Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU10/102/1/209
  • Title
    Typewritten letter
  • Date free text
    17 June 1972
  • Production date
    From: 1972 To: 1972
  • Scope and Content
    "I have just returned from a visit to Normandy, and now I must get down to answering letters. I find going over to Normandy as easy - if not easier - than going up to Yorkshire. I take the hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais - 40 min : express train to Paris, where I am met and driven to Argentan. As I think I have said before, I love Normandy - it is the least spoilt of any part of the world I know - very pastoral scenery - lovely old towns. I become a real Frenchman there. I have always been able to speak French fluently since my childhood, so I feel as much at home there as I do in England: probably more so, since I have always felt that I am more French than English by temperament! I was very interested in the Nicolls service paper. Yes, I remember buying the American flag - was it at Selfridges? - I wanted a bigger one, but it was all they could supply. What a good thing the Americans are at Chicksands, so near. It has all fitted in well. Did you - by the way - ever read the letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple? She lived at Chicksands. You can get it in the Everyman edition. She was a wonderful character. I think there is some connection between the Osbornes at Chicksands and the Miss Osborne who lived opposite you. I remember her in my early years at Ampthill - wasn't she Scoutmaster? She married a doctor, who treated her very badly, and she became mentally affected, and died. It was all a very sad business. I talked to her about Dorothy Osborne, and she said she would take me to Chicksands, but it never came off. I have been reading recently a book which would interest you: LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL AND HIS WIFE by Georgina Blakiston. I got it from the Broadstairs Library - they are most efficient and get me any book I ask for. Do try and get it from your local library (Bedford?) Lord W and his wife were the grandparents of the Miss Russells - Constance and Romola - and their letters have recently come to light at Woburn. I gather Mrs.Blakiston is also a Russell. I found the book so engrossing I simply could not put it down. It is all about Woburn in the early 19th.century, and the goings-on there. Ampthill, of course, is mentioned many times. The Park was then inhabited by Lord and Lady Holland. There is a mention of Lord and Lady W. coming to Ampthill for the opening of the Alameda. Lord Odo Russell (1st Baron Ampthill) was their third son. There is quite a lot about him. I did not realise he died - while Ambassador to Berlin - when he was only 55. It must have been then that his widow, Emily, Lady Ampthill, came to the Park in 1884, bringing with her her children. Do you remember her? I am only sorry this book did not come out 40 years ago when I first arrived in Ampthill. I should have loved to talk to the Miss Russells about their grandparents. In those years before the war, I used to be invited to the Park to their Monday luncheons, or tea, almost every week, and I met many interesting people, both of the Russell family, and others. The only Ampthill person I ever met there was Mrs.Farrington Downes. I used to be very amused by the Miss Russells' tart remarks about certain people in Ampthill! They did not think much of the Richardsons - they used to say they were Jews! Mr.Broun was also invited sometimes. [written by hand on the side: "And Sir A. of course."] Years after they left the Park - in 1941 - Sir Anthony Wingfield told me once "Of course the Miss Russells always hoped you would marry Phyllis Russell" (the present Lord Ampthill's sister). She was often in evidence at the Park - but it never occurred to me that she was being invited for my benefit!! She eventually married a man who was something in the City. As I think I told you, when they had to leave the Park in 1941, they gave me some of their gilt mirrors and a screen etc. which I have here. They also offered me their grand piano - on which I used to play often - and which had been played by no less a celebrity than Listz : but I had to refuse it as I had already a grand piano of my own. I kept up an occasional correspondence with Miss Romola until her death, but the last time I actually saw her was at Sir A.Wingfield's funeral in 1953. But do make every effort to get hold of this book - Andrew would find a lot in it - unfortunately it is £7.50, or I would have bought it. To your letter. Like you, I decided to throw out my gas heater in the bathroom, and install an electric one, which not only gives more hot water more quickly, but is cleaner. I found a previous letter of yours - March 19th - in which are questions I do not seem to have answered. Yes, I met Mr.Waddy two or three times. He came to see me about the Rectory before I left Ampthill. And I met him again at Sir Anthony's funeral (he had just left Ampthill then: it was in the interregnum). What a tragic family the Hetleys are! As tragic as the Moores into which Mary married. I think I told you that Desmond Moore was on the verge of divorcing Mary when he was killed in the RAF in Canada. As he didn't, I suppose she has an officer's pension. And his mother committed suicide in Brighton! I am now expecting visitors from abroad: I have engagements in London the first week in July: in August I go up to Yorkshire, and then on to Scotland. Back here sometime in September. Next winter I plan to go to Egypt over Christmas - then on to Malta (where I have never been!) What a terrible air crash last night at Staines! There have been several recently. I never get into a 'plane without wondering ... I am glad they were dead when the 'plane hit the ground. I should hate to be burnt to death. I have had two narrow escapes from drowning in my life - but I would prefer that to incineration! Yours sincerely," "P.S. Does Victor Gillett still deliver your post?"
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