Scope and Content
"Many thanks for your letter received this morning. It might just possibly have crossed with mine, as I intended writing to you today.
I arrived here last month, after several weeks on the continent. On arriving at Genoa in April, I first went to stay with the Captain of the "Volta", with whom I had made great friends on the voyage, at his home at Portofino. Then I went to Odalengo Piccolo, near Turin, to stay with Roy MacGregor-Hastie, the writer I shared a cabin with en route to Japan three years ago. He has visited me here two or three times since, when he was in England. His latest book is a paperback on the history of Flying, and it is dedicated to my neighbour, Mrs.Olley, whose husband was a flying pioneer, and started the first air service from London to Paris after the First World War. I think your father would have known the name of Olley well. He was quite a well known man. From Odalengo Piccolo I went to Mentone, to stay with my cousin, who lives in the villa which belonged to my grandmother. I had a very enjoyable time there meeting old acquaintances I had not seen for a long time. Then I went to Paris to stay with my Russian friend, and from there to S.Pierre-sur-l'Orne in Normandy to stay with more French cousins. I was so happy there I did not hurry to leave. In any case, I let my flat in the Castle for an indefinite period to some friends who are so enchanted with it that they hope I shall stay away indefinitely! I am living next door with Sydney Crouch. Since my return last month, I have been in London and Winchester. You may remember my telling you that my young second cousin Christine Waddington married a young baronet - Sir Robin Norbury - three years ago. He designed his own house just outside the cathedral close at Winchester, and it might have been one of Sir Albert's since it was in Georgian style, with a glorious view of the whole length of the cathedral over the garden wall. Robin's father was killed in the war, so he inherited from his grandfather when he died two or three years ago. His grandmother, old Lady Norbury, lives near Lewes, and is a great supporter of Glyndebourne. I was taken there to the opera one Sunday. While I was at Winchester, Christine said, We have invited the Dean and his wife to dinner tomorrow; he remembers you at Cuddesdon. He turned out to be Oswin Gibbs-Smith, whom I had not seen for 40 years!
I leave for Hoscote at the end of the month. On August 25th. I come down to Yorkshire. You may remember that Christine's sister Anne last year married in Selby Abbey a Dr.George, who is the Medical Officer for the North Riding of Yorkshire. I stayed with them at the Old Rectory, Scrunton, near Northallerton - a lovely Queen Anne house in a lime grove. His uncle is Lord Uvedale, physician, who has a flat in Regents Park, and a country estate at Kirkham near Malton in Yorkshire (where I was born!). Lord U. was a bachelor till he was 60; then he married the widow of an M.P. called Lees-Smith. He is now over 80. As he has no children, Dr.George succeeds to the title. When I was in London recently, Anne was staying a few nights with them. She had come up to see here stepson, Nicky, who is at London University studying medicine (of course). I was invited to dinner at Regents Park, and they asked me to join the family party at Kirkham at the end of August. So I shall come down from Hoscote. I remember Kirkham Abbey as a boy. I little thought I should be going to stay in it 50 years later! Then I shall stay a few days with Anne and her husband before coming south.
Next winter I intend to take a cargo ship from Amsterdam for a voyage all the way round Africa, calling at Dakar, Capetown, Durban and several ports on the East Coast of Africa - back to Amsterdam in April, in time, I hope, to see the bulb fields in bloom. I have never been to Holland, so I shall stay on there and see as much as I can. And I am looking forward to seeing Capetown again, where I have some very dear friends - also in Durban. I last saw Capetown in February 1939, when I sailed with Florence Eagles on the Carnarvon Castle after our wonderful visit to the Bishop of Bloemfontein.
Next summer - 1966 - I have half-promised to join a friend on a course at Perugia University. I learnt quite a lot of Italian on my last voyage, but I want to speak it fluently. These courses are similar to those run by the British Institute in Florence which you say Simon Houfe attended.
So you see I am leading a very full and active life!
And so you retire on July 23rd.!
I am sorry to hear that you had such a severe attack of 'flu last winter, and were laid off for five weeks.
I am deeply thankful to say that I enjoy good health. My doctor says I am wonderful for 66. I have all my own teeth, and only wear spectacles for reading, and my weight remains around 10 1/2 stone, which is what I weighed at 40. I take a lot of exercise, and I don't overeat, in spite of the wonderful French cooking I see so much of!
I thought Andrew's history of Ampthill church, which was awaiting me here on my return, really excellent. I shall write to him about it.
We are having a really wretched summer here, and they tell me that April and May were cold and dull, with very little sunshine. We have had nothing but rain this weekend. I long for the tropical sunshine of my winter voyages!
I'm afraid I don't remember Mrs.Bishop and Rosemary. If Mrs.Cole's cottage is in Church Street, St.Peter's, it is a very long way from the sea. St.Peter's, is a suburb of Broadstairs.
There was a pile of S.Andrew's magazines here from Valder. He says he is 88. You mention Mrs.Cole in Arthur Street. Isn't that where my first housekeeper, Miss Adams, lives? I think the old man she became housekeeper to, I forget the name, they were butchers, let her have a cottage there. Who lives in S.Joseph's (the Red House) now? And what happened to the house where Miss Wingfield lived? And the Du Sautoy house? And does Miss Ambler still live in Mrs.Farrington Downes' house? And what has happened to Avenue House? And who lives in Dr.Macklin's house? The last I heard was that the widow of the man who owned Flitwick Manor was there. I suppose you know that Sir Anthony Wingfield's grandson, Gervase, who was in the Navy, died last year? I last saw him at Sir A's funeral. He left a widow and three children, a boy and two girls. He was only 32. I hear from Brigadier Timbrell frequently. He was on Sir Anthony's staff, and joined the Horse Guards as a trooper in 1939. He has had a brilliant military career, and has been in charge of some Sultan or other in Saudi Arabia. He entertained Prince Philip on his visit there early this year. i saw him in London last month, and had dinner with him at the Naval and Military Club. He visits the Lennox-Boyds. It is strange to think I have now known him for over a quarter of a century!
The main thing one notices on returning to England after an absence of some months is the rapidly increasing inflation. Postal charges, fares, newspapers - it seems to apply to everything.
Yours sincerely,"