1937 April
From LJT to Annette
SS Maloja
In the Red Sea
April 2nd 1937
My darling Annette
We were very pleased and excited to get your cable at Bombay – Congratulations on getting a place at Oxford – Somervelle I suppose, for the Autumn – So often people have asked me what you are going to do, and when I have answered that you want to go up to Oxford, the reply “Oh, but you know, its terribly hard to get in.” It was most energetic of you to write two letters to Aden – My poor Anne! You seem to have been having rather a time of it with Miss Capstick. its odd that she seems to be developing all the qualities of show and money being of prime importance and so on that made me not want you to go to St Monica’s under Miss Bervon’s regime, and which Miss Capstick gave me to understand she was going to do her best to eliminate. Daddy was a little angry and very amused at the business about the clothes and the new hat. He said he wondered what a boy would think if he were told that his chance of getting a scholarship or a place were dependent on his clothes. Still – there’s something in it. It does give one a feeling of poise and confidence to be reasonably well and suitably dressed. I’m sorry your last week’s as Head Girl have been a bit clouded by Miss C’s bad temper. A week to-day it will be over and you will be adventuring out into a fresh life. I can scarcely believe that a week to-morrow I shall see you all! If only Air travel did not make Dad feel so sick I would try to persuade him to fly from Marseilles – for I don’t think it costs more than going by train.
We shall come by ordinary express – sleeping a night in Paris – and as far as I remember, we arrive at Victoria about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Its hard to realize that in a few days we shall be cold. Its been a delicious voyage so far – never hot and never cold. The water in the swimming bath and the air outside have registered 80° each day. When we wake up at Suez on Sunday morning we shall probably find a biting cold wind blowing off the desert.
We had a lovely bathe at Aden. You remember that delightful bathing bay there? We get into Port Said at 8 o’clock in the evening. If I can persuade Dad to go for a stroll ashore I shall, but I don’t suppose he will be keen and Mr Percy Brown is going to do the dash to Cairo from Suez and will only rejoin the ship at Port Said just before it sails –
The Baden Powells are on board and are both such dears. We had breakfast with him this morning and got him talking about South Africa, which was most interesting – He’s a wonderful old man. He’s so active and his mind is so clear. The girl who is acting as Lady B.P’s secretary – Rosalind de Renzy-Martin is the most delightful person and see a lot of her – She loves travelling and Percy Brown and I spent a most delightful evening with here hearing about her experiences in Albania, where her father spent some years organizing the constabulary for King Zog.
I paused here to read through a note written by Baden Powell for the educational authorities in India, pointing out the educational value of scouting and giving his impressions of what he found in India. I don’t really think it very good – for practically every thing that is in it has been said time and time again in all the Scout books. However perhaps the education people have not read them!
Too lazy to write any more – and I wont write to Rosemary as I shall see you so soon after this arrives – Give her my love and tell her this, will you?
Best love
Mum
3.4.37
P.S. We hope to arrive on Saturday afternoon 3.21. at Victoria – a week to-day.
Post Scriptum – one of the more obvious remarks. My mind is a blank: all my energy is needed for digesting the unnecessary amount that I (somehow) put down during the day. So I write nothing – except Bless You
Dad
From LJT to Annette
Great Leighs
May 20th
Darling Annette
I hope your journey continued as cheerfully as it began and that you are favourably impressed by your new surroundings. Paris is a lovely city, is’nt it?
Dad and Mr Christie seem to have got quite friendly and parted with mutual expressions of esteem after travelling to Charing Cross to-gether.
I’m really very busy, so cant write much – The two chief bits of news are that Perkin has three kits and that Norman is coming to fetch Doodles away this evening – Charlotte says “Why not give him Brough?” – Nannie is better but looking very peeky.
Here are our addresses –
Golden Cross Hotel
Oxford – till Monday.
c/o B.V.A Tennant Esq
Ham’s Plot
Beaminster
Dorset
till the 28th – Then to Mrs. Petrie
The Corner House – Wethington Glocs.
for a week – I’ll send other addresses later.
The Ballet was lovely last night –
Best love and bless you, my child
Mum
From LJT to Annette
Ham’s Plot
Beaminster
Dorset
May 25th 1937
My darling Annette
I was glad to get your post-card and later see Richard’s letter from you – I am relieved that the other English girl is nice – It would have been disagreable for you if she had not been – Its odd that there is no sitting room and I should have thought it would have made it rather uncomfortable – but I hope for just two months it wont matter very much –
Dad and I had a pleasant and interesting week-end at Oxford and walked for miles and miles, looking at Colleges and gardens and rooms where Dad lodged and places where murders have been committed in detective stories! (This last entirely Dad’s idea, as you may imagine!).
We went to call on Miss Derbyshire and she was very charming and showed us all over Somerville They are nice buildings’, are’nt they? I should think its much nicer being in the town, than right outside like Girton is at Cambridge.
We also went to see Headington School and like every thing about it. The main school block is a splendid modern building, standing in lovely grounds. The House where Rosemary will be stands in the grounds and has a really lovely garden with exceptionally fine trees in it. We like both Miss Moller, the Head-mistress and also Miss Pearce – the House mistress – Miss Moller is a very young looking woman and perfectly simple – not in the least got up like Miss C. I hope Rosemary will like it. Miss Derbyshire says she hears very well of it. It is rather a relief to me to have it all settled.
It was cold and very showery over the week-end. We only watched one race on Saturday afternoon and then were driven away by the rain and the cold wind. We drove down to dine with the Pilkingtons near Newbury that night. Joey cam for the day on Sunday and we spent the whole day looking at the sights, when we were not eating! Richard gave us tea in his rooms, which are very nice and look out across the meadows to the River.
Luckily the weather turned fine yesterday and we had a lovely drive down here, stopping for lunch at Marlborough with Edwin Kempson. This morning Uncle Bernard drove us through fascinating lanes to some downs, where we walked – now he mows the lawn and Dad sleeps in a deck chair on the grass, while I write.
Best love, my darling
from
Mum
From HPV to Annette
At Beaminster
May 25th 1937
My dear Annette.
As you are in foreign parts, I am writing to you for your comfort. It is a not and blue skied day and we are sitting, at three of the afternoon on the lawn of Bernard Tennant’s house, a few feet from a rippling brook which, as it should not for poetry’s sake, carries the town sewage. It is a restful day: and unless I washed the car I could find nothing which has a prior claim on my attention. Since all is thus in favour of my writing undisturbed I feel quite incompetent to do it.
After leaving you at Victoria, we parted. Mr Christie was full of a scheme for walking to the Temple and I agreed to accompany him as far as Charing Cross: but he abandoned the idea as soon as we emerged into the drizzle and substituted busily a scheme for going by underground. Most people would merely have gone by it but he turned the whole thing into a planned manoeuvre which lent it a strange dignity. At Charing Cross he came up with me above ground to look at the weather (which was unchanged) and then plunged down again. So we went our several ways. – I can only suppose that he supposed me never to have been in the underground before and to be in need of guidance. After that the day was busy. First my dentist: then Doris Holmes to lunch: then the Cookes from Calcutta to tea: then Marnie Atkins to dinner: then the Russian ballet. Each event running into the one before. The next day saw me weary. After breakfast a visit to your school secretary: he says that most parents of St Monica’s girls are badly off and I much doubt whether there will be any money from your scholarship. Of course rupees turned into pounds look as if they were wealth: no one believes how inevitable is the expenditure in Calcutta, and my income looks very good to anyone in England. The interview ended, we went to see St Paul’s because someone had said that it was so improved by cleaning: your mother who despises all except Gothic cathedrals thought more poorly of it than before. So far as I know I had not been inside it since 1896 or so, and I could make no comparisons: but I looked at a statue of Lord Cornwallis and reflected on the strangeness of my working so happily to upset his work after all these years. Lunch in the B.E.S. snack bar was followed by a return to Highways. The car had had its shock absorbers replaced and seems the better for it. It was with difficulty that I got packed in time for us to leave at 11.15 – three quarters of an hour behind time: and in pigs weather we drove to Oxford, lunching at St Albans in a pleasant place and arriving at teatime. We found Richard in his rooms and at once launched out on a round of sightseeing which would have killed us if we had stayed a day longer than we did. Somerville inspection that evening: it seemed pleasant. Headington school inspection the next day; good buildings, delightful grounds, a capable Head Mistress, young and commonsensical; e thought well of the place and decided to decide upon it. Afternoon, in cold rain (not heavy but unpleasant) we visited the boat races or rather one of them. We then fled to a warm tea room and after a while drove something less than 30 miles to dine with the Pilkingtons. Bed late. Next day, Joyce arrived. It rained most of the morning and we trailed round the different Colleges. In the afternoon it cleared up and we visited college gardens. Pleasant. Yesterday we drove here. How beautiful are Bucks, Oxon, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset!
And now I am collapsed with drowsiness in the sun.
Much love
Dad
From LJT to Annette
The Corner House
Withington
Glos.
June 1st
My darling Annette
We too, plunged straight into high summer and are having the most wonderful weather – Temperatures have not been so high here as in London and I suppose in Paris you have had it hotter still. I hope the new clothes are proving suitable. If there is a gap in your wardrobe which you need to fill don’t hesitate to do so.
Its awfully nice that you are able to see something of Peggy and that you have met some other friends, and I hope you will meet the girl who is going to Somerville, because if she’s at all nice, it will be pleasant for you each to have the other to greet when you arrive at a strange place –
Its singularly difficult to write letters here – There’s such a lot to talk to Mrs. Petrie about and she has so many ideas for little outings while the weather is fine – Indeed one does feel that one ought to make hay while the sun shines, for fear it may have gone by to-morrow! Actually we had a big outing yesterday and Mrs. P. drove us just under a hundred miles. We went via Cheltenham and Tewkesbury – over the south end of the Malvern Hills to Hereford, where we looked at the Cathedral – Then we went on tea with Mrs. Petrie’s old friend Mrs. Ramsden near Ross-on-Wye and home via Gloucester – a lovely round – Dad is enjoying this wandering and the good weather and has got so sunburnt. Our programme is working out very well – I enclose a few more addresses – I don’t yet know where we are staying in Edinburgh and at NewCastle, but will inform you later.
Its very good of Madame to take the price of the French Course off the £16 you paid her. I will try to find time to write to her in a day or two to thank her. What subjects do your lectures deal with? I am surprised that you don’t admire the Venus of Milo more. I think its simply marvellous – I can sit and gaze at it for ages and from all angles. The Winged Victory is wonderful too – but it does’nt hold me quite as the Venus does. The picture in the Louvre that has left the most vivid impression with me is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Holy Family” – The expression on Saint Anne’s face is, in my opinion, quite as wonderful as the famous smile of La Giaconda.
We are shortly setting off to tea with Mrs Petrie’s sister at Wooten-under-Edge, about 30 miles away – I had a lesson in driving the car this morning and found the gears very odd – but I suppose I will soon get into useing them. The most difficult thing for the moment is that the brake and accelerator are reversed from what they are in the Armstrong – and my foot naturally goes to the wrong place!!
Mrs. P. sends you her love – and she says she does want you to feel that you can come here whenever you feel inclined – Its only about 38 miles from Oxford – and there are buses or road coaches to Cheltenham from which you could drop out at Andoversford and Mrs. P could always fetch you from there.
I must change now – Best love from us all.
Mum
From HPV to Annette
At Knutsford
June 6th 1937
My dear Annette.
The less to do, the less done. During my stay at Withington it would surely have been easy to write letters at great length: but there seemed to be no suitable occasion, except in the evenings when the lack of light was against it. The sitting room was chilly in the mornings and there was no very satisfactory table to sit at: in the evenings when the Aladdin lights were going, writing would have been effected on the knee only which is not good. Motoring is against writing. Much of our days went in trips: and the balance in the laziness induced by them. Thus, I am now conscious, I omitted to write to any of the family or to anyone except Leslie.
News would be diluted guide book. Glimpses of some cathedrals and churches would be title. Hereford, Gloucester, Lichfield cathedrals: Tewkesbury Abbey, Malvern Abbey and some smaller churches. Much might be said of all of all these but not by me, or not by me at this time. It is a sad thing that after seeing so many cathedrals at one time and another, and after reading in a desultory way so many discussions and descriptions of their architecture, still I know nothing of the Gothic periods. Lack of real interest of course. Which means lack of system. Similar reasons explain my inability to do simple arithmetic. At Bernard Tennant’s I came across a book – “How to be Quick at Figures” which might revolutionise matters for me – if I worked hard enough at it. But all tips and short cuts really entail, like conjuring, incessant and laborious practice. One can take one’s choice whether one works hard beforehand or at the time, in fact. And the sad thing is that, when one has so rarely to do calculations, the amount of preliminary work necessary to guarantee success at th moment of trial is out of all proportion. However it would save a certain amount of humiliation also. And anyhow I have ordered the book.
The bureau at which your mother is now writing belonged to Lord Nelson. We are in the Royal George Hotel, mentioned in “Cranford” – and I do not suppose that you have every heard of that, let alone have read it. It shows how futile is the reading of good books that I having read it in years gone by remember nothing of it except (1) eating peas on the knife and (2) being run over by a train while reading an instalment of (?) the Pickwick Papers: and perhaps the latter incident is not in the book at all.
Driving the £47/10 car feels like groping through the valley of the shadow of death – with fears on both sides and in front. Not that it hasn’t done fairly well up to date. The oil consumption is a mystery sometimes the oil disappears in 100 miles, sometimes it seems to last pretty well. Petrol likewise may be used at 18 miles to the gallon or at 25: unless my calculations are at fault. The battery went flat the other night, run dry: after the horn had twice phutted (may be “to go phut” is Hindustani) for no apparent cause. The most important failing was due to my over caution. I told a garage at Cheltenham to check the brakes and paid 3/6 therefore: and the next time I used the brakes, three days later (because our excursions were in Mrs Petrie’s car) they threw the car right across the road: dangerously. We had to have them seen to again in Stratford on Avon (6 shillings) and used the delay (of two hours) to visit an old lady whom we knew in Calcutta. She gave us lunch, showed us her house, and insisted on taking us to the Church with Shakespeare’s tomb (which I should otherwise have dodged – but you should see it). The house belonged to Shakespeare’s daughter Susannah: it is superb. Note the name and the address
Miss Macleod. Hall’s Croft. Old Town. Stratford on Avon.
Visit the town: go to the house: and if Miss Macleod is not in ask the housekeeper Mrs Timms to show it to you. So says Miss Macleod.
(Map of position of Hall Croft drawn in)
The house is so good that it is worth your while to extract the address and the sketch.
Much love. Your mother sends the enclosed.
Dad
From LJT to Annette
Moss Grove Hotel
Grasmere
June 10th 1937
My darling Annette
Quite often I write letters in bed in the morning, but its not often I write them in bed at night, as I am doing now. Dad is busy discussing irrigation with rather a nice man in the Lounge –the man’s wife and an American woman put in a word now and again – Its quite interesting, but as my attempts to write to you for a couple of days past have all come to nothing, I thought I had better make an effort now and knew I should not get anything done against the flow of talk.
I don’t think I have written since I got your last letter – It was rather a jolly one and gave the impression, which I hope is true, that you are having a reasonably interesting time. Its a pity that the other girl who is going up to Somerville, proved so dull. Its odd the way one sometimes comes across people who seem to live in a different key from ones own – It makes any sort of approach to them very difficult.
The time for sending you some more money is drawing near – Will you let me know soon, how the money is lasting out and perhaps give me some sort of estimate of what you think you will need till we pick you up on the 24th or 25 of July – Also would you prefer to have it sent over in two lots – one now and one later. I think it will have to take the form of pound notes.
Dad and I have enjoyed our few days here, though we finished up this evening with blistered feet. I have only a pair of heave nailed brogue shoes with me, and I nearly always get blisters if I attempt hill climbing in shoes – and Dad and I have done three days of it – We did a short scramble on the evening we arrived here – The following morning was wet, but we walked round Grasmere Lake in spite of that – and enjoyed it It cleared later and after an early tea we made our way up a valley, climbed a 1,500 ft peak – dropped into another valley – climbed a ridge and home down a third valley. The following morning was wet again – but cleared by 11. o’clock. We did a run round in the car before lunch, but started out immediately after lunch to climb Fairfield 2814 ft – the Peak next to Helvellyn and very little lower – We started out at 2.15 and got back at 7.15. To-day has been wonderful weather – as near perfection as well could be – Taking lunch, we spent the whole day on the Fells, doing a splendid round of tops, the highest of which was just over 2,000 ft. Its a grand country for walking – this – I wish we could have spent longer here – but I don’t know what would have happened to the feet. We have to drive 170 miles to-morrow to Mrs. Hamilton’s –
Our address in Edinburgh on the nights of 14th and 15th will be Thomson’s Hotel
26 Drumsheugh Gardens
Edinburgh –
on 16the and 17 c/o Mrs. John Elliot
23 Akenside Terrace
Jesmond
Newcastle on Tyne
Northumberland –
The 18th we spend at York or Ripon –
19-21 at The Rose and Crown
Brailsford. Derbyshire
21st night at Ely and Highways on 22nd.
I have just got some A.A. routes for France but hav’nt had time to look them through yet.
Best love, my dear
from Mum
The enclosed letter has just come from Auntie – I’m so glad that Uncle is giving up the chickens – Its seems so pointless to work as he does and make no money - -
From LJT to Annette
Thomson’s Hotel
Drumsheugh Gardens,
Edinburgh, 3.
June 15th 1937
My darling Annette
Your entertaining letter of June 9th must have crossed mine, and answered some of the questions I asked you. I have instructed Grindlays to send you £25. You must let me know whether that will carry you on till we pick you up, which I should think will be about Friday 23 or Sat 24th July. I think we shall probably spend a couple of nights in Paris, before we move on – and I should think you might as well stay on at Madame Blok’s – what do you think? Perhaps you could find out if there is a moderate priced hotel near – Dad does not want to drive the car into the centre of Paris where the traffic is very thick, but I think one can get fairly near in without getting into frightfully crowded streets. Perhaps Madame Blok would be able to advise. We shall have to think out the problem of your luggage. We can send the things you left at home and will want at St Jacut with Auntie by train and boat – Do you think you will be able to take what you will need of your Paris clothes in your suitcase and hat box, for that is, I am afraid, all you will be able to take in the car with us. Your big coat can go loose, of course. Your trunk I think we shall have to send to England as unaccompanied luggage getting Grindlays to pass it through the customs. If you have a few more clothes that you will want at St Jacut and cant get in to your suitcase, you could post them to the hotel Des Dunes and ask Mdelle Rebaillaid to keep them till we come.
We are having a wonderful time, but I simply have no leisure to describe it. Staying only a few days here and there all out time seems packed full. We are just going out to see the War Memorial and the Castle now We lunch with Col. Hamilton at the Overseas Club – Helen Johnston picks up up there at 3 o’clock and takes us to the Botanical Gardens and back to tea at her flat. We dine with Col. and Mrs. Stewart – old friends from Calcutta and leave early to-morrow for Newcastle, where we spend two nights to see Magda Ellcot. To-day week – the 22nd we shall be back at Highways and on 23rd at The Royal Empire Society. Northumberland Ave. WC2 till about 15th July. We shall be out of town each week-end, but I should not worry about that as far as letters are concerned. We enjoyed our week-end with the Hamiltons enormously – Audry is an awfully nice girl – We had to wonderful drives through the glorious West Highlands. Mrs. Hamilton says she does hope that if any of you could go up to see them, you will write and say so, for she would love to have you and for you and her family to meet again.
Must go out now!
Best love
Mum
From HPV to Annette
At Newcastle on Tyne
June 16th 1937
My dear Annette.
There has been of late less and less time for anything. We had a pleasant time with the Hamiltons but seemed to spend every moment either in excursioning or in polite discourse. The excursions were in Mr Hamilton’s car and covered most of the southern Highlands. It is in vain to attempt competition with the guide books: “he much have dredged the dictionary for adjectives” (who said that, of whom and of what essay? - I forget: probably in Kipling, maybe about the seaserpent – but I forget) and there is no other means unless one has poetic genius of conveying an impression of what the hills and lochs are like. Let me say ‘Formidable’ and leave them.
At Edinburgh where we stayed in a hotel things might have been better as regards leisure: but we had Helen Johnston in to dinner the first evening and spent the next day in sightseeing, lunching, visiting the Botanical Garden (your mother pursued primulas and poppies which she had seen in Sikkim and I trailed along and developed blisters) teaing and dining. Lunch with Col Hamilton, tea with Helen Johnston, and dinner with Col Stewart from Calcutta. We were lucky in our weather: as may be judged from my getting my nose burnt again. In the Lakes I burnt my forehead, having gone without a hat on long walks – and my lips and chin have been more or less sore since I came back home. Somewhere always there is an itch and a desire for chafing. – Anyhow the drawback to an excursion of this sort is that there is always the feeling that one should not waste the time but should instead be up and doing. We followed routine in this respect yesterday. Reaching here at 3.30, we changed and went to tea with Magda Elliot (Salversen as was) and with her afterwards to see the cathedral – which is a cathedral church like Chelmsford not uninteresting if one happens to be near it. Back and changed and then went out to dinner with them. And after dinner returning to the hotel at 10 o’clock I might have done great things but instead read “The Kings English”: the Fowlers are better critics than writers of English, by the way. This morning in twenty minutes time, we start off to see a bit of the Roman wall: car 20 miles walk three or tour: and I expect that we shall find most of the afternoon and evening engaged. Somehow I never get round to examining any irrigation figures: Lionel Pilkington gave me some data about pumps and I should like to see how they work out. But I expect that I shall spend the rest of my leave like this. If one hasn’t a home of one’s own or if at least one is not settled at one place for a fairly long time such things become extremely difficult.
The car has gone fairly well. It consumes engine oil and is by no means lively in hill climbing. Its back springs are weak and on a corrugated road the body sits down smack on the axle in a disconcerting way – we may have too much luggage on board. But it gets along: at a price though petrol consumption seems fairly good these days.
Your Paris letters are interesting. Continue the good work. I have carried round the “Indes Noires” and the gramophone book religiously and read neither during this trip and have in fact wasted time miserably. Except that when on leave one is entitled to waste it.
News from the family is good. But I am sorry that my brother is abolishing his fowl keeping: true, such things these days do not pay. But to chuck may be psychologically bad for him. He will perhaps not have enough to fill his days and will then be in the state which I fear for myself on retirement.
Enough
Much love
Dad
From LJT to Annette
The Royal Empire Society
Northumberland Avenue
W.C.2
June 25th 1937
My darling Annette
With some lack of skill, I seem to have left your last letter at Highways, so I cant look through it to see if there was anything to answer – I don’t think there was, except that I can remember whether you actually gave the name of a hotel somewhere in the suburbs of Paris, where we could perhaps stay for a night or two. If you did give it me, would you let me have it once more, in case your letter is lost?
Its a long time since I wrote, I am afraid – Every day has been full up. We enjoyed our week-end near Derby with Margaret Ogle. She is a very pleasant and amusing companion – We got home on Monday, after all. We saw so many cathedrals on Friday and Saturday, that we felt rather exhausted and very confused, and decided it would be better to cut out Peterborough and Ely and come straight home, so as to have a little more time to re-sort our luggage. We found the Sale of the Poultry Farm goods going on when we arrived. They did not fetch very much – only about £65 which seems to me miserably little, but Uncle Barney says it was all he expected. He seemed to be quite cheerful – I think the fact that enormous numbers of poultry farmers have had to go out of business, oweing to the high cost of food stuffs, helps him to feel that he has not been a personal failure. Auntie is really delighted, I think – It will be a great thing for her if Uncle has time to help in the garden and do odd jobs about the place –
June 26th There! I was not even able to finish this yesterday – Mr. Thompson, the young man who has run the Himalayan Club dinner, arrived and we made out the table plan for the 48 people, which took a good deal of time and thinking out – Another young man came to help, as Mr. Thompson had to rush back to do some work at Woolwich and left his friend as “budli” to help me – What with one thing and another, including the fact that we had to change to a horse-shoe table and reshuffle places, we were busy till nearly 5 o’clock, and knocked off for tea – As we were finishing Dad and Richard came back from the theatre where they had been to see “Busman’s Holiday” – There remained to put the cards round the table, after Richard had left and then it was time to dress and be ready to greet General Bruce at 7.15 p.m.
The dinner went off very well. General Bruce made a most amusing speech as he always does and there was obviously a lot of pleasure of old friends meeting again and people who knew one another by name, meeting in the flesh – so that a demand has gone forth that the dinner should be an annual function –
“What more” as our old friend, Raja Moni Lal, is found of saying – We’ve been to the Horse Show, which was lovely – spent an hour at the Zoo – have seen the full length Coronation Pictures, preceeding “Mr Deeds” and “the Good Earth” –
This morning we go down to Tadworth for the week-end to see Rosemary and we come back here on Monday.
Richard has been with Mrs. Petrie for a week and is coming up to London again on Thursday and going with us to Cooden Beach for Rosemary’s exiat week-end –
I am writing this in bed – and now (7 a.m) I must go and have my bath, for I have quite a lot of things to do before we leave this morning.
Best love, darling
from
Mum
Enclosed – R’s last letter –
From LJT to Annette
The Royal Empire Society,
Northumberland Avenue,
London, W.C.2.
June 30th 1937
The enclosed letters are old but may amuse you
My darling Annette
Your last very entertaining letter must have crossed mine I think – You are living in exciting times in France – I wonder what is going to happen. I hope nothing will prevent the holiday at St. Jacut.
This is’nt really going to be a “news” letter – for we have been doing so much that I don’t know where to begin – It is chiefly to ask you whether you think M. Jahier(?) or one of the family, could give us some advice about our route in France. We want to visit Rheims (2) and Soissons (1) and then we thought of coming to Paris, as near in as the traffic is not frightfully thick. Preferably we would like to stay at a hotel near a garage where we can put the car, for two or three nights. Failing that, we would garage the car and come further into Paris ourselves – If we could be some where handy for picking you up, it would be an advantage – but it is not essential, as we could always meet. I thought when leaving we would go to Versailles to let Richard see it and then on to Chartres. It would be awfully good of Mr. Jahier (?) or Mdme Blok if they could advise us –
We had a delightful week-end at Tadworth and Rosemary looked fit and seemed cheerful – Miss C. was not cordial!
Richard is accompanying us to Speech Day and for the week-end at Cooden – and I am making him get a new suit, for his own looks so out-grown –
I think we are going home on the 10th July – Dad is quite enjoying himself, but does not like too much London. It would be best not to bother about sending letters to
Mandilieu, Cooden Beach, Sussex, unless it is something urgent – We shall be there from Friday night till Monday morning, and We stay Monday night with the Ted Townends at Lynwood, Epsom Rd. Leatherhead and get back here for lunch on Tuesday.
So interested to hear that you met the Gots again and have been to see Uday Shan-Rai – We’ll talk of him later –
Best love from Mum