Scope and Content
"Many thanks for your letter and all the interesting enclosures which arrived this morning. You are getting a quick reply because I am imprisoned in my sitting room this morning, as a whistle of workmen are busy papering my staircase and passage, and planks and ladders prevent me from going downstairs even to shave and bathe: so what better use can I make of my forced seclusion than to answer my letters? It is raining outside (which is a good thing after the drought) and that gives me an excuse for staying indoors. After five years, the staircase and passage were looking very shabby, and I decided to face up to having it done before the winter.
Well, a good deal has happened since I last wrote. I found your letter of July 27th. here on my return from Scotland, but I was only here for three days before setting off to Russia. I had a most enjoyable month at Hoscote with the Staverts. My god-daughter, Patricia, left for Canada after I had been there a few days, as she has gone for two years as guest of the High Commissioner of Ottawa and his wife, who is a great friend of Pearl (Mrs. Stavert). Pearl felt that Patricia at 21 was in danger of getting into a rut living in a lonely house 8 miles from Hawick, and meeting no young people, except in school holidays when of course, as I think I told you, Pearl takes in public school boys whose parents are out East or West. She (Patricia) seems to be enjoying life very much in Canada. There were, in addition to Ralph Stavert (home from India on his annual leave), six boys of ages ranging from 15 to 19: Adam Stavert (who is 20) home from Sandhurst, and his friend Charles, who has just passed out and is now commissioned in the R.E.'s. There was also a blonde of 20 from Australia, a nice, quiet girl, who of course had the time of her life surrounded by so many young males! I made great friends with a little boy of 8, Jeffrey, whose father is a brain specialist in California. The father was educated in Scotland, and thinks so much of it that both his sons are being educated there too. Jeffrey is at a prep. school near Edinburgh and is destined for Loretto later. The brother is already there, but he was in Switzerland, so I did not see him. Jeffrey and I set out every morning with baskets to gather raspberries, pounds and pounds of them. You can imagine they were needed to feed such a large family. Pearl runs the house with help of two women friends who come for the summer: one a retired domestic science mistress, which is useful. It is a wonderful house, situated on a hill surrounded by woods, the river Cheviot down below, and heather-covered hills facing across the valley. Adam has recently acquired a tape-recorder, and I played twenty pieces on the grand piano in the drawing room (one after the other) to record a complete disc. It was extremely interesting to hear myself playing when he played the disc back! Some of the pieces gave me the impression I played better than I thought I did (!), but any conceit I may have gained from that impression was more than countered by the pieces I though absolutely disgraceful.
Well, the month drifted by, with trips to Edinburgh and various lochs and castles, games of all kinds in the garden, raspberry picking, log-sawing, piano playing, picnics and walks. And of course the weather was perfect throughout. (But the midges were an annoyance!)
I left Surrey Docks on the BALTIKA (Russian ship) on Aug. 24th. She was a lovely ship, and there were many interesting people aboard. The Russian crew were polite, but did not encourage us to be friendly. We never saw the Captain at all! There were a surprising number of young people aboard. We had a few at Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, and went ashore for a run around in a coach. Copenhagen was pretty, but these Scandinavian capitals do not appeal to me much. They are proud of their modern buildings, blocks of flats and hospitals, which bore me. I prefer the old picturesque towns of the South. On arrival at Leningrad, we were met by our two guides, who turned out to be young women graduates of Moscow University. They both spoke excellent English, and were very friendly and helpful. Our hotel in Leningrad (the Astoria) was in the old Czarist days, and still is today, the luxury hotel. It is full of Empire furniture and enormous bedrooms and gilt sofas. But the food did not match up to the decor! It was adequate, but uninteresting. But Leningrad itself could not be more interesting. It is a magnificent city, full of 18th century palaces of the old nobility, large squares, and water everywhere. Like Venice, Leningrad is built on piles, so you find canals and rivers everywhere. One notices that the parks are nothing to compare with ours. The Russians are obviously not gardeners. No beautiful herbaceous borders, or smooth lawns. It would take a long time to tell you of the places we visited: the cathedral founded by Peter the Great where all the Czars (except the poor last one!) are buried: the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage Art Gallery), the museums and so on. But Leningrad is as Peter called it: the window on the West. You only feel you are really in Russia when you get to Moscow, and see the red walls of the Kremlin and the onion domes of the cathedrals. It was all floodlit at night, and our hotel was facing the Kremlin across the river. The three cathedrals side by side in the Kremlin are a mass of coloured mosaic inside, but no services are held now in any of them! There are, however, several churches in Moscow which do have services, but I was not able to get to any of them. We did, however, drive out to Zagorsk, which has been the pilgramage place for all Russia for centuries. The monastery was founded by St. Sergius who is buried there. It is a magnificent sight: the usual onion domes of gilt shining in the sun: and we arrived just as the Liturgy was ending, and the crowds emerging from the big church. Here was "Holy Russia" indeed! The crowds consisted of almost entirely old peasant women, and a few old men: all most devout, crossing themselves, and bowing repeatedly ... but there were no young. Some rather greasy-looking monks with long hair and tall hats were selling religious souvenirs at a stall. But one had the feeling that if religion ever returns to Russia (as it will one day) it will not take the superstitious form of Zagorsk. The Kremlin museum has amazing exhibits of the old Czarist days: thrones encrusted with diamonds, crowns, robes, jewels and plate: there was also a lot of Faberge stuff, which you will have seen at Luton Hoo, which has the finest collection in England.
We went to the Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet, the State Circus: we saw Lenin and Stalin in the Mausoleum looking like Madam Tussaud waxworks: and we visited GUM, the famous store, which seemed to me full of inferior goods. The only think I bought was a grey astakhan hat which I should like to have the courage to wear, as it is very becoming!
We returned to Leningrad for a day, which I spent in the Hermitage Art Gallery: joining the BALTIKA the same evening. I was quite exhausted, and glad of the week on the ship homeward bound.
No, I am afraid I didn't take any snaps. My camera has not been used now for some years. I used to take a lot, but now I have boxes full of snaps, and I really can't add to them: except, that is, those friends give to me.
When the decorating is over, I have one or two friends coming for short visits, and I must go to London for a few days. My future plans are that on December 14th. I go to Paris for a few days: then on to Naples and Capri, where I shall probably spend Christmas. I have an Italian artist friend I met at Cortina last year who lives on Capri, and he is giving an exhibition of his paintings in Naples in December, and has invited me to stay with him while it is on. His name is Giovanni Tessitore, and though his paintings are rather too modern for my taste, I believe he is quite a name out there. Then I shall go on to Sicily, where I intend to move about from place to place exploring the old Byzantine cathedrals, and the Greek ruins: finishing up at Mentone at the end of February and early March. Then back home ... at any rate for a time! I am glad you have an open invitation to Deal whenever you like to go, as you can combine a visit there with your next visit to me easily. The railway runs direct from Broadstairs to Deal, and it is only four station away. There are 'buses too, but you would have to change at Ramsgate. I could even drive you back through Sandwich!
Yes, what a wonderful victory for the Conservatives! We can now look forward to five years of consolidation. If Labour had got in, things would have been in a dreadful muddle in no time.
Yes, I think the Braithwaite in the cutting you sent is the chap I met in Spain.
I made a point of listening to DR.ZHIVAGO on the radio last night, and shall do the same next Monday. I thought it was very well done, but I still find if a difficult story to follow. It struck me that Pasternak is primarily a poet rather than a novelist. Anyway, it helped me to get the book a little clearer in my mind. It is certainly in the Dostoievsky tradition.
I am now busy reading books on Sicily ... especially two recently published which I ordered from the local public library. I find they are as good as Boots, and cost me nothing!
Many thanks for the lavendar sprays. My bushes grew so enormous this summer that they quite overshadowed the hydrangeas behind them: so I have cut them rigourously in the hope they will be nice polite little bushes next year!
The castle is very quiet now: only the permanent residents seem to be here. I am told that during the summer there were crowds. I think many of the people let their flats at a huge rent, and they are taken by people with families of children who run riot all over the place. Fortunately I escape August!
The new road on the cliff top is completed. Actually I think it is a great improvement.
My young cousin Anne took my car up to Yorkshire when she returned from the Continent while I was is Russia. She is bringing it back on Oct.23rd. when she has her half-term at school. She is bringing a friend with her for company on the long drive South.
The following weekend I have my old friend Sydney Crouch coming. He has his half-term then. He went to USA for his holiday in August, so we shall have a good deal to talk about.
How wonderful that Aunt Eva is out and about again!
Yours sincerely,"