Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU34/21/7/16/36
  • Title
    Letter from R P S Waddy
  • Date free text
    4 May 1989
  • Production date
    From: 1989 To: 1989
  • Scope and Content
    A typewritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) to Honora Grimmer, on headed paper from his new home at Manormead, Hindhead, Surrey: "Ascension Day - And a perfectly lovely one - half the aged from the nursing home are out in the garden, under those fancy umbrellas; I don't have to move, because I face west and the sun is pouring in on me, warming my octogenarian bones - 'making me young and lusty as an eagle' though my knowledge of birds doesn't include the nature of an eagle's heartbeats. I was out to lunch yesterday in Guildford, and my hostess was pleased with a pet robin that fed from her hand; it reminded me of a peacock on whom I was on the same terms in upcountry Bombay. It had broken its wing, and so was prepared to be sociable. But when it lost the other wing we decided on a dinner party, itself providing the main dish; I remember it only because never before or since have I had such a tummyache next day. But enough of ornithology. Your Ampthill News (or thereabouts) has just come: I am sorry that Canon Fielder has gone out of his mind (last month I appreciated his comments on a NO THANK-YOU, I'M 1662, and have been trying to acquire a copy; but feminist as I am, I do not want another prayer-book with that sort of jargon. When the New English Bible first came out, it replaced S.Paul's 'as one born out of due time' with 'though my birth was monstrous' (they altered it in the next edition) but indeed monstrous is the word for That Sort of Thing. But I have cut out the two cartoons, one naval and the other golfy, and sent them on to that same hostess of yesterday, with my Collins; since she has a naval husband addicted to golf. Very timely! Life here is pleasantly placid, and I am greatly enjoying the clerical companionship; we exchange all the old stories, and are not supposed to reply that we first heard that one in 1930. I drove down to Dorset for Easter, and then to Kent to inspect my grandchildren; and then again to Dorset when Havana got back from India and was going off to Bryanston. She writes now of it in a somewhat condescending way, as a place were all the little gossips and affairs still go on, but seem remote to so travelled a creature as herself. That term in Delhi was a triumphant success, and so was her subsequent tour of Jaipur and Rajputana, all fixed up by herself! Now she has decided to go up to Balliol - it had not occurred to me that of course the haunt of three generations of Waddy no takes girls! It will spur her to work for it, and she wants to find a course of oriental languages that is neither Chinese-And-All-That or Hebrew-And-Arabic. No doubt if there isn't, she will persuade Balliol to invent one; Charis my learned sister had the rules changed so that she could hold the University prizes she won way back in 1930. Stacy's six months at the BBC has just ended; it was temporary anyway, and they are cutting down in all directions. But she had a programme on BUSKERS coming in mid-month, and her own film on Freud is on Channel 4 on May 23rd at 9pm. Try that one! Giles her husband has just added to all his other worldwide jobs a big store in Auckland - glad because if you're flying to NZ, at someone else's expense, you can visit anywhere you like en route! They have bought a big house near Beaminster and move in August, so my cottage will be sold. I do miss the Frome flowing by, chuckling to me. Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy"
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