Reference
AU10/102/1/182
Title
Typewritten letter
Date free text
19 June 1969
Production date
From: 1969 To: 1969
Scope and Content
"I imagine your thoughts are now fixed on your trip to Canada, but I thought I would get a reply to your letter of May 26th. in before you go. You will have received my postcard from Istanbul. It was a very enjoyable trip. I met Sir Robin Norbury at Dover on May 22nd. and we crossed the Continent overnight, arriving Genoa on the 23rd. The "San Marco" was a nice ship, and we had a comfortable double cabin with bath. We were the only Britishers aboard. The others were German, French and Italian. It was a smart ship ... women in deck suits, cocktail dresses, evening dresses, etc. I prefer the cargo ships I travel on in the winter! The food and drink were superb. We had a few hours in Naples ... which gave us an opportunity to see Pompeii again: and a few hours in Athens to visit the Acropolis (I always think the best of ancient Greece is in the British Museum - the Elgin Marbles). Istanbul from the sea is beautiful: when you get ashore it is scruffy, dirty and dilapidated. But the Mosques are wonderful. It was a great moment when I stood at last inside San Sophia - an ambition realised! The museum of Topkapi Palace - where the Sultans live with their harems - also had some wonderful exhibits. We should have like to stay longer than the 3 days allowed us ... one must visit these places more and once thoroughly to take them in. We called at Izmir in Anatolia to see the ruins of Ephesus which are quite considerable. They are still excavating there. I thought of S.Paul and the awful row the silversmiths kicked up because his preaching was affecting their sale of the silver models of Diana. There is no trace whatever of the Temple, which was the wonder of the world (and also the scandal!)
So back to Athens, and Naples. We wend over to Capri, which has been ruined by the introduction of cars and 'buses. When I was there last - in February 1960 - I thought it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen: I seemed to have the whole island to myself. But now ... what with the junk shops and the traffic, I don't want to go there again. If there was one island in the world which should have kept traffic out, it was Capri. And so to Genoa - a city I know very well, but which Robin had not seen. I was able to take him round to the churches and palaces which I know well ... and so we took the night train to Paris and Dover ... and I arrived home on June 6th.
Since then the weather has been really beautiful ... and I am enjoying the quiet of the Castle, and the flowers in the borders. My arrangements for the summer are uncertain. I have no news from Japan. But I have a friend coming from Switzerland for two weeks next month: and possibly others. I expect I shall go up to Yorkshire and Hoscote in August. It looks as if I shall not get to Normandy until the autumn. I am going up to London on Saturday - but only for the day - to see the Shakespeare Company production of TROILUS and CRESSIDA. My neighbour Mrs.Olley is due back this next weekend from Tasmania where she has been visiting her daughter.
I must thank you for your sending the parish magazine and the cuttings which were very interesting. I cannot remember the Swannells. I was very sorry to hear about Mrs.Pearson. I wonder if she is in the smae ward as Miss Ada Eagles in Steppingley Hospital? I never realised she was so much older than I am (I am 70: she, you say, 79). Is she a widow? I always thought there was something nice about her ... she used to help Miss Di Eagles with delivering the magazines: but then she got the British-Israel bug and left the church to go to the chapel. Houfe did a great deal of harm during my time in Ampthill with his B.I. business. It drove a wedge between me and the Richardsons ... then never had anything to do with me after the first years or so. Yes, I remember Jill Oldfield. Do you ever see the people who bought the old Rectory, where I spent the first nine years of my life in Ampthill? What an awful house that was in the winter! Nice in the summer ... but with that garden, and the field below, it was all too much for me. And the trouble I had with housekeepers! It was a relief when I moved into S.Joseph's in 1942. At the end of the war I realised I could never go back to the Rectory. That is one of the reasons why I resigned. And now Mr.Colls has gone! Wouldn't it be good thing if Mr.Botting succeeded?? It will be difficult to get a Rector to face the responsibility of three parishes. Why, oh why, didn't they join Steppingley to Flitwick: Ampthill and Millbrook would have been quite a possible combination. Do tell me about Mr.Fardon sometime. Is he a retired clergyman? - and is he any help? I see my old friend Cyril Eastaugh, the Bishop of Peterborough, is one of the two Bishops who are opposed to the reunion with the Methodists scheme. My other Bishop friend, Laurie Brown, of Warrington, is all for it. His daughter is my god-daughter, though I haven't seen her since her christening at Luton over 30 years ago. However, I am hoping to visit them in Liverpool next spring on my return from S.America, as the ship docks there. Laurie has been here - about a year ago - when he was in London at Convocation or something. Both these were brother curates at SJDK.
I shall look forward to a card from Vancouver. You are sure to visit the park with the TOTEMS. I was rather thrilled to see the railway station where the Canadian-Pacific trains come in from their journey across Canada. So ... bon voyage!
Yours sincerely,"
operas
Level of description
item