All love Nardy
Darling Boud
Jung va ja leddra.1 I’m glad the stockings are useful.
Your letter is really so extraorder, on reading it over again I can hardly believe you wrote it yourself, it’s so unlike you. However I suppose my good Boud has been changed by recent events.
It’s really hard for me to describe how Aunt Iris & everyone reacted to your scramming, as you ask. You see I didn’t return until after they first heard of it, & when I saw them they were mostly only thinking of the poor Fem & Male & how miserable they were & how they could possibly comfort or help them. But the vile Aunt Weenie2 was heard to remark that it would be better if you were dead! But I know she thinks that about Diana & me too, & has probably often said it.
Boud how extraorder of you to say did I know that Muv went out to see you, of course I knew, a) because otherwise how could I have sent you the stockings and b) there was a terrific family conference about it beforehand, & no-one talked of anything else, & at first the idea was that I should go too, of course I wanted to awfully to see my Boud, but then it was decided that as Esmond is by way of hating the idea of me so, it might do more harm than good. So I came here instead, in the new car Farve gave me.
I met the Führer by great good luck last Tuesday, I was driving along in my car & met him at a street corner driving in his car, he hadn’t known I was back & seemed very pleased to see me & got out into the street to speak to me & everyone rushed from all directions shouting ‘Heil!’ when they saw him. He asked me to go back to tea with him & I followed his cars to his flat & sat with him for 2½ hours alone chatting. He wanted to hear all about you & what had happened since I saw him last. He had forbidden it to appear in the German papers which was nice of him wasn’t it – at least perhaps you won’t think so as Nancy says Esmond adores publicity. However he got enough of it in other countries.
I think Rodd was boring about the whole thing, right from the beginning he wanted to arrange everything & adored it, & he was dying to be the Heroic Brother-in-law who rushed out to France (expenses paid by Farve) to bring you back. Also it was his silly & expensive idea to make you a ward in Chancery. I don’t suppose, either, that you much loved his interview to the Daily Mail – or perhaps you didn’t see it – in which he said that you only became a communist in order to ‘get even’ with me.
Well I wonder when your wedding will be, I don’t suppose I shall be invited but still.
Bedsd Lodge Vruddemb3, Je Boudle
Dear Madrigal1
I was pleased to get my old Hen’s letter. I thought I should never hear from her again.
A good many things seem to have happened since you left, but nothing of much importance.
It’s pretty dull down here without a Hen to chat to. Muv & Farve have been so depressed since you left, it’s made them look quite ill.
The cruise would have been so good for Muv but it’s rather natural she doesn’t want to go any more.2 She said all the fun would have gone without you & I think she meant it. I do hope you have enough to eat & everything. I envy you the coffee you must get there.
Do write & give an exact description of Esmond. It’s so fascinating to think of my old Hen in love that I must hear everything about him.
The hunting all the winter has been fun, & now I am training a horse.
The Grand National was marvellous, but Derek’s3 horse got knocked over by a loose horse which was disappointing. Lord Berners4 had a horse in for the first time in his life & the Mad Boy5 said to us before the race ‘If it falls at the first fence Gerald will be broken hearted’. And it did! Wasn’t it awful. But luckily he is very short-sighted & he thinks it was the second fence so all is OK.
Well dear, do write & if you want anything in the way of clothes just write to your Hen & she’ll get them for her Hen. Or anything else in fact.
Do write often to Blor. It would cheer her up. She has gone to Hastings for a week as I’m going to Castle Howard next week.
Much love from Scott Wallace
Dear Henri Heine,
Thanks for your letter, I did like getting it. I expect you are at Castle Howard now. If so will you ask George1 what was in his Greetings ’Gram that Nancy brought out with her among my letters? I opened it & saw some message about Dolly2 but I didn’t really take it in as I was so busy reading all the other letters, & now it’s lost. Anyway tell him that jokes about Dolly are rather ‘vieux jeu’ [old hat] now, & give him my love!
Well here’s a description of Esmond which you ask for. He has got blue eyes & beige hair about the colour of mine and he talks rather like Michael Farrer3 only with a slight cockney pronunciation – for instance he says riowd instead of rood for rude. Also he can do awfully good imitations of people like Winston Churchill4 & he talks French so well you’d take him for a Frenchman, because once a Frenchman said to him ‘vous êtes Alsacien, Monsieur?’ which proves it. (He is frightfully good at languages altogether & has already learnt enough Spanish to talk in quite easily, but your poor old Hen can hardly speak a word.) I expect you know most about his doings such as scramming from Wellington etc from seeing it in the papers so won’t bother to tell you. Didn’t you guess slightly what your old Hen was up to in London the week before I left, for instance when I hurriedly rang off when you came into the room one day & you asked me why I did & I was cross?
Now dear about my clothes; it’s very cheery & Hen-like of you to say you’ll get them for me etc in fact you are the only one to have made a nice suggestion like that. I’ll tell you what though; you know my Worth satin dress that’s been dyed purple? Well I don’t suppose I shall need a dress like that for ages by which time it’ll be out of fashion; so I wonder if you could very kindly try & sell it for me? Being Worth & just newly cleaned & dyed it might fetch quite a lot. I suggest you should take it to Fine Feathers or somewhere & try & get about three to five pounds for it. It would really be most Beery of you if you could dear & I would be grateful. I don’t actually need any of my other clothes at present but when the hot weather comes I’ll write to you for them.
I wonder if you could write me a really delicious long letter telling among other things exactly what account the Rodds gave of their visit out here. Rodd wrote me a long & incredibly boring letter with points numbered 1), 1(a), 2), etc!!! about how silly it was of me not to come home & I think they were rather cross because we were not impressed by it! I had a letter from Boud the other day in which she said ‘Nancy says Esmond adores publicity’, which seems to me to be absolutely incomprehensible considering we spent the whole time in St Jean de Luz frantically trying to escape reporters; so if everything she said has been as untrue as that I wish she’d never come out here. Not that it matters, but it seems so stupid of her. Do tell me any other bits of fascinating gossip that you have heard.
Well Dear I long to see you; we may be coming to England about the end of Sept so I’ll see you then.
Love from (Stone) Henge
P.S. Your letter was much the nicest I’ve had for ages.
Darling Nard
Fancy you being in Berlin again, I was so surprised to get your letter. I imagine the Führer is there isn’t he?
Do come here for the weekend, everyone has been asking when you are coming, it’s such ages since you were here. The Baroness1 would be so thrilled – you know how she hates me & adores you.
I think I gave the impression that our conversation about the party was more important than it was. Only he said very emphatically, & enlarged upon it quite a lot, that he thought it might have proved a fatal mistake in England to call them fascists & Blackshirts instead of something typically English, and suggested that if he had been starting a party in England he would have gone back to Cromwell & perhaps called his SA ‘Ironsides’. I thought that rather a sweet idea don’t you.
Well let me know when & where you arrive & I will meet you in the car.
Best love from Bobo
P.S. Have you seen Frau Doktor [Magda Goebbels]? She rea
lly wrote such a sweet letter about Decca.
Darling Boud
Thanks so much for your letter, I was so pleased to get it.
About Esmond’s feeling for fascists (actually I prefer to be called a National Socialist as you know) I will explain how I feel about it, & I don’t really see why he should feel any different. I hate the communists just as much as he hated Nazis, as you know, and it naturally wouldn’t occur to me, nor would I want, to make friends with a lot of communists, if I had no reason to. But I don’t see why we shouldn’t personally be quite good friends, though politically enemies. Of course one can’t separate one’s politics & one’s private life, as you know Nazism is my life & I very much despise that democratic-liberal-conservative-English idea of walking about arm-in-arm with one’s opponent in private life and looking upon politics as a business or hobby; but I do think that family ties ought to make a difference. After all, violent differences of opinion didn’t prevent you & me from remaining good friends did they. My attitude to Esmond is as follows – and I rather expect his to me to be the same. I naturally wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me. But in the meanwhile, as that isn’t necessary, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be quite good friends, do you. I wonder if he agrees.
As to me turning against my Boud as you say, how could you think I would. On the contrary I was one of the very few who always was on your side, all through. The only other ones who always stuck up for you, & who I never heard say anything against you or blame you in any way, were Diana & Tom. (And Muv of course, but that was a bit different.) I am longing to see you & tell all about the different attitudes, I expect you are longing to hear too aren’t you.
I hear from the old boy that the judge says you can marry, that is good news.
Oh dear I would love to see you & have a good chat – there are so many things one can’t really ask or discuss in a letter, if one did one would spend the whole day writing.
Mrs Ham is coming on Friday, it will be funny having her here & showing her round, somehow the idea of the Wid in Munich is so incongruous.
I wonder what you do in Bayonne all day, & what it’s like. Does Esmond speak French well.
By the way I think the only person who thoroughly enjoyed the family crisis was Mrs Ham. She used to come round to Rutland G about five times a day to see one or other of the family, she always insisted on seeing each of us alone so as to get all our individual slants on the affair. Do you remember she used to call you the ballroom communist?
Well Boud do write again at once, I long to hear from you. I plan to return to England about the 25th April & stay for the coronation.1
Do you remember P. Nevile’s ridiculous demonstration for Edward VIII?2 If I didn’t think him so odious I should really be sorry for him. He must be congratulating himself, by the way, on making quite a bit out of your affair. I should claim it if I were you.3
Well Boud do write soon.
Best love fruddem, je Boudle
Dear Hengist & Horsa,
Your old Hen is sorry she hasn’t written for such an age, she has kept meaning to & is always starting letters to her Hen & then losing them. You were kind to take all that trouble about my dresses at Fine Feathers, & I was pleased with the £2.10. I know what a bore it is seeing about that sort of thing, & thank you so much for doing it. I certainly don’t think I shall sell the Worth for so little. As for the white chiffon dress, I don’t think it’s worth anything at all as it’s so badly made; why don’t you get Blor to make you a smart evening shirt out of it to go with your navy moiré coat & anyway, I don’t want it any more.
Are you coming to your old Hen’s wedding with Muv on the way to Italy? I do hope so. At least I’m afraid it’ll be very dull for you being at the Consulate. But do come all the same. Was it fun at Cortachy? I saw in Vogue that there was a list of ‘important debutantes’ (such as Gina,1 & Iris Mountbatten2) & a list of beauties, & Jean3 was in a horrid sort of side list which included neither!
Peter Nevile has been out here for a few days on his hol, he told all about his visit to Rutland Gate & seemed to admire you very much – we played ‘Which would you push out of bed’ with him & he kept you for nearly everyone!
Two other English people have been out here, they are absolute torture, (a married couple), the wife writes in Woman & Beauty, & kept saying how she is an attractive woman & hopes still to be so when she is 35! Somehow we couldn’t get rid of them, you know how one can’t with English acquaintances in foreign towns.
I saw a dachshund just like Jaky today, & suddenly realized I had completely forgotten his existence. Is he still alive? Der mann, der pet.
I’m sorry this letter is so short & boring, but anyway I hope to see you soon. Give my love to Muv & Boud.
Love from an old Ho Hon
P.S. Sweet Blor sent me a weddinger of £1, isn’t she an angel.
Dear Anglo Saxon
Thank you so much for your letter, I was pleased to get it.
I am having rather a fascinating time. For instance I went to London to see Jean & Gina in their dresses before they went to the court. All the Wernhers’ servants from Lubenham came up & the stud groom was rather drunk & lay full length on the sofa whistling!! It was a scream.
There is going to be a terrific party on coronation night with the Ogilvys & the Lloyd Thomas’s & Wellesleys & Astors. It will be a riot. Maggot1 & I are going to Florence on Friday.
I do so wish I was coming to your wedding, it cuts into a Hen’s heart not to be at her Hen’s wedding.
I know I shan’t enjoy Florence because I shall be wishing I was at your wedding.
Well dear, do write often, the letters will be forwarded to wherever we are.
Love from Sack of Rome
Dear Henry Hall
Dear, you can’t imagine how terribly sad I am about not coming to your wedding. You must know that I want to come & I certainly don’t think that going to Florence with Maggot is a good enough excuse but you know how hopeless the parents are when they get something into their heads. I am writing this on mourning paper, because of not coming.
I did like ringing you up last night.
I am sitting in the Marlborough Club waiting for the coronation.1 We got up at 5 this morning & helped Muv dress. She was so killing because she went to Phyllis Earle’s2 yesterday to be made up & she slept on her makeup & I must say she looked wonderful this morning. The robes are too wonderful & she looked marvellous in her jewels.
Tud3 came to breakfast at 6 & he looked a knockout in his uniform, really wonderful. We got here by tube with the old boy. The crowds are terrific & they cheer everything that goes by, even fainting people on stretchers so I sing ‘cheer cheer what shall we cheer’.
Love from Jack Harris
Oh dear, I do wish I was coming to Bayonne. I can’t tell you how furious I am about it.
Dear, do write when we go abroad.
Darling Boud
This is to wish you happiness & a lovely wedding, I don’t suppose it will get to you in time but still. The Fem started off this morning, and she is taking with her a gram[ophone] which is a club present from Tiny [Deborah] & your Boud, I hope it plays all right, it seemed to when I bought it.
PLEASE write & tell your Boud all about your wedding, & what presents you have had & everything, I am dying to hear. The Fem told me she had bought you a wedding dress.
Oh dear it will be extraorder to think of my Boud being married, and you can’t think how much I miss her. I DO hope you will come back a bit before the autumn. I would like to motor from Munich to see you, but I suppose I should skeke [hardly] be very welcome among the comrades at Bayonne.
Well Boud I DO hope you will be very happy, and I shall think of you all day on your wedding day, & wish I was there.
I drove Blor over to Egham yesterday for her hol.
Farve sends his best love.
With very best love from your Boud
D
arling Cord,
A delicious looking tin parcel arrived for me this morning with postmark Ashbourne, so it must have been your present.1 I did long to open it but the awful thing was there was 500 francs customs to pay on it. So I asked the postman if there was any way of getting out of paying it & he said only by returning it to the sender. So I thought perhaps that would be the best, although I hated seeing it go without even opening it, but as we may be returning to England in the autumn perhaps I can have it then? Anyway thank you millions of times for sending it. I am excited to have it. The others told me it was a lovely necklace & I am so longing for it. The only other way I could have it would be if anyone going to Paris or somewhere could send it to me from there.
We are staying in Cousin Nellie’s2 house, it is too lovely here & we adore it. We are going back to Bayonne (Hôtel des Basques) on Friday, as Csn Nellie & Bertram are coming here.
Well thank you again so much for the weddinger.
Love from Decca
Page from Lady Redesdale’s scrapbook with cuttings about Jessica’s wedding to Esmond Romilly.
Darling Sooze
Really Susan it was your turn to write – or not? Anyway I would have written for your wedding only the typical Fem never told me until the day before or so & I didn’t note on my mantelpiece ‘Col & Mrs Romilly request the honour (pleasure) of your company at the wedding of their son’ etc etc but perhaps it slipped down the back, all my invites do.
Life here is very hectic & I am having a good time. In August we go to Naples, why don’t you come? The German Amb. invited us to a party in German which is very rude so Rodd refused in Yiddish but I took the letter away because of my weak mind & not wanting to be tortured when the G’s have conquered us.
The Mitfords Page 9