Scope and Content
"Very many thanks for your long and interesting letter, and the magazines and booklets etc. (Also the magazine which arrived this morning). I really think I should re-imburse you for postages etc. and I enclose £1. You can hand 1/6d. of it over to Andrew for the Millbrook booklet, which I found very interesting. There is a link between Millbrook and Kingsgate. The Henry R.V.Fox, third Baron Holland, who lived in Ampthill Park in the early years of the 19th.century, and whose memorial is in Millbrook church, must have been the grandson of the Henry Fox, first Baron Holland, who built Kingsgate Castle! He originally built the house facing the sea, still called Holland House, and the Castle was a "folly" he erected to contain his stabling and horses. It was a copy of Carnarvon Castle. Later, of course, it became a residence which changed hands several times. The last owner was the first Baron Avebury, who died here in 1914. After that, it became an hotel in the 20s and 30s up to the war. Then it stood empty until it was divided into flats in the early 50s ... which is where I come in!
I was very distressed to read of the death of Geoffrey Read. He was one of the first people I saw when I came to Ampthill with my Vicar in 1933 to view the landscape o'er. We parked the car in the marketplace, and then entered Parmiter's shop, where Geoffrey was behind the counter as Parmiter's assistant. I always thought he and his brothers were extremely nice lads. And I remember Geoffrey's wedding, on his return after the war. Vera was a very nice girl. I prepared her for Confirmation, and I remember that during the war she was at the 8 o'clock every Sunday morning. It seems they had no children. I suppose his parents are both dead. No doubt I have told you that when we left Ampthill that day, I had quite decided to turn down the offer of the living. That awful Rectory was something I felt I could not face. And indeed, it defeated me in the end. However, other counsels prevailed, and I was there for the next 14 years. And now I have been at the Castle for 14 years in December! A great deal of that time I have been abroad, of course, but I have grown very fond of my little flat. I should not like to give it up now. I am often urged by relations and friends to pack up and go and live in the sun ... at Menton, in Malta (where I hope to spend the winter of 1959/60 with a friend who retired there last year, and who is lyrical about it!), in South Africa. An old Oxford friend wants me to go and share a flat with him in Paris, where he has lived for 40 years. And so it goes on! But so long as I can get away in the winter, and spend some weeks in my beloved Normandy in the spring, I am content to spend the intervals here.
I think I told you in my last letter that I am booked to leave Antwerp early in December on a Norwegian cargo ship sailing to Curacao, and on through the Panama dwon the west coast of South America, calling at Buenaventura, Guayaquil, Callao, Mollendo, Antofagasta, and Valparaiso. I am trying to arrange to travel from Santiago overland to Buenos Aires, and pick up another ship there calling at Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and then back to Antwerp. I visited these places a few years ago on a Jugoslav ship, but it will be nice to see them again, and better than returning from Valparaiso to Antwerp on the same route. I expect to celebrate my 70th birthday somewhere en route! I just cannot believe I have lived so long! I hope to vist the famous bridge described in "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (which I expect you read years ago) from Lima. And I am reading books about the Inca civilisation. Though I doubt if I shall have time to get up to CUZCO, which is the principal place for that. It is also 17,000 feet up. If you go by 'plane from Lima, they give you oxygen in tubes which you suck vigorously. The trip is not recommended for people with weak hearts, and even healthy people find it hard to breathe at first. So perhaps I shall remain down below nearer the coast!
I had a pathetic letter from Mrs.Valder on my return from my last winter's voyage. It is amazing how old Valder manages to go on. I am really very sorry for her. She says the Rector takes them Communion frequently. They have certainly stuck to their Church. When they first arrived in Ampthill, neither of them went anywhere. I also recognise many names of people I knew, in the magazines. But I do not seem to recollect David Lowe or his father. I remember Mrs.Minney (a very nice woman). I believe I married her to a Mr.Page. But there are many names unknown to me. Who is Miss Abraham, G.Aynsley, Mrs.Bailey, P.D.Chapman and P.R.King? And is the W.Greenley the man who used to be in charge of the Gas Office? I remember Kendrick Hart, who preached at the Friday Harvest Evensong. He was Vicar of a church in Bedford, and we were good friends. I remember he came and took Dr.Macklin's funeral for me, as I was suffering from one of my (in those days) periodic attacks of laryngitis. I went to the service and sat in the sanctuary, but could not utter a word. It was a mistake my going at all, as everyone must have wondered why he did everything. I should have stayed at home. I was sorry to see (in the July mag) that there are only six acolytes. In my day (but before the war) there were six teams of five: three on the cross, and two candlebearers. But I expect it is a sign of the times. I must say I find the Church of England very difficult to understand nowadays. What with the Provost of Southwark cathedral proposing to have a snack bar in the Nave of the Cathedral, and even dances with pop groups, and parachute jumpings and "carnivals" in S.Paul's (I expect you saw the enclosed), plus the Royal Ballet and all ... I always thought cathedrals were for the worship of God, and the proclamation of the Gospel. I find it all very distressing.
I must say the magazines give the impression of very vigorous church life in Amphtill, for which I am thankful. And I really must congratulate Andrew on the magazine and all the other activities he pursues. He must be kept very busy. I will write again shortly. And again thank you for all the items you send me as well as your newsy letters.
Yours sincerely,"