No, not something found under a bed in a students’ halls of residence, but ancient Chinese jam tarts, buried as a tribute alongside a nobleman over 1,300 years ago. The decorative tarts (not like the ones shown here, which I have now eaten), are part of a travelling exhibition that opened at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery today. After Bristol the exhibition will travel to museums in Coventry, Basingstoke, Sunderland, and then York, before closing in Manchester in 2011. Jessica Harrison Hall, the curator, noted that they were the oldest known surviving pastries in the world. It made me giggle on the tube into work this morning, especially in these times of financial doom and gloom. I wonder what Mr Kipling would think?