5m included a £60m exceptional gain from the sale of Lex’s remaining stake in Arrow, the US electronics group The dividend jumps 1.5p to 14p.. Last month Lex announced a restructuring of its retail business that slimmed the management team and reorganised dealerships into two regional divisions.Lex made £42m before tax and exceptional items last year, against £38.5m in 1993 on the same basis. New car sales in 1994 were 1.91 million.He added it was unlikely that sales this decade would exceed the last peak of 2.3 million cars, achieved in 1989, and that growth in fleet sales was still outpacing demand from private buyers.The market’s exceptionally strong start last year faded away and ended with a fourth-quarter drop of 1 per cent in sales after a very disappointing August, the key month for new car registrations.Lex said its market was still affected by over-supply and tough competition among car makers although it was pleased with its own position.”In the context of this market our car businesses are performing well and we will see the immediate benefit from the reduction in costs,” the group said.

Sir Trevor forecast the car market would grow just over 2 per cent for the year as a whole, given the current low-inflation recovery. Such stable growth was preferable to a boom/bust cycle.”I think the market for new cars will be 1.95 million this year,” Sir Trevor said. But Sir Trevor Chinn, chairman, cautioned that the surge in sales was likely to run out of steam as it did last year.
The company said sales were at about the same level as in the first quarter last year, when the market was up 17 per cent. We expect to see that investment start paying off.”Although the company reported a profit before tax of £41.2m last year, this included a £14.6m gain on a disposal.. BY JOHN MURRAY

The new car market has got off to a flying start to the year, according to Lex Service, Britain biggest motor dealer, which yesterday reported strong results for 1994. We have invested very substantially in the last few years – £57m in pubs, leisure hotels and buying nursing homes.