Reference
AU10/102/1/72
Title
Handwritten letter
Date free text
4 September 1956
Production date
From: 1956 To: 1956
Scope and Content
"Your postcard arrived in time for me to make a point of listening to "Down Your Way" the other night, and I was of course very interested. Your family were certainly much to the fore - what with Andrew as the local historian, and your father and his vintage aeroplane. I think they ought to have included your new dignity (on which I heartily congratulate you) as Serving Sister of the M.V.O. of the H.St.J.J. to bring the family chronicle to date. I hope the "Ampthill News" has a full account of your Investiture when it happens. I was interested in your news about the new occupants of S.Joseph's. If you have a chance, you will have to tell them about its previous occupants: and the fateful PALINGS controversy! I believe you told me they were taken down after the Bartons died.
I am sorry to hear the Roberts are in such a poor way. I saw by the way the announcement in the Telegraph of the engagement of Miss Sheila Syme, to a Canon of Guildford Cathedral, I think. Perhaps you saw it.
I went to see poor Florence Eagles last week. She is 90 on Friday! She seemed very well, sitting in a chair with her feet up on a stool, but she had not the slightest idea who I was: nor can she say a single sentence. She has in fact become like a baby. She chuckles and gurgles, and when I placed a bunch of carnations on her lap, she began to pull them to pieces: so I had to remove them! There was no kind of conversation, of course: she cannot understand anything one says. It is all terribly sad. But I think she will go on for some time, as she has every comfort and attention, and she seems happy in her senility. Let's hope Mrs.Roberts does not go the same way. But in any case it does not seem he will be much help to the Rector.
This wretched summer continues its wet and dreary course. I feel very sorry for the people down on the beaches trying to make the best of it. I have hardly been in the sea more than four times. Last year we bathed every day for weeks on end. But I have had plenty of visitors, and they still come. I have been doing duty for two clergymen near by, and still have another Sunday for my friend at Walmer. On these occasions I leave my visitors here to fend for themselves!
I am expecting Kenneth Akin again for the weekend of Sept.15-16th. It's a pity it's too far from Ampthill for a day: or I should have suggested your coming over. If you were staying in London for a night, you could manage it, as there is a fairly good train service from Victoria. You must see what you can do.
Several of my friends have been abroad, and all tell the same tale of atrocious weather. Sydney Crouch (whom I daresay you remember) came two weeks ago, parked his car in my garage, was called for here by his friend Colin Dunlop, Dean of Lincoln, in his car, and they went down to Dover (only an hour by car from here) and over to Germany, and met storms, trees across roads, and other adventures. They arrived back here on Monday, and I had dinner ready for them, and put them up for the night.
I still have no car. Like Andrew, I don't really enjoy driving, and the increasing number of accidents makes me less and less inclined to start again. Nearly everyone I know seems to have been involved in an accident of some kind. My friend Richard Hughes (Vicar of S.John's, Bovey Tracey in Devon) who is certainly one of the most experienced drivers I know had an accident last January. His old mother, over 90, was in the car with him, and she was killed, though Richard himself was unhurt. It has shaken him considerably, poor fellow! Even a bike has it's dangers. I ran into the side of a passing car just outside the castle gates last year, and might have done for myself: but beyond bruises I was all right. Actually I do not feel the need of a car, as I stay put here when I am here, and walk into B'stairs or Margate. I should never take a car to London anyway: and when I go to France, I don't need one. And yet I bought one of the garages here! Why, I can't imagine!
I hear the rain pattering on the window-panes again (it is 11.15p.m.).
Yours sincerely"
Level of description
item