Reference
AU10/102/4/9
Title
Handwritten Letter
Date free text
1 October 1953
Production date
From: 1953 To: 1953
Scope and Content
"113 Queens Road, Richmond, Surrey.
Dear Miss Ira-Smith,
I was so pleased to receive your letter this morning, with its cheerful account of your doings. I could see you both sitting on the end of the pier at Brighton, revelling in the sunshine and sea air! And I am so glad Mr.Cooper has been to see you, and that you like him. I wonder if you remember a Church Army Captain called Higginson who was in Ampthill for a time during the War? He is now a clergyman on the staff of Glasgow Cathedral, and he came here one day about 2 weeks ago. He lodged with the Simpsons (the grocer) when he was in Ampthill, and he calls to see them occasionally. When he was here, he said "What a pity that Cooper did not follow you at Ampthill instead of Waddy! Everything would have gone on just the same, as Cooper is in sympathy with everything you did. Now he has to make up the ground lost in Waddy's time."
Yes, it is six years now - time is passing. And what changes in those six years. All the old ladies of Church Street have gone. Miss Florence is the last of them, and she, poor dear, is now only a wreck of the Miss Eagles Ampthill knew! It is very tragic that her mental powers have collapsed like that!
I am glad you have raised the question of the Ampthill News and the parish magazine. Actually I don't see there is much point in your continuing to send them. Miss Florence doesn't read them - and I find the "A.N." rarely mentions anyone I know. The parish magazine has become a very poor little thing. What a pity Waddy abandoned that lovely picture on the cover Prof. Richardson designed for me of the procession emerging from the church porch, and substituted that dreadful old man with a beard who is supposed to be St.Andrew!
I think I must rely on you in future to tell me of any really startling events that may occur. I forget whether our annual subscription to the A.N. and the magazine was due at the end of September. You must let me know if I owe you anything.
I can quite understand Mr. Cooper's idea in starting the Parish Communion at 9:30 instead of a Sung Eucharist (with a largely uncommunicating congregation) at 11. It is the ideal arrangement and many churches are adopting it now. But the great difficulty is that when a priest is singlehanded, the communion of large numbers of people takes such a very long time, that the children get tired and restless, and the service drags out to well over an hour. Where there is a curate to help with the chalice, it makes all the difference. This, I imagine, is going to be Mr.Cooper's difficulty. Still, he has the P.C.C. behind him in making the change, and that is the main thing. I shall be very interested to know if it succeeds.
I think all the clergy in the Deanery have changed since I left, except Cox of Haynes (whom I could not bear, between ourselves!) I don't know if Roberts is still at Westoning. Ball of course at Flitwick came shortly before my departure. The Rector of Maulden (Adams) is the brother of my first housekeeper at Ampthill Rectory. I never met him. Miss Adams eventually returned to Ampthill as housekeeper to old Tansley (retired butcher) in Ashburnham Road. She may still be with him, if he is still alive.
My mind has travelled to Ampthill many times this year, for it was exactly 20 years ago (1933) that I was beginning my 14 years there. I remember vividly the autumn of 1933 when I used to sit having tea in the dining room, with my dog Jock (then a small puppy) sitting in a chair beside me, and through the windows the darkness creeping over the garden. The big cedar tree which I later cut down to open up the view then dominated the view from the windows - and I remember how quiet and peaceful and silent it all seemed after the noise and bustle of my years in London! But I am afraid I grew to hate the Rectory as time went on. The gas lighting, the fearful cold in the winter, that enormous garden in the summer, and, of course, the constant bother and worry over housekeepers!
Nothing would ever induce me to take charge of a Rectory in the country again! I have come to see that a priest needs to be married in such circumstances.
I am kept quite busy here, the Bishop of Soutwark is always on my track. Just now I have the very interesting job of Chaplain to Greenwich Naval College - ministering to and preaching to Naval Officers, the very best type of Englishmen. I also play the magnificent grand piano in the Painted Hall to them sometimes after dinner. They literally drag me to it by force! Maybe I shall have Prince Philip in the audience soon! Oddly enough, I was myself a student at the College in World War One (in 1918 to be exact) as a young RAF officer on a special course. So I feel very much at home there.
My love and best wishes to you and your mother. I know Miss Florence would join me in sending hers.
Yours sincerely,
John Hillam"
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