AU10/102/1/35

Handwritten letter on headed paper from: "Stella Bella", Promenade George V., Menton., Tel.304.47."

16 July 1949

From: 1949 To: 1949

"Your letter - and poststamps - were awaiting me here on my return from a short trip into Italy in the Fiat with a friend whose great interest in life is sculpture, and who wanted to see the Michaelangelos in Florence. We had intended going on to Siena and Assisi, and possibly to Rome, but the broiling heat of Florence (after ten days of hard sightseeing) drove us back here to the sea, where we are gradually cooling off. I hope this finds you before you go into the hursing home on the 19th and brings my best wishes for a successful operation and speedy recovery. You will be glad to get it over. No, I can assure you that neither Muriel Seabrooke, and certainly not Miss Davies, are coming here at my invitation! In first, no one from Ampthill writes to me except Sir Anthony, yourself and (oddly enough) Mr. Valder. I hear from Kenneth Akin from time to time, but of course he is now at Arlesey. I believe the Miss E's write to Miss Ira Smith. They get the Ampthill News and the magazine from her. My friend Frank Jackson, in Bedford, is due here soon. I don't think you ever knew him. We used to go to winter sports together. Otherwise, all my other friends are miles away from Ampthill. Percy Gill and I were never intimate friends. We always got on well, but there it ended. Somehow, I never made any close friends apart from Sir Anthony, during my years at Ampthill. But after all, who was there? It's odd, because everywhere else I have lived, or visited, I have usually made a close friend, or even more than one. But all my 14 years in Ampthill have just left Sir A. and you, and old Valder stranded with me, as it were on the rocks after the tide has receded (I hope you feel flattered by the company!). No, I didn't know your old uncle had died. What a clean out in your district there has been of recent years! Miss Eagles by the way in her letter to me yesterday says that Mrs. Macklin has at last run them to earth, and rang up to ask if she could go and see them, where I was, what I was doing, and so forth. Miss Diana told her I was abroad and advised her to wait until I return and ring up again. She is one of the last people any of us want to see. Such a silly, empty-headed woman. does Mrs. Richardson still go and stay with her in London? A queer lot! Valder says Pamela Henson is seriously ill in an Oxford hospital, that the Rector refused to marry her to a German ex-prisoner, so they went off to the Chapel. I don't see how he could refuse if other conditions were satisfied. However, Valder gets some queer notions. How far away it all seems now, and yet it is less than two years! All good wishes to you. I expect your cadets will be coming to see you, while you are laid up. Yours sincerely,"

letter headed paper

item

Hillam, John George,
Grimmer, Honora,
Eagles, Diana,
Eagles, Florence,
Seabrook, Muriel,
Davies,
Wingfield, Anthony,
Valder,
Akin, Kenneth,
Smith, Ira,
Jackson, Frank,
Gill, Percy

letters, manuscript, travel, Ampthill News, weather, sculpture, France, AMPTHILL, Richmond, Italy, Florence, BEDFORD