AU34/21/7/16/38

Letter from R P S Waddy

13 November 1989

From: 1989 To: 1989

A typewritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) to Honora Grimmer, on headed paper from his home at Manormead, Hindhead, Surrey: "Dear Nora, Thank you for another Church and Town, and for your letter. Last month's was particularly interesting because of the rector's writing about baptisms; it needed saying. I was horrified by an earlier attack on the Bishop of Durham (an old friend of mine) which compared him with the devil. It sounds as if life isn't always a smooth ride for him. It is Stacy's birthday, and this weekend she acquired 18 Exmoor sheep and a Suffolk ram - bought in an auction sale at Taunton (I never had to bid at a sheep auction!) I am going down to Dorset next weekend, because Havana is acting in her play and I want to see her. I expect I told you that it is a Chech play - I can never remember how to spell that! - and she is the lover of a philosopher gone mad. It has not made it any easier that he, the actor, broke his leg and is on crutches ... but he hopes to manage with a stick on The Night. What goings on indeed!! Christopher is a financial adviser and has just achieved a seven-year plan to build an estate in S.E. Spain; so that will keep him busy - and buoyant - for the present. Just as well with the three children at boarding school. Drusilla is at Benenden, with A Levels 18 months ahead; Daniel goes to Charterhouse next September, and Jocelyn should follow him there two years later. I hope to stay with them after Christmas (in Dorset). Once more, the doctor has passed me for a safe driver; but at least its parts can be replaced, as mine can't! So I hope to drive myself to stay with them. I had great fun looking through the stock of a stationer in Haslemere for a birthday card for Stacy which included a sheep. There were of course lots and lots of cats and dogs, and an owl and even a splendid hare - I had the whole shop staff hunting, and at last they found one in the attic store, a very Victorian five-bar gate with two children leaning over it, a handsome maytree, and (there in the distance) a few sheep. Cheers all round - by that time everyone in the shop had joined in! It is one of the pleasing features of life that most shop assistants are helpful to the ancient. It pleased me less when, on the way home, my clutch disintegrated, and I had a mile to walk to summon the AA. But I managed it! Just 42 years since we moved into the White Hart for the Queen's wedding and my institution. I can still manage to tidy the library shelves and arrange the chapel services. We have been reading Ecclesiastes at evensong; itself the reflection of a retired clergyman! But life is not yet all Vanity of Vanities. I went back for a weekend to my old school, Queen Anne's, Caversham, Reading, where I was chaplain 20 years ago. I enjoyed preaching to this generation - on School Reports and the Unjust Steward - and at least they listened. There is a delightful report in Selwyn Lloyd's Life, from a Sedburgh housemaster: 'Dull, Plodding, Platitudinous - will make a good parent!' I quoted that, and the 50 or so parents took it well. Growing old is indeed no fun - I am sorry that it brings so much ache and pain. Ecclesiastes 12 is all too true. Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy"

item

Grimmer, Honora Patricia Annie,
Waddy, Richard Patteson Stacy,
Jenkins, David,
Marking, Stacy,
Marking, Havana,
Waddy, Christopher,
Waddy, Drusilla,
Waddy, Daniel,
Waddy, Jocelyn,
Lloyd, Selwyn

CORRESPONDENCE, parish magazines, chaplain, Bishop, birthdays, sheep, plays, financier, property developer, schools, boarding schools, boarding schools, driving licence, greeting cards, Ampthill White Hart Hotel, church services, preaching, , AMPTHILL, Hindhead, Guildford, Surrey, Durham, Dorset, Spain, Caversham