Scope and Content
I am back at my typewriter again after a round of visits to Winchester and London, and neighbourhood. I leave for Yorkshire sometime next week, and may go straight up to Hoscote from there; or I may come down to London first, as I have a New College dinner at the Savoy, and if my friend Ralph Stavert attends it, I can travel back with him. My god-daughter, Patricia Stavert, having finished her work in Milan, is now working for the Scottish National Trust, and has a flat in Edinburgh. This is a good arrangement, as she has a car, and is able to get home to Hoscote most weekends.
I seem to have run into a very bad patch of English weather ... rain, rain, and more rain - there is no end to it. I find myself longing to get aboard the ship at Amsterdam and sail into the SUN again.
Many thanks for your letter and the enclosures. I feel I owe you a lot of money for magazines and booklets - not to mention postage. I sent off the Nicholls booklet to Allison Kent Thomas, Lansing, Michigan, USA. When I handed it in at the Post Office, I said "by air mail", and got a shock when it was 4/6d! I sent it three weeks ago today, so there has been time for a reply. However, as it is nearly 20 years since I last wrote, anything may have happened. I must apologise to Andrew for not acknowledging the Ampthill guide he sent - in 1965 - but I can only put it down to the constant moving around I do, with the result that many things go out of my mind, and many things are left undone that ought to be done. Correspondence accumulates, and it has to wait here until I turn up. I have just pulled out Andrew's guide, with his letter still inside it (15th.Jan.1965). In it he says he remembers Mr.Cole preaching on the evening before the galleries came down! His memory has played him false, however! It was I who preached that evening. I had kept quiet until the last moment. The demolition was fixed to begin on the Monday morning, and I remember saying "Take a last look at the galleries because they're coming down tomorrow!" What a wonderful week that was, when all the rubbish had been cleared out! With regard to the helm which used to hang over the tomb of Sir Nicholas Hervey, Sir Anthony Wingfield used to tell me he could remember seeing it. I expect it went with the brass (which was eventually returned to Ampthill) to the Herveys at Northill, and I expect is still there somewhere. Sir A. used to say he would try and get it back, but that's all I heard about it. I have just been looking through the Guide, and came across the picture of Amphtill Rectory, old and new, which brought back many memories. What a terrible time I had with that old Rectory! No heating, no electricity, that vast overgrown garden ... no wonder I was driven to take refuge in St.Joseph's in 1942! Nothing would have induced me to go back into it. Who has it now? They would have to spend a great deal of money on it to make it habitable, especially in the winter. And what of Perton's cottage? Is it still inhabited?
I remember the girls (now matrons and mothers of families) you refer to in the picture of the Sunday School party. I can remember marrying Beryl Brooks, and I think Audrey Hutchinson. I am sorry to hear about Mrs.Hill's illness. Old Valder seems to keep going, in spite of everything. I receive an occasional (very short) letter from Miss Ira Smith. Do you ever see her? Well, it will soon be 20 years since I left! Goodness knows if I shall ever see Ampthill again, or when. Not having a car, being so little in England nowadays, and Amphtill having no station ... perhaps when I am 80, I will make a special visit and come and put up at the White Hart and look round to see if anyone is alive who remembers me!
After all, it is only about 12 years away, and when one thinks I have been (officially) at the Castle nearly 12 years, and how quickly the time has gone, it does not seem so impossible.
I am very amused by Andrew's parrots. I imagine everyone must turn to them first on receiving the magazine. I cannot think how he can produce them every month, as they are really very witty. I wish Andrew had been old enough to be Editor in my time!
The Castle here is in trouble. I wonder if I mentioned in my last letter. The chalk face of the cliff has eroded very badly at the corner where the Castle is on the cliff edge. In fact, the local Council has declared the flat at that corner definitely unsafe, and liable to collapse anytime. So engineers and consultants were called in this year, and the preliminary estimate for buttressing up the cliff is £30,000. (£1,000 per flat!) An application for a grant (on the grounds that Kingsgate Castle has historical associations with Lord Holland and Lord Avebury) has gone in to the Minister via the Broadstairs Council. But whatever the result, the work must be carried out, since if that corner does collapse, the rest of the Castle will be in danger. In any case, no one would buy a flat if one wanted to sell. I should be one of the last to slide over the top! And we also have roof trouble. The leads on one wing need replacing ... estimated cost somewhere in the region of £400. As we are all mutually responsible, we all have to shell out our share. Moreover, our Porter has been off work for over three months, and there seems to be no sign of his returning. The grounds are looking shabby, and the women are grumbling because no bulbs are being planted, and there will be nothing to see in the spring.
However, I am too busy to bother much with Castle affairs, and in any case I shall be off again soon!
Yours sincerely,"