Scope and Content
"Many thanks for your letter. Yes, I am home again after my long, and most enjoyable trip to the Far East, and I am not taking very kindly to this cold, wet and windy English climate! Three days after leaving Rijeka last November we found the sunshine, and it did not leave us for the rest of the voyage. Japan was cold - they had had snow before we arrived - but the skies were blue, and the sun shone most of the time. I felt the change from the warmer climes, and indeed I had two days in bed while we were in harbour near Mt. Fuji - but apart from that I was in wonderful health throughout, and came back deeply tanned all over. I arrived at Dover exactly two weeks ago today. Sydney Crouch met me there, and in 3/4 hour I was having dinner with him and sharing the bottle of champagne he opened in honour of my return. My sofa was piled up with mail of various kinds, including several Ampthill parish mags from Valder. Apparently they had a frightful time here from Christmas Day - when the first snow arrived - until March; the snow came again and again, and piled up round the Castle, and on the roads near by. Our poor Porter, Kidd, spent all his time digging paths for those who remained in the Castle to get out. But most of them fled - into hotels, or stayed up in London. Sydney says most of their time was spent trying to keep warm, and fuel bills have been astronomic! Well, it has made me decide quite definitely to spend Dec-Jan-Feb on Jugoslav cargo ships heading East or West in future. Next winter I hope to go to South America. Ships leave Jugoslavia every month, and go via Dakar and Las Palmas over the Equator down to Rio de Janiero, Santos Montevideo and Buenos Aires. There were 12 passengers on the Jesenice - three retired couples, one Canadian living in Spain, one from London, and one Danish from Copenhagen. The rest of us were oddments who came and went at various ports. Coming back we had a young Japanese student of Tokyo University who was going to Belgrade on the International Students' Association to study for three months. I made great friends with him, and am sorry he cannot include England in his tour, but he has to be back in Tokyo by Sept. I hope very much he will be able to visit England and stay a long time with me when he finishes his course at Tokyo. I hoped to see Lieut-Col. Timbrell in Singapore, but his regiment left for England as I was about to sail, and he is now at Tidworth. But I met friends at Karachi and Bangkok and Hong Kong and was royally entertained by them. But I did not fall in love with the East. I saw no towns to compare with those of Europe. None of the Eastern cities is dominated by a great building - as for instance a cathedral or castle. The skyline is a dull monotonous collection of skyscrapers which are going up everywhere. You have to go and look for the temples and palaces around corners - but the streets are full of colour and movement. One feels the East is changing rapidly, and taking on the aspect of American "civilisation". Radios blaring out pop-records (the voice of Cliff Richards is heard from Port Said to Yokohama) are a feature of every department store, cafe, restaurant and swimming pool. The mystic East of one's imagination has been overlaid by a thick crust of modern inventions ... here and there one finds glimpses of the old life. I liked Penang in Malaya, and Cochin in India. I hated Bombay, Karachi, Madras and Singapore. Hong Kong was picturesque, but a babel of crowds and noise - refugees from Communist China keep pouring in. Thousands of them live in junks on the river (one of the sights of Hong Kong) - but I was put off by the appalling stench and squalor! I enjoyed most the long days at sea, basking in the sun, and reading many books. I picked up many paperbacks en route, and we had quite a large collection on the ship, apart from those we exchanged with each other. I made friends with several of the Jugoslav ship's officers. If they get on the N.European run, which comes to London, they all intend to sound the sirens loudly as they pass the N.Foreland, and also intend to run down to the Castle by train if they can. I hope they don't all come together!
I am booked to go for Whitsun to my friend Robert Arlen's cottage near Hythe. He bought it last year - a 17th century one, which he has had improved - bathroom etc. added. He is anxious for me to go and see it, and I do not know how long I shall stay; so it is doubtful if I shall be there in Whitsun week when you are in Canterbury. I think Canterbury will be a good centre for 'bus trips. On my return I am expecting to take under my wing for a time a young man in his 30's whom I saw a lot of when I was living in Richmond. I had lost touch with him after he married about 8 years ago. Among the pile on my sofa was a Christmas card from him saying he had been trying to get in touch with me many times but could get no answer on the telephone. He said his wife had gone off first with his best friend, and then with another man, and he was expecting his divorce in February. He badly wanted to see me. Of course, he received no reply. I wrote at once on my return, and invited him to come the following weekend. This time I had no reply for several days, and then came a letter from him (also one from his mother) saying he was ill in hospital, but hoped to see me in a few weeks when he was better. His mother's letter gave further details. She said that after the divorce came through, Roy collapsed, and proceeded to drink himself into insensibility which brought on a mental breakdown - manic depression they call it - and he is in the mental ward of Sutton Hospital. I must say his letters seem very sensible. I have invited him to come here to recuperate, and I feel confident that the change of scene and air will probably put him on his feet again. There is a little daughter of the marriage, and I gather the erring wife has charge of her. Part of the trouble was the fight over her between them.
You do not say anything about the new Rector. I shall be interested to know who buys S.Joseph's and the old Rectory. It will be 12 years next week since my father died, and 12 years the following week since Miss Di went. Somehow it seems longer.
Mr.Colls, according to the parish mags, seems to be very fond of quoting from magazines from long ago. I used to do the same, when I quoted from Mr.Nichols. I was amused by your mother's memories of the Victorian days. I sometimes think that if I live to be 80 and descend upon Ampthill, I shall be able to provide the Ampthill News with an account of Ampthill Fifty Years Ago ... namely the 30's!!
I told my Oxford friend Ida Huckings some time ago that she simply must try to live until 1968 (fortunately she is in very good health at 72), when we shall have been friends for 50 years (we met in 1918) and we shall celebrate with a dinner and champagne at the Mitre in Oxford! During those 50 years, we have met rarely - sometimes years have passed without meeting - but we have kept up correspondence regularly. Incidentally, you may see her hovering round Ampthill church some day. Her sister married an Indian who was up at Oxford in my time. He had a career in the India Office, and became a lay reader. When he retired a few years ago, he studied for Orders, and was eventually ordained. He has been lately priest in charge of a church in Uxbridge, and has now been appointed priest in charge of the Annunciation (daughter church) at Kempston. His name is Menon, if you see anything about it in the local papers. He is taking over some time this month. His wife is a nice woman, though I have not set eyes on her for well over 30 years. He came to see me here about two years ago, when he was in Margate for a day with a M.U. outing. Their son Nicholas is up at Oxford, and now he too is ordained and curate of a church at Lancaster Gate. Their daughter, Kalyani, has some sort of job as organising secretary to something or other. The house the Menons are going into in Kempston is a Victorian one, and I used to go to lunch there with the Duncans, when Harold Duncan was priest in charge. He is now Vicar of a church in Durham.
You know of course that Cyril Easthaugh is now Bishop of Peterborough, and Laurie Brown Bishop of a diocese in Lancashire (I forget which).
I note there is a lot of excitement about a book the Bishop of Woolwich has written. I am glad there is a new Dean of Canterbury.
This letter has turned out to be as long, if not longer, than yours. I am glad to hear your mother is keeping up, at the wonderful age of 88. Both Miss Eagles' sisters seem to have survived the winter - they are 90 and 92 respectively!
Yours sincerely,"