Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU10/102/1/197
  • Title
    Typewritten letter
  • Date free text
    22 March 1971
  • Production date
    From: 1971 To: 1971
  • Scope and Content
    "I returned a few days ago, and now I am glued to my typewriter getting my correspondence going again. I gather it has been a trying winter here ... what with strikes, Rolls Royce failures, and especially the Postal Strike. I was lucky to be out of it, say my neighbours. Anyway, I hope my postcards from Ceylon got through to you. I must say it was one of the best winters I have ever spent abroad. Ceylon is a beautiful island covered with palm trees. I was fortunate to meet up with an old friend ... another bishop! I first met Lakdhasa de Mel at Oxford nearly 50 years ago. His family are one of the richest in Ceylon. They have been Christian for 200 years. Most Cingalese are Buddhist. They entertained the Duke of Windsor - as Prince of Wales - on one of his world tours in the 20s. The old man was knighted for it. Lakdhasa decided to take Orders, and followed me to Cuddesdon, and later to S.John the Divine, Kennington, where he stayed a year before returning to Ceylon. It was always assumed he was marked out as the first native C of E bishop in Ceylon, and sure enough it happened. I had heard about him from time to time from other bishop friends who met him at Lambeth Conferences, but never met him. However, while I was at the Mount Lavinia Hotel near Colombo, I heard he was retired and living up country near Kandy. I wrote to him, and he telephoned and told me he would be coming to fetch me to stay with him. Which he did. He never married, and he has a spacious bungalow with native men servants padding about in bare feet and sarongs in a most beautiful place, surrounded by forests with exotic birds flying about (but they do not sing like our birds), and waterfalls tumbling down - truly a Paradise! Lakdhasa took me all over the island - to see the ancient ruins of past civilisations - and I met many of his friends. I attended a marvellous Buddhist Festival at Kandy - a torchlight procession of elephants gorgeously caparisoned, with dancers and musicians ... it took two hours for it to pass ... there were thousands of people there. Well, I could go on for hours about the wonders I saw. Fortunately, tourism has only just go a toehold in Ceylon. But vast concrete hotels are going up along the coast. It won't be long before they start pouring in. I fear the character of the people will change. Now they are charming and natural and friendly. But, as we know from other countries, tourism brings greed and rapacity in its wake. 1971 looks like being a very full year. My French cousin - who lost his wife two years ago - her daughters (she was a widow when he married her in 1943) are both married - his son Philippe is working at Prince Rainier's oceanagraphic centre at Monaco - and is apparently a great favourite with them - so he is now rather lonely in the villa at Menton. He was last in England in 1948, when he visited us at Richmond. Now he wants to see something of the English countryside, especially stately homes. so we are going on a Swan tour at Whitsuntide of Stately Homes and Gardens. It is an expensive business - £130 for ten days - but it seems we stay at the very best hotels, and a lecturer goes with us. Then he will go up to Yorkshire to visit my cousins. Did I tell you that my mother's cousin - dear old "Aunt Chrissie" to me - died just before Christmas in York, aged 99? We hoped she would make the century, but it was not to be. I am hoping to go on an American tour again in August ... this time to the National Parks and the Grand Canyon. We have four days in New York to start with. I wonder if Andrew produced his article for the NY Historical Society. They will lose interest if he delays too long. Next winter I have the idea of flying to India, then going up into Nepal and Sikkim in the Himalayas: not that I am likely to start to climb it! So you see that at age 72, I am still going strong! My neighbour Mrs.Olley has been in Tasmania with her daughter all winter. She is sailing for home next week, so she should be here in May. Meanwhile, you may remember that my old friend Sydney Crouch, who had the flat next door, went to live with his brother and sister-in-law two years ago. The doctors said he must not live alone after his serious heart operations. He hung on to his flat here as long as he could, but last December sold it to a Reverend T.Fox, Vicar of S.Barnabas, Pimlico. The Porter says he arrived in January with a vanload of furniture, but stayed one day. And that is all we know. There is a rumour that he is retiring after Easter and will be coming into residence. I shall look forward to having your news. I am trying to get used to the cold here, but the daffodils are out and the sun is shining - a very weak sun compared with Ceylon!! It is pleasant to be back in my cosy flat again. Mrs.MacLeod has given it a thorough clean while I have been absent. I hope you have kept well through the winter. Yours sincerely," "P.S. My Japanese friends leave England in May. He has finished his course there. So I shall have to go and see them. How quickly the two years have gone!
  • Level of description
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