Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU34/21/7/16/17
  • Title
    Letter from R P S Waddy
  • Date free text
    11 December 1976
  • Production date
    From: 1976 To: 1976
  • Scope and Content
    A typewritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) on headed paper from St. Fursey, in Ditchingham, Bungay to Honora Grimmer: "My dear Nora, Please excuse the typewriter; it can't spell, but it is so much more legible than I am nowadays. This brings our Christmas good wishes, and a little something for postage for all the Ampthill News. I was going to write anyway, but am stirred to do so this morning because last night we went to All Hallows School for carols and a play: The Time Machine, by Ann Grimmer. It really was a Good Thing. Nativity plays are never easy to write; she started in 2040 A.D. when England has been 'liberated' from Christianity and only acknowledge Megali as Leader. A girl rebelling against this was joined by - well, I can only describe her as looking like Charley's Aunt: Ann herself in a large hat armed with an umbrella - and with the help of a survivor of the days of Alfred the Great, and a Time Machine, they are whisked back to the Nativity itself: shepherds, then the stable and wise men and themselves joining in the worship; and back again with a stop in Alfred's time, so that Ann could fall in love with a 9th century man, and the other two could return to defeat Megali. All very odd, but laced with wit and wisecracks, and Ann herself carrying the whole thing in a delicious combination of reverence and bounce. I did not know she had all this in her; she is quiet and plain and dumpy; but she is clever and should do well, and with all this talent she MUST do well. So, Up the Grimmer Clan! I thought you'd like to know. I must tell you, for Andrew's benefit, the saga of Percy Gill's books, which he so kindly left me in his will. It took Pickfords of Bedford seven weeks to get them here; partly because of a narrow gateway into the Convent, which I had warned them about. There were eight cases, plus the oak bookcase, and I have enjoyed tasting them. But Pickfords had estimated (and charged me for) fifteen boxes; so with my tongue in my cheek I wrote to thank them kindly and ask for a refund. Their answer was, that there were two more boxes which had been sent to Nottingham by mistake, and would at their convenience be sent on. So I still wait for the end of the story! We have had a splendid summer; three weeks with one grand-daughter in Dorset, and then two more with the other in Athens - whence, at Andrew's behest, I send a cable for the Ampthill festival. It sounds so splendid that I must come and see the new building one day; but we don't go joy-rides nowadays, especially in winter. We hibernate. (But there is an interregnum in the parish here, and it has been fun to minister to some one else other than nuns and girls.) My love to Ampthill. Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy"
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