Scope and Content
"Thank you for your letter of Nov.12th with enclosures. I have not replied to your former one of Oct.15th. with enclosures - so I can now proceed to kill two birds with one stone!
It is very kind of you to offer me the ticket for the Messiah at S.Paul's. Actually I shall be in London that week, as I have to attend the New College Society annual dinner at the Savoy on Monday the 4th., and I am staying on at my club until the following Saturday, but I am booked up solid for every night. This always happens when I go up to Town for a week, i try to squeeze in as much as I can. As most of my friends are free only in the evening, I do my theatre-going as far as possible to matinees. If I can get in "Becket", "Luther" and "Beyond the fringe" this time, I shall be quite satisfied. One friend is taking me to Covent Garden one night, and all the other nights I am invited to dinner with one or the other. So I am afraid I shall have to refuse your ticket. You will certainly enjoy the Messiah if you have never heard it. I once heard Beecham conduct it, which was a great experience.
So.S.Joseph's is going to change hands again! I had an idea that the people who bought it from the Miss Eagles made the stable at the side of the house into a garage. When I came to see old Sir Anthony I notice the front gate had been blocked up and the side gate considerably widened. It goes to show how much property prices have increased if they were asking £5000 for it. Miss E got £3500 in 1947 (I believe she paid about £1000 in 1928, but of course she had to pay £7000 for the house in Richmond.
I had not seen that Hill-Jones had died. I must really read my deaths column in the Telegraph more attentively. He was a sad, lonely man. I always used to enjoy listening to his sermons: they were full of literary allusions: but I am afraid he had one of those temperaments which never see the funny side of life. I think I must have told you about the death of my old friend Bishop Howe Browne. That is a big link with my past broken.
I am still in charge of S.Andrew's, and there is as yet no sign of a new man coming. As Adam Stavert has my car up in Scotland, I have to cycle to and from the church, and in the gales we are having this week, I am thankful the road up the Reading St. is an avenue, and thus escapes the full blast. They keep suggesting I take on the job permanently, but I really cannot tie myself down now. My god-daughter Patricia Stavert came to stay with me last month, and she ran the place and got meals ready etc. which was a great help. She is taking on a job in Rome in February, and is busy learning Italian. Her father is now based in Beirut in Lebanon, and Mrs.Stavert is flying out there for a few weeks early in the New Year.
If by any chance I have finished at S.Andrew's by Christmas, I have promised to go up to the Waddingtons. There is an idea of my joining a party to go to Switzerland for some skiing and skating, but nothing definite. Everything depends on whether I am free. A little more definite is an idea of going on a cruise to Greece next Easter.
You will have read about the terrific seas which have been, and still are, pounding the coast. I have never seen the waves dashing up so high on our cliff, and the beach is covered at high tide from end to end (which will give it a good clean-up). The winds too have made one wonder sometimes if the Castle would stand up to it, but it is used to plenty of buffeting. The TV aerials have mostly bits knocked off them - one of my prongs is off, but it does not seem to be making much difference to my reception.
We have recently had the Castle surveyed by an architect, and he says £3000 ought to be spent on the fabric at once. We had a residents' meeting recently to discuss the report - it means forking out £100 per flat - but it must be done. We already pay £8.10.0d per flat per quarter, but this has to cover insurance, the porter, the manager, and odd repairs. It looks as if that will have to be increased too.
My friend Sydney Crouch has settled in at Wellesley House, and is very happy there. The boys all come from super-rich homes, which makes discipline difficult, as they have an answer for everything. The heirs to Marks and Spencer, G-Plan, Waley-Cohen the late Lord Mayor of London, and other well-known industrial magnates are there, and the place is well besprinkled with titles. Sydney says he has so far been establishing himself with the boys, who in their own jargon are busy "sorting him out". But he is a tough and experience nut to crack, and by the end of the term they will know who is boss! Fortunately he likes the Headmaster, and his wife, very much, and he finds the rest of the staff very agreeable. He usually comes along to dinner on Thursday nights (his half day off), and sometimes brings one of the other masters with him. I am invited to a sherry party next week.
I read the Shell Aviation News account of Bleriot with great interest, especially the part about your father and the rescue of the Type xi. I remember your father once taking me over to see Shuttleworth. What a pity the latter died so young! I am returning the Bleriot account as I think you may want to keep it.
And thank you for the Bedfordshire Heritage, with the lovely pictures of various places ... most of which I never saw, though that is not surprising, as most of them are private houses.
I take Country Life every week (my favourite magazine) and I often see pictures of houses I have known in the past up for sale; but mainly in Yorkshire. The big house at the village where my parents lived in their later years, and where they are both buried, Sutton-on-the-Forest, is on the market. The Galliers-Pratt family are moving to Hampshire. Mrs.G-P and my mother were very great friends. Well, it's a sign of the times - all these big houses changing hands, and estates being cut up.
Yours sincerely,"