Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU10/102/1/191
  • Title
    Typewritten letter
  • Date free text
    30 June 1970
  • Production date
    From: 1970 To: 1970
  • Scope and Content
    "Many thanks for the magazines and your two letters. In that of May 10th. you said you had not been well with a sinus infection, and singing in the ears: but as you don't mention it in yours of June 2nd. I hope it has passed away, and you are feeling fit again. i seem to be singularly lucky - so far. I have no physical troubles at all. I cannot run about on the beach with a ball with the youngsters as I could 10 years ago: but I can walk for miles and miles: and do so. I walk at least 5 miles every day, and I attribute my fitness in large part to this exercise. That is what I miss so much on my winter voyages. One gets tired of pacing to and fro on a ship, and when one goes ashore one is usually in a car or other transport sightseeing. However, next winter I shall have a change. I see it is 10 years ago since I spent a winter in Italy: Naples, Sicily, Capri, ending up in Rome. This time I hope to go to the Sorrento peninsula south of Naples, one of the most beautiful parts of Italy, and comparitively quiet, since there is no railway to speak of, and the roads are only busy in the summer. I have friends in Amalfi and Positano too. Meanwhile, my friend Roy MacGregor-Hastie, whom I may have mentioned, has invited me to spend Christmas at his mountain retreat in the Italian Alps. He has been building a house there for two or three years, and now it is finished. I went there, when it was half-built, two years last September after spending a few weeks with my god-daughter Patricia Stavert at Gargarno on Lake Garda, on an Italian course run by Milan University. I expect I sent you p.c.s. It is a lovely place - rushing streams full of trout - and being so remote, the local peasantry are still simple and unspoilt. Roy assures me that the Christmas party at the village inn is something to see. So I may start my Italian winter there, and go south afterwards. My young cousin Anne gave birth to a son in Harrogate two weeks ago. The baby was overdue, and she had a very difficult time, involving a Caesarian operation. However, she seems to be pulling round now. He is to be called James Thomas Richard, and to be known as Tom. I have been enlisted as godfather, though I tell Anne I am much too old to take on such a responsibility. I shall be 91 when Tom is 20! However, Anne has made up her mind that I am going to follow her grandmother (my mother's cousin) who enters her hundredth year next month. I think they are going to combine the celebration with the christening in Selby Abbey, where that branch of my mother's family have been christened, married and buried for generations (both Anne and Christine were married there: so was her grandmother). I shall have to make the effort to go up to Yorkshire, though it will be awkward, as I am expecting my continental visitors to arrive about that time. I cannot remember when I last wrote to you, but I spent a weekend with the Norburys recently in Winchester, and I was taken to the Glyndebourne Opera. Old Lady Norbury is one of the Trustees and lives near by at Lewes. Then I went to Oxford to see my Japanese friends, who have settled in very happily. I also took my dear old friend Ida Huckings - now 78 or 79 - to lunch at the Randolph, and sent a taxi fore her, and returned her in same. Then there was a supper party in the Cloisters for New College for member of the New College Society, where I met the Staverts, who had driven down from Hawick to a wedding in Bucks., and came on to Oxford afterwards. I am afraid I shall not be able to go to Hoscote this year, as I hope to go to New York in September to stay with the Marcollas, the family I met at Perugia. I certainly get around in my old age! I was sorry to hear of the death of Mr.Colls, but from what you have told me about his recent condition, I imagine it is a "merciful release". Mr.Sturman too, from what you say, seems to be none too strong. I was startled by the enclosed cutting which Mrs.Stavert sent on to me. Actually I had already seen it in the "Telegraph". They must be a weird lot at my old home! Mrs.Stavert's comment was "I think it's high time you went back to Ampthill to keep them in order!" (Whatever would Florence and Diana Eagles have said ???) We have been having a wonderful summer here, and still are. Week after week of sunshine. The beaches are strewn with brown bodies. And, like yours, our flowering trees have never looked better. It must have been the late spring. We have also had the front of the Castle tar-macadamed (which it needed) so we look very smart. Some new flat-owners have arrived recently, who seem pleasant and friendly. I think I am the "oldest inhabitant" now, having been here 15 years. It seems to have gone in a flash. My neighbour, Mrs.Olley, is going out to Tasmania again next winter to visit her daughter and son-in-law. She would like to sell her flat before she goes, as she may decide to settle out there. It would be a good thing, since if she fell really ill, with her daughter so far away, there would be problems. And now we have a Tory government again! I fear they are going to have a lot of trouble with the trade unions: also on the question of the Common Market. I don't think the majority of the population are in favour of it. I am divided in my opinion. I don't welcome the idea the butter at 10/- a pound! I note in the magazine the Lamp in front of the aumbry is being replaced. Was the silver one Miss Diana Eagles bought stolen? It was one of her jobs to keep it cleaned and filled with oil. I had a surprise visit one day recently from the Rev.A.Higginson, Vicar of a church in Northampton. He was in Margate with a Mothers' Union outing, and drove out here. He was wearing a grey toupee, which looked exactly like a grey cap! I don't think I shall go in for one! Yours sincerely,"
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