Reference
AU10/102/1/85
Title
Handwritten letter
Date free text
18 December 1957
Production date
From: 1957 To: 1957
Scope and Content
"This is just a short letter along with my Christmas greeting. The Castle in 1870 apparently looked like "one of the ruins that Cromwell's knocked abarht a bit", in the words of the late Marie Lloyd. But I like the man with the telescope and the lady in the crinoline.
My flat has been occupied for the last three weeks by a whistle of workmen who have been re-decorating the bathroom, spare room and kitchen. After various delays and frustrations, I have got them out at last: so now we are ready set for Christmas. I think I told you my two young cousins three times removed - Anne and Christine - are coming down from Yorkshire on Dec. 27th for a week. My two bedrooms are being handed over to them, and I am sleeping in my friend Petrie's flat. Also the two young men who are coming down for the weekend: my lawyer's son, 18, and a young man from Oxford. Needless to say, I am not doing any dinners over the weekend: I have booked a table in the Castle Keep Hotel - that dreadful pink pile you will remember next door! We are holding a Castle Ball on Dec. 28th and there seem to be parties every night. So no one can say we are in for a dull Christmas on our bleak headland! I only hope the weather is better than it has been lately - terrific winds and seas, rain, cold: but today has been a day of sunshine and calm seas.
After Christmas, I have one or two visitors, and then I hope to go off to Cortina in Italy for skiing for most of February. On my return, I shall have to make a decision about my new car, which I have been shelving ever since I have been here. I want a smallish car - a convertible - bur something better than a Morris, or an Austin. My cousin (a motor dealer in Selby) is all for the Hillman Minx Convertible: but it is big, I think. I definitely don't want a sports car - or I should go for an M.G. Unfortunately, I missed the motor show this year, or I should certainly have spotted something there.
I hope your School problems look like being settled before term opens. 146 children is an impossible number. Is this the bulge arriving? - due to the post-war birth rate. You must be very relieved that Aunt Eva is off your hands. I ought to send her a Christmas card. Is she still in Bedford Hospital? I note the Midnight Mass is still a bone of contention. What a pity my successor Waddy started it! I am all with the Rector in what he says in the magazine. I hope your father continues well.
With best wishes to all the family.
Yours sincerely"
Level of description
item