AU10/102/1/183

Typewritten letter

4 August 1969

From: 1969 To: 1969

"The arrival of the parish magazines (with its interesting account of the union of the benefices) tells me that you are back home after your trip to Canada. Thank you for the two postcards which you sent me, which indicate that you had an interesting (and extended!) tour of Canada. I have been busy entertaining my young friends during your absence. My Normandy cousin's boys (20 and 18) came last month, and the weather was wonderful, as it was when the elder boy, Pierre, came two years ago. They live in their bathing pants, and were up and down from the beach all day. Being Frenchmen, they are excellent cooks, and I was able to relax while they took over the kitchen. They collected cockles and winkles from the beach and made them into delicious hors-d'oeuvres: they made salads such as I never seem to make: and with chicken bones and a cabbage they created a pot-au-feu which went on day after day, and improved with every heating-up! Then I had Willi Dietschi from Switzerland. This young man I met at Perugia 3 years ago when I was there studying Italian at the University for Foreigners. He brought his car with him. Actually he is now in London, staying until next Thursday with a friend, and his car is here. He will be leaving on Thursday night for Dover, and then motoring through France back to Lezenberg. Meanwhile, my Japanese friend, Satsuki Eda, arrived by air from Japan two or three weeks ago, and went direct to Cambridge to a Bell House, which seems to be the HQ for Japanese arriving in this country. It is a school for English ... and he will be there until September. Then I hope he will come here until the Oxford term begins in October, when he goes to Lincoln College. Meanwhile, I am going to Cambridge next Friday (after Willi's departure) to see him. My second cousin's husband, Sir Robin Norbury (with whom I went to Istanbul in June) urged me to go and stay with his mother in Cambridge if ever I went there. She married (after the death of Robin's father) a Professor G.Kitson Clark, of Trinity College. I met her at Christine's wedding, and again later on one of my visits to Winchester - a charming woman - and she told me they would be glad to see me anytime in Cambridge. So I wrote and explained about my wish to see Satsuki, and they telephoned an invitation at once. I shall introduce Suki to them; it will be a nice contact. I shall stay over the weekend, and then return here. Incidentally, the last time I was in Cambridge was in 1947, my last year at Ampthill, when I drove there with Florence and Di Eagles, and my old Oxford friend Ida Huckings who was staying at S.Joseph's. 22 years ago! There have also been various trips to London. I went up to see the Shakespeare Company's marvellous production of Troilus and Cressida. I went up to a reunion of my old school (Durham) members living in and around London. This is an annual event, held at the Public Schools Club in Piccadilly. Most of my generation at Durham School perished in the first world war, but there were one or two old Gentlemen of my time still surviving. It was interesting to meet men one knew over half a century ago and hear how they had spent their lives. Then I went up to a dinner in the Painted Hall at Greenwich Naval College - where I acted as Chaplain for a time after I left Ampthill - and I encountered Godfrey Place V.C. - now a Rear-Admiral in charge of young sailors on H.M.S.Ganges, and nearly 50! He still looks very young. Do you remember his mother? She used to come to those study groups we held in the kitchen at S.Joesph's. She died the year after I left Ampthill. Later this month I am expecting an influx of girls! You may remember that my second cousin Anne - the one who married the doctor in Yorkshire with a son and daughter. Well, the daughter - "young Anne" - has gone with two friends to Perugia for the Italian course. She is a medical student at Bristol University. I met her in London earlier this year and took her to the reunion of Perugia students at the Italian Institute to give her an introduction. She has driven there, and on her return to Dover, she will come here - with one or two friends - for a day or two before returning home to Yorkshire. So you see I really have my hands full with visitors coming and going. The Staverts keep urging me to go up to Scotland ... but I doubt if I shall make it this year. I am lucky to have all these young people around me ... such a change from the "oldies"! I shall look forward to hearing a fuller account of your Canadian visit. And, of course, the news of Ampthill. Do tell Andrew I have not forgotten him, and hope he will be able to come and visit me when my coast is clearer, and when he can manage a longer visit than his last very short one. Recently there came into my mind - I don't know why - the FOWLERS, who lived in Park Street. Are they still in Ampthill? They were both regular at the 8 a.m. service. He was a sidesman. A nice couple. Yours sincerely,"

operas

item

Hillam, John George,
Grimmer, Honora,
Dietschi, Willi,
Eda, Satsuki,
Norbury, Robin,
Kitson Clark, G,
Norbury, Christine,
Eagles, Diana,
Eagles, Florence,
Huckings, Ida,
Place, Godfrey,
Waddington, Anne,
Stavert,
Underwood, Andrew,
Fowler

letters, typescript, parish magazine, postcards, French, Swiss, Japanese, Cambridge University, Cambridge Trinity College, Oxford University, Oxford Lincoln College, theatre, dinners, chaplain, rear admiral, Italian, AMPTHILL, Broadstairs, Canada, London, Piccadilly, Greenwich, Perugia (Province), Ampthill Park Street