Scope and Content
"Thanet 63256." added to top of letter.
"Ever since I returned from Spain three weeks ago, I have been immersed in entertaining a string of guests. As I am going to be away most of August and September, I have had to squash everybody into this month - mostly long weekends of course - so it has been a very busy time. Now i have until Sunday free, so I am catching up on correspondence. Your letter and the Beds. Mag. were awaiting me here on my return. You will be looking forward to the end of term this week, I expect. We like this hot weather, and want it to go on as long as possible, but it does make one tired, and I find I don't sleep so well as usual. However, we are having a really wonderful summer, and I am burnt nearly black!
I enjoyed every moment of my holiday in Spain. It was an organised tour we went on - the first I have ever taken. All my friend Dick Hughes and I wanted was to be lifted from place to place, to see the cathedrals etc. So we booked with WINGS Ltd. who are supposed to be the very best people in the touring business: they run their own aeroplanes, 'buses etc. They are connected with the Wayfarer's Association, and I must say we had every comfort everywhere. We flew to Madrid from London, and back again. The rest of the party were very agreeable people, with a nice balance of male and female. Dick and I had a private bathroom attached to our bedroom at every stop, and this was a great boon, as we could take a shower whenever we felt like it. I think we all had touches of diarrhoea in various degrees, but in may case it was not due to olive oil, since they apparently temper the oil to the English lamb now and don't cook much in it, but to the two enormous meals we had each day, with the bottles of wine we consumed. I am accustomed to a very light diet here, but one could not resist those menus, and sightseeing does seem to make one hungry!
The heat was not as severe as I expected: but I should not like to go to Spain any later in the year than we did. It must be terrible in August. I saw in the Sunday Times last Sunday that the temperature in Seville was 105! It was 80 when we were there, which was quite bearable.
There was, by the way, a young married couple in the party from Ampthill called Braithwaite. He works in Bedford - a tall, thin chap with glasses. She is dark, quite nice-looking. I wonder if you know anything about them. I did not reveal my connection with Ampthill to them: mainly because on the only occasion I talked to them, and they mentioned Ampthill in connection with Sir Albert, who was under discussion, the conversation was broken off, and I only saw them in the distance as it were after that.
Thank you for sending Sir Albert's article in the Sunday Times, which of course I missed. I agree of course entirely with him. I think all the suggestions for the National Gallery extension are horrible. I have never got over the Festival Hall, either inside or out. There were no Ampthill News-es awaiting me. As you say, the printers' strike accounts for it.
I am now busily reading up for Russia. Gunther's "Inside Russia now" which is quite up to date, as it was published only last year: but I get very little time, and I shall have to take it to Scotland with me next week. The programme for the immediate future is that next Saturday, Anne arrives with Geoffrey, on his motorbike. Geoffrey has been a friend of the girls since childhood. There is no romance with either of them. He is 26, and Maths and Physical Training master at Selby Grammar School. I met him up there, and liked him very much. Next Wednesday Christine and her friend Sandy (I don't know his real name and I have never seen him) arrive from Selby by train. There will be five of us here that night, so I shall have to call on my neighbours for extra accomodation. The next day, Thursday, the 30th., I leave for Scotland, to visit the Staverts at Hoscote, and the four young people will have to fend for themselves. Anne leaves for Dover on Aug.3rd, where she will be joined by two girl friends and their car, and they cross to France. Geoffrey crosses the Channel, en route for Spain, on his motorbike on Wednesday, the 5th., and the other two return to Yorkshire the same day. I expect to be back here about Aug.22nd., to make preparations for the Russian trip which leaves London on the 26th. i think I told you it is a sea tour on a Russian ship, the Baltika, calling at Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, and so on to Leningrad and Moscow. I expect to be back here on September 17th.
I see Lennox Boyd is expected to have a rough time in the House of Commons this week when they question him on the recent troubles in Africa. The Opposition are apparently going to demand his resignation.
I don't suppose you will get much holiday, with all your responsibilities at home: but I hope you will at any rate get a good rest.
Yours sincerely,"