AU10/102/1/200

Typewritten letter

9 June 1971

From: 1971 To: 1971

"I am returning your booklets, with many thanks. I acquired a large pile during the tour - I read them in the coach after each visit - and what with them, and the pile I brought back from USA last year, I could set up a shop. I enjoyed every moment of the tour. Apart from my French cousin and myself, and a charming British couple who now live in Malta, they were all Americans, and mainly ladies of uncertain age. There was not one disagreeable or difficult person. I think the main success of the tour was that we were all united in our interest ... architecture, pictures etc. The coach also was so arranged that we had lots of spare room. Almost every one of us had a window seat with an empty seat beside us. Some of the married couples liked to sit together. We had a lecturer, a courier and a driver, and all the luncheon and dinner and hotel arrangements could not have run more smoothly. We had two nights in the hotel in Norwich, at Chester and at Clifton, which relieved the succession of one-night stands. The weather was variable, except for one day of pouring rain when we visited the Sandringham gardens. I spent most of the time sheltering under trees, having no umbrella: but we got quite close to the house, and there were magnificent splashes of colour in the gardens, rhododendrons and azaleas. Like you, I found Blickling Hall most attractive. I saw some glasses with an impression of the Hall printed on them - a useful shape - and only 25p each. I thought they were a bargain, and got four. I was also impressed by Oxburgh Hall, and there was a charming Tudor house - fully inhabited - called Gawsworth Hall, near Macclesfield. The owner - a delightful old gentleman with an enormous nose and a great sense of humour - showed us round himself. Of all the houses I saw, this is the one I should choose to live in. The ancient church was only about 100 yards away, and there was a lake, or a stream, with swans on it. It was the home of the Fittons for over 300 years. You may remember that Mary Fitton was a famous - and infamous - beauty at Elizabeth's court. She is supposed to be the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets. I found the big places like Burghley, Chatsworth, Longleat (where there were thousands of people) like museums: lovely furniture and pictures: but no sense of being lived in. Actually, of course, the owners live in secluded wings, or in cottages in the park. The Van Dyck room at Wilton was magnificent. There was a very fine house near Stockport - Lyme Park - home of the Legh family for 600 years - now National Trust - a truly majestic place. And I remember the gardens of Powis Castle. But of course it would take me hours to detail all I saw. I should have no hesitation in taking another Swan tour. They do one of Roman Britain which could be very interesting: though I am not one for ruins - in spite of the beautiful abbeys of Yorkshire like Fountains, Bolton and Rievaulx. We looked at Tintern, incidentally. It must have been wonderful when complete. What a wealth of wonderful buildings England would have had if it had not been for Henry the Eighth ... and Cromwell. The Americans were very intrigued to know that I lived in a Castle! Albeit dating only from 1760. I am sending a shoal of p.c.s across the Atlantic. I am trying to switch my American visit from August to September, as I was told by my tour friends on no account go in August. The National Parks and the Grand Canyon will be so packed with crowds that I shall see nothing. Apparently, there is a big drop in September when the schools open again. The reason I chose August originally was because my Chicago friend will be coming over here in September - not to stay with me, but with another friend near by. I did not want to miss him, and I had hoped to have dinner with him in Chicago on August 5th. However, it will have to go by the board. I hope to see my friends in Los Angeles. I imagine my New York friends - the Marcollas - will be at their country home in Vernon in August. This is going to be an extremely expensive trip - I sometimes wonder if it is worth it - but prices are rising all the time, and next year it may be more expensive still. (It is £100 up on last year!) We are having a disappointing summer here. After the bitterly cold spring, some warmth would be welcome. It is dry enough, and today is sunny ... but always chilly. One refuses to be parted from one's Woolly! Our trees have suffered badly - laburnums and other shrubs singed by the East winds. It seems to be only on the coast. A few hundred yards inland they are all right. However, the lawns look very nice. Our man takes a great pride in them. Though there is no question of sitting out until we do get a change. If I go to USA in September, I shall pay a long-promised visit to my cousins in Yorkshire, if they are going to be at home in August. I would go on up to Hoscote, but I have an idea the Staverts are going to Portugal. I saw in the "Telegraph" recently that two old friends of mine - George and Kathleen Jameson - had died both on the same day: he was 92 and she 91: after 60 years of married life together. Wasn't that a wonderful ending? He was a churchwarden at SJDK in my time. They had a house in the Scilly Isles where I joined them one holiday. They came for a weekend to Ampthill about 1937. I had lost touch with them in recent years, and imagined they must be dead. So I had quite a turn when I read the announcement. They apparently lived in Tewkesbury, where the present Vicar - Pouncey - was a curate at SJDK after my time. Incidentally, I nearly went there from Ampthill in 1940, but there was an enormous Vicarage to keep up, and not a big stipend. I was advised not to take it. The June magazine was here on my return. I see you are in for a month of fetes. Who is Air Commodore Sowman? Yours sincerely,"

item

Hillam, John George,
Grimmer, Honora,
Fitton, Mary,
Fitton,
Elizabeth I,
Shakespeare, William,
Legh,
National Trust,
Henry VIII,
Cromwell, Oliver,
Marcolla,
Stavert,
Jameson, George,
Jameson, Kathleen,
Pouncey,
Sowman, John E.R.

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