Scope and Content
"I have arrived in England, for a few weeks, and, as usual, I find a load of letters awaiting me, and I am getting down to replying to them. Fortunately, I now have the flat to myself, so I can spread myself out.
After spending the winter in Africa, I eventually arrived at Menton, where I stayed with my cousins for a time; then on to Antibes to visit one of my oldest friends, Henri Lafaury; and so to Normandy, to stay with other more distant relatives. I am extremely fond of Normandy. It is still a quiet agricultural country, with rivers, woods, beautiful little towns ... like England was as I remember it in my childhood, before the motor car arrived to ruin everything. There is very little traffic on the roads, as the main roads in France run from North to South, so one can cycle happily all day long. England today is overcrowded, overbuilt, and definitely over-car-red! I would certainly go and live either in Normandy or Italy - but I feel I must keep a root in England, and this flat is the best solution to the problem. I can shut it up, and know that someone will come in occasionally to see all is well: there is no garden to worry about; and it never seems to suffer from damp. And it is a very nice place to return to .... occasionally! It is looking its best just now, with the laburnum trees (which love salt air) in full bloom, and the may blossom out in the lanes round the golf course ... if only the weather would match up to its beauty! But it is changeable and chilly! I have one or two visitors coming while I am at home. At the end of the month, some American friends arrive on their way to Italy; then one of my young Normandy relatives arrives when his school breaks up. He is 18, and in his last term at school, and soon will be immersed in exams. They have to work much harder in France than in England: not so much time is given to games. Anyway, Pierre wants to improve his English, and is very thrilled at the idea of coming to a Castle! I expect to take him up to Yorkshire for a few days to see my relations there, and, of course, to London: and then we both leave together from Dover sometime towards the end of July. He returns home to Caen, and I go on to Italy, to Gargano on Lake Garda, where I expect to spend August with some Italian friends who have a villa there. From there I shall be taken up into the Dolomites to stay with Roy MacGregor-Hastie, the writer, who lives there. The last time I was up there was about ten years ago when I went to Cortina for skiing. I expect to be back here for October and November: then on December 10th. I sail from Antwerp on a German cargo ship for the West Indies ... Trinidad, ports in Venezuela, Columbia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Florida ... back here in the spring.
My neighbour, Sydney Crouch, developed a very serious condition with his heart while I was away in the winter. He was going downhill rapidly, and the doctors recommended surgery. He went into the London Heart Hospital a few weeks ago, and had a very serious operation ... an artificial valve put in his heart. I called in to see him last week - he had got over the operation successfully - but it had left him very weak. He looked as if he had been sawn in tow! 26 stitches from his throat downwards - however, they are out now: all that remains is a long convalescence.
My other neighbour, Mrs.Olley, continues well. Mrs.Fantle, her mother and mother's husband, are all going to live in Spain. The son has a flat in London, and is being trained as a sports commentator on BBC. It it 9 years this summer since the murder!
And what of Ampthill? I hope you are well, and enjoying your freedom from school: though I expect you find plenty to do. And who has died - if anybody! - in the meantime? It will be 20 years in September since I left. I always remember these dates. It is 25 years today since my dear mother died. How well I remember that journey up to Yorkshire - on a Sunday in wartime - Clifford Thompson took over for me at a moment's notice - and arriving 5 minutes before the end. She was 70, and it amazes me to think that in less than two years I shall have caught up with her!
We have had trouble with the cliff here, and engineers have been called in to see what can be done. It looks as if the Castle will have to find something like £30,000 - anything up to £1,000 per flat - to do the work. We feel the Broadstairs Council ought to take a share, as the trouble arises from the chalk erosion which is happening all round the coast here. We shall see.
My lawyer tells me that Miss Constance Eagles has left Kempston, and gone to live at the Old Mill House in Great Barford, which is now a Home for the Aged. She has a private room, and is apparently quite comfortable. Oddly enough, I believe the Old Mill House was where Mrs.Eagles lived with her daughters when they came back to England from Trinidad. So she has returned to her old home to end her days. She is 97 in October. Miss Ada is, as you know, at Steppingley, and it seems she is very clouded in her mind, and not quite aware of her surroundings. She will be 95 this year. They are a wonderful pair. One of my brother curates at S.John the Divine, Kennington - Laurie Brown - now the Bishop of Warrington (Liverpool) - taking over my flat here for the month of August.
Yours sincerely,"