Reference
AU10/102/1/174
Title
Typewritten letter
Date free text
2 September 1968
Production date
From: 1968 To: 1968
Scope and Content
"At last I am getting down to my usual pile of accumulated correspondence. This has been a very full summer for me. I went over to Normandy in June, and was there throughout the students' riots in Paris. (How long ago it all seems now!) Fortunately we were not affected at Argentan, but it was upsetting. How strange that it has resulted in De Gaulle obtaining greater power even than before! In July I returned here, bringing with me my cousin's two boys - Pierre, 18 and Raymond, 16 - so I had my hands full. It was Raymond's first visit to England. Fortunately a friend of mine who was on holiday in Greece lent me his flat in London for the month, and as it is in Welbeck Street, it is a wonderful centre. I took them everywhere in London ... from Greenwich in the East, to Hampton Court in the West. We visited Oxford, but avoided Stratford and its crowds. The weather was dull and unsettled most of the time. We usually came down here for weekends. I saw them off at Dover at the end of July, and then I went up to London and met my young second-cousin Anne and her husband, and with them I drove up the M1 to their home in Northallerton. From there, after a few days, I took train up to Edinburgh, and so to Hawick, where the Staverts met me, and I remained there for the whole of August. Again, the weather was dull. One longed for some sunshine. But apparently they had had lots of it earlier. I got back here last Friday. On Wednesday I am expecting Jeffrey Todd, the son of the Californian brain surgeon who is at Fettes College in Edinburgh. He flew home to Los Angeles for the holidays. As it is a chartered plane, it drops down in England two weeks before school commences, so he is coming here to fill the gap. I first met him at Hoscote 10 years ago when he was 8, and at prep school. It is amazing to think he is now 18, and entering his last year at school. He wants to go on to Oxford, but I doubt if he will manage it. His elder brother is now back in California, and the younger one (also at Fettes) I have not met. He is going to fill the gap staying with a friend in Suffolk.
An immense scaffolding now covers the face of the cliff, and work is proceeding apace. They expect to finish before December. I wonder what the next thing will be!
And now the Lambeth Conference is over. I met several of the Bishops ... mostly those who were on the staff of SJDK in the old days. They were assembling during July when I was in London. It was interesting to see Yashiro (now Bishop of Kobe) who came for a year to SJDK: also Lakdhasa de Mel, now Metropolitan of India.
It is very pleasant to be back again at the Castle. Changes are always going on, but my neighbour Mrs.Olley continues to flourish. Her daughter married a Tasmanian lawyer last June, and Mrs.O is going out there next winter on a visit. My old friend Sydney Crouch still has his flat here, but he is trying to sell it, as he wants to go and live with his brother and sister-in-law somewhere in the Midlands. The doctors think he should not live alone ... though he has made a marvellous recovery from his operation last year.
I am booked to go on my winter voyage on a Norwegian ship sometime at the end of November. I join the ship at Antwerp, and proceed to Curacao in the West Indies, then through the Panama, and down the West coast of South America - Peru and Chile - as far as Valparaiso: returning to Europe by the same route. A Norwegian ship will be a new experience. I have been on Russian, Dutch, Italian, German, Jugo-slav cargo ships: but so far no British! I suppose I shall have to try one one day.
I hope you and your family have been keeping well since I last heard from you. I expect you have had the usual dismal summer. No wonder so many people go abroad!
I shall look forward to having news of you and Ampthill.
Yours sincerely,"
operas
Level of description
item