Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    AU34/21/7/16/43
  • Title
    Letter from R P S Waddy
  • Date free text
    20 November 1990
  • Production date
    From: 1990 To: 1990
  • Scope and Content
    A handwritten letter from R P S Waddy (former Rector of St Andrew's, Ampthill) to Honora Grimmer, from his home at Manormead, Hindhead, Surrey, plus the typewritten text of a sermon he's written: "Dear Nora, This Christmas letter, so I send it with my love, even though Christmas is still a month ahead. It is 43 years this week since my institution at Ampthill by Philip Loyd - which means that it is 43 years since the wedding of the Queen. Thank you again for Church & Town. It has been very kind of you and Lily to send it, and kind too of Mrs Wright to offer to send it on next year. I must admint that it does beome a little more remote each year, and I don't want it to become a burden to her. But this month I was glad to read news of the Fielders at the rival establishment of S.Barnabas, Lingfield. We have just got an enlarged chapel (which is lovely) but they have SNOOKER! (I think we are too ancient, and blind, to play anyway!) I hope to spend Christmas with Stacy in Dorset, and go on to Christopher in Kent for the New Year. I have at last given up my car, but I don't need it a great deal anyway. With much love and a prayer Yours affectionately, Pat Stacy Waddy" "Fifty years ago, a number of frightened strangers crouched in an air-raid shelter during a heavy raid. As the crump of bombs seemed to come nearer, and shrapnel clattered above them, someone suggested that they should say a prayer. Being English, no one volunteered; but one elderly lady said that she could just remember a prayer which her mother taught her. Crouching even more piously the rest awaited the words; and solemnly she recited them: 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful'. The old grace seems more appropriate for our new year than it was that night! Manormead, which has now been my home for two years, has provided plenty of grounds for thankfulness - good company and care by courtesy of the Church of England Pensions Board. The two outstanding events of 1990 were staged elsewhere however; a funeral in Spain and a wedding in Somerset. For once I was in the right place at the right moment, visiting Spain with Christopher when a priest was needed. The wedding was more purposeful. A former pupil form our Norfolk days called, with her bespoken, to be assured that I was not yet gaga before inviting me to tie their bridal knot, within reach of Stacy's Dorset home. It was the hottest day of this lovely summer and a memorable occasion; presumably the last, or thereabouts of my priestly career. It was of course less overheated than our own wedding, at Kohlapur in April 1934 when it was 108 degrees as we set out on our honeymoon at 10 o'clock or so; Margaret having married me at 8. So for what we are about to receive in 1991, after the joy of Christmas, may it be truly thankworthy. George Herbert may have the last word: 'Thou who hast given so much to me, Give one thing more, a grateful heart. PAT STACY WADDY"
  • Level of description
    item
Hierarchy browser