AU10/102/1/198

Typewritten letter

3 May 1971

From: 1971 To: 1971

"Very many thanks for your interesting long letter, the marvellous cornucopia of cuttings, and the magazines (the May number arrived this morning). I enjoy your letters enormously, and like to feel I am in touch with Ampthill and its doings. I have no link with S.John the Divine, Kennington, now: apart from people who have left, like the Bishops I sometimes mention, and my two friends in South Africa - Alec and Bill Richardson, one in Durban and the other in Capetown, who were acolytes at SJDK and also members of my Rover Scout crew. Like all things, there have been big changes at SJDK since the war. The church - apart from the tower - was completely burnt out in the Blitz, but has been rebuilt: but instead of a Vicar and five curates, there is now only a Vicar and one curate. Vast blocks of flats have gone up, and there is quite a large coloured population - Brixton is only just up the road. My new neighbour, Mr.Fox, Vicar of S.Barnabas, Pimlico (near the BOAC terminal) was here for three nights recently, and I invited him in. Would you believe it, he says he remembers me at SJDK in the 20s. He was a friend of the Vicar of a neighbouring parish, and they came to the Clergy House to lunch one day. As he is 10 years younger than I am, he was then an young man in his teens. But he remembers me as "a lively spark"! He is 62, but looks older. He is a big, heavy man with a large paunch. He also suffers from arthritis in one knee, and has to use a stick. He has spent all his clerical life in London in various parishes - one in dockland - and is feeling very tired and longs to retire. However, as the full clergy pension is not operative till one is 70, he has many years to wait. There is, however, a proposal coming up in the Church Assembly (I believe it has another name now) to reduce the age to 65: in which case he will be able to come into residence here permanently in 3 years' time. He is single-handed in his parish, and congregations get less every year. It is, by the way, encouraging to see that Ampthill is going well. 44 District Vistors!! I think there were about 10 in my time! And the church packed out for the Service of Nine Carols at Christmas. Will anyone suggest putting the galleries back again??? But Ampthill is definitely an exception. And the state of the Church of England generally is not hopeful. Theological colleges closing down because of few candidates for Ordination - but apparently Rome is suffering from the same thing. It is the general climate of opinion - the drift away from Christianity - the permissive society etc. Apparently I got out of Ceylon only just in time ... before the upheaval of rebels started. I have wondered how my young police friends have got on - police stations were attacked and police killed according to the papers. However, I had a letter from one of them on Saturday and he does not even mention any troubles: so Mount Lavinia, where I stayed most of the time, must have escaped attack. It is sad to think of that beautiful island - a real paradise - in the grip of bloodshed and terror. The Cingalese struck me as being a most un-war-like people ... gentle and affectionate, alwasy smiling and friendly: but evidently there are unruly elements beneath. This has been the coldest spring I can ever remember. We have had plenty of sun, but always biting winds from the sea. It was impossible to sit out. But thank goodness there is a change today - the wind has dropped - it has been really delightful. The trees are very backward - the poor buds simply dare not open out: but soon we shall have the laburnams in flower: they make a good show in the lanes here, they like the salt air. The castle filled up over the Easter weekend, but now we are very quiet again. Two-thirds of the castle flats are owned by people who live in London, and the other third of us seem to come and go a good deal. I have been up to London twice since I returned from Ceylon - on both occasions to go to the Opera: first to Gotterdammerung by the Sadlers Wells Opera Co. at the Coliseum - in English for the first time: and last week to Parsifal at Covent Garden. I have an enthusiastic Opera friend to go with - he books the seats ahead. The last time I heard Parsifal was in 1930, when I was at SJDK. I believe I paid 3/- for a seat in the Gallery! This time it was 3 guineas in the Stalls! Now to answer some of your questions. I was most interested to have the article about Lakdhasa de Mel, especially as I had seen him so recently. No, I never met Rosamund Essex, but the name rings a bell, as they say. I believe she is - or was - the Editor of the Church Times: or it may be that she had a family connection. I do not see the Church Times nowadays. I glance at the Antiques Collector in the library of my London club when I am there, but as I do not collect antiques ... I do, however, remain faithful to Country Life - my favourite magazine - which I have taken for very many years. Every time the price goes up I say I shall stop it. But I don't. I am, by the way, enjoying Lord Kenneth Clark's CIVILISATION talks on BBC1. I bought the book - in paperback, and even that is £2.25. While I was in Ceylon, I read the Life of Tolstoy by a Frenchman (translated) called Troyart. It has had a tremendous press. It is also a paperback - a fat tome - £1. It kept me going throughout my stay. In my undergraduate days at Oxford, one of my closest friends was a Russian called Vinogradoff. They were immensely rich people, and escaped to Paris at the revolution. They must have had big investments abroad, since they were able to send my friend to Oxford to be educated. He introduced me to Russian literature, and through the years I have read all Tolstoy and Dostoievsky etc. and I often pull them out of my shelves to re-read. Vinogradoff, incidentally, is still alive in Paris, and I see him when i go over there. He never married. One of my most interesting friends, and definitely the most mysterious! But, then Russians are like that! That brings me to my cousin Marcel, who is due in England about the middle of the month. He sees friends in London first, and is going to Winchester to stay a weekend with Robin and Christine Norbury. You may remember he is Sir Robin N., and Christine is the sister of Anne who married the Yorkshire doctor. We start the tour on May 26th. The houses we visit are: Audley End, Ickworth, Sandringham (grounds only), Holkham, Blickling, Oxburgh, Burghley, Haddon, Chatsworth, Lyme Park, Gawsworth, Little Moreton, Conway Castle, Caernarvon Castle, Powis, Berrington, Llanvihangel, Raglan Castle, Berkeley Castle, Prior Park, Corsham Court, Dyrham Park, Longleat, Stonehenge, Wilton, Salisbury, Winchester, Chawton (Jane Austen's home). By the time I have got through that lot, I shall be ready for a week in bed! But you note, no Woburn! How many of these have you visited? If any. Anyway, it will be a nice drive through the English countryside, and May and early June is the best time of year ... if it keeps fine! Mrs.Stavert did not say where Barbara Molland moved to. I doubt if she will know. She met Barbara only once, at a cocktail party in Hawick. She said she would invite Barbara to Hoscote ... but I don't think it came off. But I will ask her. She now has two grand-daughters. Adam is a Major in the KOSB and at present at Aldershot. My god-daughter Patricia is private secretary to Lord Polworth - a bank - in Edinburgh, and has a flat there. She drives home over the hills at weekends. Smugglers' caves. No, these are not the Kingsgate ones, which have been blocked up. These are at Stone Gap, near Broadstairs. [This is referring to a newspaper cutting included with this letter from the London Evening News of 3rd February 1971 regarding coastal caves.] They are making an undercliff walk. Eventually they will make one round our cliff ... this is all in aid of cliff protection. I know Fig Tree House ... which is now completely surrounded by very expensive houses. It is certainly more than 1/2 mile from Stone Bay; a good mile I should say! It will be 20 years on May 27th. since Miss Diana Eagles died - also my dear father (May 21) in the same week. How the years are flying past! I just cannot believe I am 72, and have been at the Castle 17 years. I must say I don't feel much different from what I did when I first came in 1954. I lead a very full life, and always have more to do than I can find time for. Yours sincerely,"

item

Hillam, John George,
Grimmer, Honora,
Richardson, Alec,
Richardson, Bill,
Fox, T,
De Mel, Lakdhasa,
Essex, Rosamund,
Clark, Kenneth,
Vinogradoff, Valentin,
Norbury, Robin,
Norbury, Christine,
George, Anne,
Stavert, Pearl,
Molland, Barbara,
Stavert, Adam,
Stavert, Patricia,
Hepburne-Scott, Henry Alexander,
Eagles, Diana

letters, typescript, parish magazines, newspaper cuttings, Bishop, vicars, pensions, health, Church of England, rioting, violence, police, police stations, weather, opera, magazines, Church Times, Country Life, television, books, smuggling, Evening News, AMPTHILL, Broadstairs, South Africa, Kennington, Pimlico, Ceylon, Sri Lanka, Winchester, Yorkshire, Hawick