Letters to a Sister
Page 22
Very much love.
E.R.M.
I liked Edith Bone’s account of her 7 years in prison.321 She is wonderfully courageous & tough. The worst part would be the filthy floor, I think.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 19 June, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
... I am sorry to miss you tomorrow, but shall be at Stonehenge, spending first part of the night at Amesbury, where I have booked a room, and going on to Sunrise on Stonehenge (there probably won’t be any) about 4 a.m. I am writing about it in my novel,322 and thought I had better get it right. I shall like to see the Druids at their sun-worship; I saw a booklet giving their prayers to the Great Light. No sacrifices are allowed. Then I have breakfast and drive back to London along, I hope, nice quiet morning roads.
Thank you for cuttings. [James] Cameron is a v.g. commentator, and writes well always. I fear his pessimism is justified. No one seems to have a hope. The Turkish ambassador here says Turks are feeling very anti-British, so are the Greeks. Macmillan may as well save his breath this afternoon for all the good he will do.323
Bp Reeves spoke very well, and very fairly, giving credit to the South African government for spending millions on housing and schools etc., for Africans. How silly the papers are for only reporting interruptions at meetings.324 The Bp ignored them all and went on talking thro’ them. Lord Pakenham, when he spoke, answered interrupters & made them look silly, which may be better. He begged us all to see the question in the highest light we knew, if we didn’t happen to believe in a God. A young man shouted ‘The highest light is the British Empire.’ Lord P. commented ‘An understandable view, but, if I may say so, a little parochial.’ On the 27th I promised to attend a Women’s anti-bomb meeting. I refused at first, as I don’t approve of sex segregation on public questions, but later said I would, as it is important to stir up ordinary women about it. They have a good platform list.
Geoffrey Murray in the News Chronicle was rather unfair and sensational about Lord Altrincham’s not very good little book325. He doesn’t, e.g. say the clergy in general have ‘a rapt Druidical air’, but only that when they file into church they have. His book is often silly & ill-mannered & crude, but I think is worth while. He thinks the communion service involves a theory of atonement which he dislikes… but I didn’t like, in my review, to snub him for his efforts for reform. I will send or give you the book. We must meet next week (not Friday). When we do, you might suggest some good religious books for me to speak about to the Mothers’ Union (mostly officials and Bishops’ wives, not so much the common run) on July 9.... No, I shouldn’t canonize Newman, tho’ apparently the Vatican means to presently. After all what were his saintly deeds? I should saint Fr Damien,326 Schweitzer, and any who have given their lives up to difficult work for other people at great personal sacrifice.
V. much love.
E.R.M.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 16 July, 1958
Dearest Jeanie,
Many thanks for yours and cutting. I cut out for you from The Times Dr Chavasse’s angry abuse of pacifists in his sermon to Territorials.327 But I can’t find it. I enclose however a reply from me, from which you will gather the kind of thing he said.328 He certainly was ‘bloody-minded’, tho’ I agree that a clergyman shouldn’t call him so in the pulpit.329 He says the Peace Pledge Union caused the 1940 war. What nonsense. It never had the slightest effect on the Government’s defence policy. The war was caused by Hitler’s mad aggressions and our desire to stop them. The Bp of Jo’burg told Canon Collins the other evening that bishop after bishop at the [Lambeth] Conference got up and spoke for the H-bomb. I now of course have got a lot of letters, some from agreers, some from not. I shan’t answer most of them. I only have one thing to say about it, and I’ve said it in my letter—I don’t think it is civilized either to make or use the things. As to Cantuar, can he be going rather mad, with the pressure of this Conference and all he has to do?330 If God’s plan is for the human race to perish, why choose such a wicked end? Another flood, or great quake or pestilence, would be more moral. If the former, who would you select for the Ark? No animals, I expect. I don’t think the Noahs were really worthy, they weren’t a very nice family. William Clark said yesterday that he doesn’t think we shall get our cruise. I was rather discouraged, as he is the very well informed political correspondent on foreign affairs for The Observer. But I hope he is wrong. How very impertinent all this rushing of troops into Lebanon is.331 Really the small states mustn’t start calling the big ones in to save them from their revolutions; they must manage them for themselves. If we had a revolution here, we should never dream of sending for Lebanese help, nor even, I hope, American, tho’ their planes are on our shores already. I suppose we shall go in ourselves before long. How nosey the nations are about each other’s quarrels, as if we hadn’t enough of our own.
I was glad Frank Pakenham wrote to defend Canon Collins in The Observer,332 it will have cheered him up. I am lunching with Lord P. in the House of Lords next Wed. Rather amusing to see the other Lords at their food.
I’m so sorry you have caught radio activity. Mine is much better now, but I still feel lassitude. This evening I am going as John Betjeman’s guest to a City dinner.333 Decorations to be worn, so I shall for the first time don my pretty D.B.E. But I fear I shall be a poor hand at the food and drink….
Dorothea writes that Fr Wood (St Clement’s) used to say that communion 3 times a year is all we are mostly ‘ready for’. Rather surprising, from him.3 Rochester doesn’t think we need go much at all, but he is Low.334
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 24 July, 1958
Dearest Twin,
This is to send my love for tomorrow, tho’ I shall see you later. I forget which year you will be entering on; I prefer to forget that about both you and me, so don’t tell me. Our age grows too formidable. But, whichever year it is, I do hope it will be a good one for you. Perhaps your sight will be improved in it by the cataract operation; I hope so. Anyhow, I hope we shall meet a lot.
Did you hear my voice (but not in the sung parts, as that was confined to the choir and clergy) in the High Mass from All Saints’ [Margaret Street] on Sunday at 9.45? I don’t expect so. But I was there, and felt I was broadcasting. It was a beautifully done service, and I expect came over well. I liked Fr Ross’s335 sermon, too…. My City dinner with John Betjeman was fun, as his company always is. We drove back to his flat in the City together afterwards, and he talked about the things no one else but you and Dorothea ever wants to talk about (anyhow with me) such as confessions, beliefs, communion…
I am so glad you enjoyed ‘Frankly Speaking’.336 I thought my interrogators337 very intelligent and civilized and easy to discuss with. Why does——say I ‘made short work of them’? I don’t know what she means. Nor by saying that she and a friend of hers were disappointed that I showed no ‘faith’—didn’t like H-bombs but had nothing to recommend instead, etc. etc. ——never will, I fear, think I show ‘faith’. It would sound conceited to tell her of all the clergy and laity who found it in Trebizond, which I meant to be about the struggle of good and evil, its eternal importance, and the power of the Christian Church over the soul, to torment and convert…. [She] found none of that in it… she only thought I was ‘mocking’____I expect we are too different. A young woman I didn’t know came up to me at the Empire Hall & told me reading Trebizond at a crucial moment in her life had decided her for the right course, and she had always wanted to tell me. -would be puzzled by this, and by the clergy who read bits of it to doubting ordinands, with successful results. But to tell her this would sound like conceit.... I have had several letters about ‘Frankly Speaking’. Roughly, the educated ones liked it, the non-educated didn’t. Some of these were angry that I didn’t like Sabbatarianism; others thought I spoke lightly of serious things. I suppose it relieves their annoyance to write, but I wish they wouldn’t. But I am told the B.B.C. gets angry letters and telephone calls all day from people who haven’t liked
a programme. What a lot it must cost them. And they are usually poor people; I expect the rich just switch off. I think the poor feel they have paid for something and aren’t getting their money’s worth, so complain and feel better.
Lying. I think generally wrong, except in the case of small polite lies about being pleased to see people, sorry we can’t, etc. But some lies I should think right; e.g. if it was the only way to save a victim from his pursuers or aggressors. I should certainly say I didn’t know where he was, even if I did. I might also lie to save someone being badly hurt by something said about them. I don’t think I should bother about lying for my country, even if I knew what lie would help it. Nor for my Church. If I could by a lie abolish the use of nuclear weapons, I would, but I can’t think of any lie which would achieve this, can you? This would be to save the human race. I don’t see why a woman’s character should be shielded more than a man’s. I shouldn’t try to shield either unless something very terrible would be done to them if unshielded. I don’t call it lying to say I believe something in order to remain a clergyman, as religious belief is too uncertain and shifting a ground (with me) to speak of lying or truth in connection with it. One believes in patches, and it is a vague, inaccurate word. I could never say ‘I believe in God’ in the same sense that I could say ‘I believe in the sun & moon & stars.’
Did you hear, by the way, the story of Darwin & the Beagle voyage?338 I wonder if clergy and other Christians really told him that ‘immutability of species’ was stated in Genesis. I can’t think where. I don’t remember anything about it at all, do you? If it became a religious doctrine, I wonder why, and when? But their whole conversation, including the Ark story, sounds too fantastic to be true. I must look it up.
Yes, Trebizond in my novel stood in Laurie’s mind for the Christian Church. I thought I made that clear. I think the questioners asked did it stand for an ideal city or something, and if I had had longer notice I would have been able to explain more at length. These snap answers are unsatisfactory.
My House of Lords lunch with Lord Pakenham was amusing, but the part of the debate we heard afterwards in the Lords was deadly dull, all about motor car testing, tho’ they had meant to discuss the Middle East, I should hate to be a life peeress.
More tomorrow when we meet. What a difference it makes to life to be able to say that! It is one of my greatest pleasures.
Very much love, from your loving Twin.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 2 August, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
... I said I would look up my birthday collect (for St Peter’s chains). It is a nice one: ‘O God, by whose power blessed Peter the apostle was loosed from his chains, loose us, we beseech thee, from the chains of our sins, and mercifully put away from us all evil things.’ A good introit, too. The Lesson, of course, is about Peter coming out of prison. The Gospel is the one R.C.s like so much, about ‘upon this rock I will build my church’. I wish we had this feast in the B.C.P. Perhaps Lambeth, or the Commission on liturgical reform more likely, will put in a few more Saints’ Days….
I hope you are getting on with the Church Diet.339 I should think you were almost out of the Abbots now, and almost on to Abel. What a lot you will know when you have finished it—except that at 90 you may not take it all in so well….
[No signature]
Three weeks after this Rose set off on her last trip abroad, a cruise to the Aegean Islands and the Black Sea, starting from Venice and ending with a second brief stay there.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 17 August, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
... I leave for Venice Thursday 11 a.m…. Mind you cable in case of illness or anything.
I am sending you a mixed packet of papers—some bits from Sunday Times, Father Ross’s… views on future life as I am investigating what people think about this, and an answer from Catholic Herald about what it is permissible to believe about evolution and the method of Eve’s birth. I don’t expect any one does believe it, actually. By the way, I looked up the Greek for Matt. 5, 32, and Knox’s trans, is a quite impudent invention.340 The Greek word means ‘apart from’, not ’whether or not’. It always seems odd that, knowing it would be read by Greek scholars who know what the original says, Knox should have the audacity to mistranslate as he does. Still, I suppose he was between devil and deep sea, and better be despised by scholars than rebuked by the Vatican and perhaps have his trans. withdrawn….
Poor Fr Derry failed to get anyone to take the Grosvenor Chapel services today, so nobly returned from his holiday in Devon for today, and has just gone back there again. I think he might have left it untaken when he found no one he wrote to could come. I told him he could probably have got a Free Church minister to take the early mass, tho’ I suppose they have their own services at 11.O. I should do this in his place, and risk reproof by the Bishop and congregation.
Very much love….
Your loving E.R.M.
Venice341 25 August, [1958]
Perfect weather, charming little pensione—I am breakfasting in the garden under vine trellis. I had a comfortable journey. Venice seems full of acquaintances. Yesterday I went to the little Anglican church at 8.30, and mass at St Mark’s later. I have seen a lot of things I wanted to see. This morning I shall go and bathe on the Lido. On Wednesday the Hermes sails from here for Greece & Black Sea. I pray I shan’t miss it!… Yesterday I kept Uncle Regi’s342 centenary! He can never happen again.
V. much love.
E.R.M.
S.S. Hermes343 29 August, [1958]
... We are just back from Delphi, where we had a heavenly afternoon and evening. Very hot, and some steep climbing, but so beautiful. Now it is dark, and at midnight we go through the straits of Corinth, for Athens & Daphni. It is a very successful cruise, with such nice people on it. I am glad to have got to know better Lady Diana Cooper, a very charming and beautiful person. The crew are all Greek, and talk hardly any English. The Chaplain344 is Low Church, and works in Rochester Diocese. However, he held an early celebration for St John Beheaded this morning, which he said he could not have done in his own parish. Last year the chaplain had daily mass and compline in the evenings. A Presbyterian passenger says they only have communion 4 times in the year. The Lambeth Report was dull, I thought. But sensible on birth control345….
V. much love.
E.R.M.
Venice346 14 September, [1958]
Back in Venice, after a wonderful voyage. I think the Greek islands (3) were the most delightful of all—marvellous bathing, temples on mountains (I rode up on a donkey), charming little towns where one bought mementoes, hot sunshine. Trebizond was like coming home. Russia like a ridiculous fairy story, full of sanatoria & resting workers. Istanbul wonderful from the sea, not so attractive inside; ship life entertaining and comfortable, such nice people. Of course Venice is better than anything else.... I have to write an article on the cruise for the Queen magazine now.347…
Very much love.
E.R.M.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 22 September, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
… Life is closing round me again, now that I can no longer live like a lily of the field but must toil & spin. No doubt it is better for one, mentally and morally. And it is nice to get daily early Mass again and have it properly taken. If one lived in the country and had no choice of churches and a Low Church vicar, one’s spiritual life would have to be very intense if it was to remain alive.... If I was a clergyman I would live in Venice, try and get the job of regular chaplain to the English church, and spend the week trying to convert the natives, tempting them with clouds of incense and a great number of images and processions. Tho’ actually I believe non-R.C. processions aren’t allowed there. But anyhow the English would come, or some of them, and I should quietly seduce some Italians, perhaps with little presents….
It was lovely seeing you again. V. much love.
E.R.M.
25 September, [1958]
... I didn’t hear about the people sitting outside Aldermaston, and don’t know what good they hope to do.348 That is the worst of The Times, it ignores so much folly that one likes to hear about. For other reasons, the evening papers probably also would ignore this, thinking it anti-nuclear-weapon. The News Chronicle is the best paper for these enterprises. J. Cameron today is v.g.349 He puts things so well and incisively.
My distaste (general, of course, by no means universal) for the Low Church way of celebrating Holy Communion is that it so often seems to me slovenly and unceremonious, and the service read too slowly and expressively, the priest seeming to put his own personality into it instead of saying it in a level, colourless way so that one gets the meaning without emphasis or the intrusion of personality. Also, I naturally prefer the order of prayers (and the additions) that I am used to and take for granted. And I prefer the celebrant to pray facing the altar, not facing either south or towards the congregation, except when addressing us. If I found the Low way as good (for me) as the High, I would go to St Paul’s, Baker Street,350 much my nearest church. (Except that it only has Sunday services, another defect of Low churches.) As it is, I am very lucky to have Grosvenor Chapel so near. Even if I had to walk I can do it in 13 minutes, and in the car it takes about 5 or 6 only. And All Saints’ is very little further (tho’ earlier). Fr Derry... is educated, intelligent, and... preaches well. And the Chapel itself is a charming one. So I am v. lucky….