Reference
AU10/102/1/56
Title
Handwritten letter
Date free text
23 July 1953
Production date
From: 1953 To: 1953
Scope and Content
"I am having a good "write-up" to my friends before setting off next week in a yacht with three friends from Poole Harbour, where the aforesaid yacht has been moved, with scores of others, for the past few weeks, waiting for the rough weather to abate! The owner of the yacht lives in Jersey, and the first plan was that I should fly out and join it there: but as he has not ventured to take it over, it seems we shall all start from this side. However, it is a very fine and trustworthy vessel, (I have had trips in it before), and both my host and the other two are experienced yachtsmen, and ex-Naval officers into the bargain, so we ought to avoid a watery grave!
We hope to be aboard for several weeks, and hug the coast round into the Mediterannean, and do a leisurely cruise along the Riviera to Sicily. At any rate, we shall find some sunshine, which has become a very rare thing in England! Did you ever know such a miserable summer? The rain is bad enough, but I never knew so much wind! It all began on Coronation Day. I had two friends here to join us at the TV. Poor old Miss Florence was in a big muddle about it all. She evidently got it all mixed up with the funeral of George VI, the last royal even she saw on TV. So she was asking when the coffin was coming! But it is an indication of the state of her mind now! It is a great tragedy, for physically she wears wonderfully well.
I avoided Central London as much as possible during the Coronation period, as the crowds were appalling. Traffic came to a complete standstill for long periods, and it was most trying getting about. My American cousins were here for three weeks, and they stayed, on my advice, at the Richmond Hill Hotel, just round the corner, so they were able to breathe. I had a busy time with them, though they had all been to England before, so they knew their way about. But I drove them to Oxford one day, where they had not been. Of course, it rained most of the time!
I drove up to Yorkshire at the end of last month, and returned last Friday. I left the Lanchester up there in the hands of a man I know well who has a big garage in Selby, and he is going to sell it for me. Actually I have so little use for a car in England, as I am always coming and going in other ways, that it is not worth the tax and insurance. Also it has always been an unsatisfactory car. Poor Di! I always think of her whenever I drive it.
Ampthill seems to be very quiet nowadays. I see the Ampthill News occasionally. It still comes every week. But there is nothing in it! I think it needs some of those spicy bits I used to put in the magazine and which the A.N. used to quote almost every month!
With kind remembrances to you all.
Your sincerely"
Level of description
item