The rest of my news is all natural history which may bore so I’ll cut it short. First of all, the water I put out for my precious birds is now taken over by bees who sit closely packed round the rim, drinking (or I’m told filling bags to take back to the hive). All right but there is one horrid bee whose function it is to chase away the birds in which it is only too successful-even the vainglorious blackbird flees & all my friends have departed.
Secondly, the hedgehogs, having spent nearly a year in different houses, have suddenly elected to co-habit. Really, I cld write a volume on those pigs & their odd ways. You don’t know of a book which might throw light on their eccentricities?
That’s all. If no more thoughts on lingo are to come mention it in yr next & I’ll send my piece.
Love, N
Get on
I’ve had a v. good idea re Organ Transplants-which is the only thing on the news now-if they could give me YOUR brain I wouldn’t be 9 any more. Do think on these things & allow me it. Confess that people would be amazed, I could speak of things like Fred the Great, & could converse in Frog, & keep my end up at Anna Maria’s-Lady, I need it.
A Buff Cochin cock has arrived, he is ENORMOUS & beautiful beyond compare. What Sophy calls The Public are fascinated by those recs & no wonder.
The Queen is coming to tea on Fri. Arriving 17.07 & leaving 18.39. What shall we talk about I wonder, can’t think of anything.
Lismore looked too lovely as we left, but that always happens.
Any news I might have would BORE YOU STIFF, but please enlarge on baby hedgehogs, & you will be glad to hear I saw two toads, doing bodies,1 a sight I haven’t seen for years. So sweet and ancient they looked.
Much love, 9 (till I’ve got your brain)
Dear Miss
All right we’ll swap brains-not like heart ‘swap’ which seems a very one-way affair. Shall we do it by degrees? Will you quickly put in an envelope the lobe which deals with roses? Or would it be less messy to answer my Q with the famous 9 year old fist? I’ve got two ramblers side by side, one bursts with health & glossy leaves & buds, the other is covered with mould. Would it be better to boldly remove mouldy & burn it? Please send relevant lobe by return-I’ve told Dr Dumas to be ready to operate.
Cristiana1 telephoned, terrified by the students2 who milled all round where she lives-said they were like furious animals. Ann [Fleming] said they looked so beautiful and good. The ones I saw on télé looked beautiful & bad.
Fleeing to Paris.
Love, N
Dear Miss
My garden looks as if 1,000 Edwardian hats had fallen into it (roses). I tore out the mouldy one & nobody else seems to have caught the mould.
I fear you will mind about R Kennedy-very sorry if so. I think Ethel looks much nicer than Madame Jacqueleen. Still she may be relieved to think no more children.1
Love, N
Darling Debo:
Max & Al & Jean are going back & will post this. Darling it’s just to say I hope you are not sad about R Kennedy, one must be because it is wicked to take away his life but I mean I hope you are not extra sad.
Everything seems trivial compared with death so won’t bore you with all my silly stories. I hope the post will begin to get normal now but I haven’t had a letter yet.
So lovely having the three but they can only spend about 36 hrs, miserably short & is it worth it (for me yes, but for them?).
All love, Honks
Get on
I know I’ve done poorly re writing. You would quail & quiver if you knew the miles covered & the tasks engaged in during the last few weeks. So now I’ll begin again.
You must be glad your Old Man did so well in his elections.1 I only hope it won’t put ideas into Uncle Harold’s head. Pray, please.
I shall not recount my doings at the Royal, & Newbury,2 as I know they BORE you. But I will say I stayed two nights with Woman & loved every moment (I was only there at night as the days were more than fully employed) & the country there looked so beautiful’ ’twas painful. Wild roses galore & every sort of other extra on the roadside where no one has touched them. She was wondair to the last. She has bought four bullocks & we watched them grazing & she said ‘this property is worth a fortune’. She said it very slowly & definitely. Then we saw a heap of sludge just outside her kitchen garden & she leant towards me & said in conspiratorial tones-‘Stublow, ALL THIS MANURE IS MINE’. She ees. She looks wondair & the food was ditto. She is bringing twelve farmers/gardeners/dailies/small holders to lunch here next week, can’t wait.
Much love, 9
Darling Debo
Where are you & how are you? It is ages since I got a letter. I really die to be here with you one day. It’s been such fun having Jean [de Baglion] & of course to be four would be completely perfect. He’s off today. I dragged him for an immense walk & ever since then he loves me much less & in fact I’ve got a feeling he may not quite forgive. You see, he said he loved going, so on & on we went with just the odd groan from Jean & then he said he must sit so we sat at an ice place & I said, ‘Jean! Haven’t you enjoyed our walk?’ And then I noticed his eyes were shut behind the tinted specs, it was dread, & then he said with his voice going up into a wail, ‘Darlin, every beet of my body aches. My LEGS. My BUCK. My UNKLES’. Of course I began to laugh & couldn’t stop & to make it worse I made him hop into a traghetto & by bad luck it was crammed to such a degree that it went down in the water & drops oozed over the sides & he thought his last hour had come & I heard groans all the way over the canal which was unfortunately at its widest & rather rough.
We talked about his fatness & he says he would give £20,000 to be thin but he can’t face ruining his life by never eating anything he enjoys.
Ingrid says Toby [Tennant] says Jasper [Guinness] will get into the 8 if he keeps on rowing as he has this summer-how unbelievable for a descendant of one.
All love darling, Honks
Darling Debo:
We had such a storm yesterday that it came through in various places & it’s still raining now & your letter arrived sort of sopping like they do in Ireland. What a thrill about the wins & somehow marvellous that P. Margaret had to see the triumph,1 oh Debo I do wish Muv knew, perhaps she does. It’s no good pretending that winning isn’t marvellous, I speak as a life-long loser.
We are really & truly rid of Kit’s old book & feel like the end of a term with knobs on. I’ve got masses of books from H. Hill to read & couldn’t because my eye-power was all used up on disgusting proofs. I couldn’t get Kit to change many a thing I wd have wished to, but he often consented in the end. I’m afraid the book is too long, but his life is long. He insisted on putting in masses of dewdrops, to such an extent that the mad impression is now created that he is Pet number one of almost everybody. He says he had to because he’s been so much abused.
Tomorrow Col is coming, he asked himself. I think (’twixt you & me) it is to discuss Kit’s ideas about the economy. I am still very worried in that quarter (Col & Nancy) & I think all hangs on a horrid thread. If I am right it is the all-time worry. I so wonder whether he realizes in the least what he means to her? It’s quite possible that he doesn’t. He may have been so for many years, one just doesn’t know. Also one doesn’t know what her feelings are, but his name is forever being mentioned, opinions quoted & so on, so that he is obviously in the front of her mind, & I suppose affections. I never dreamed, when I was young, that this sort of worry went on into the sixties (yes I did though, about Emerald & Sir Thomas [Beecham] now I come to think of it, but I thought it was a unique case).
Well darling isn’t it lovely that at least I won’t fall in love any more-one worry crossed off the list eh.
All love & to Sophy, Honks
Dereling,
I suppose the Famagosta will derange the post as thunderstorms do the weather, so hasten to write.
How did Col seem-health? (It’s nearly a year now since he was so ill.) He never says, in his letters.
The Italia Nostr
a campaign seems very well launched. One of their ideas, which I think brilliant, is to have a metro here-otherwise they say there will be roads sure as eggs is eggs.
Peter’s last words were ‘Oh God, I am finished-see you presently’,1 which Francis2 thinks may mean that he was really a believer but I think more likely a typical Proddish joke of the sort one loved him for. But perhaps he was a believer & pretended not to be in order not to be roped into one of the family religions. I can’t remember from old days, I don’t suppose we ever mentioned the subject. So funny to think how he & Esmond & so on would all have been Cohn-Bendits3 when they were young-really men are divided into C-Bs & non C-Bs aren’t they. Let’s hope the nons predominate now as they would have then.
Much love, N
Darling Soo
I’ve at last bought some air mail paper which I’ve been meaning to do for months so you’re in luck. I never dare write to you the ordinary way though my poor publisher has to endure it & goes quietly mad.
Did Debo tell you, Aunt Weenie, walking up the hill at Asthall in pouring rain was accosted by Americans in a motor, ‘Pourdon me-which is the way to the Home of the Mitfords?’ They gave her a lift & after a bit of talk they said, ‘Are you the ant they all hated so much?’ She had to admit.
I stayed with Woman the other day & rather fell in love with her part of Switzerland, it is pretty like a Victorian watercolour-clean & really very unspoilt. Also the German-speaking Swiss are not dull like the others but exceptionally bright (I mean the ones I met with her-of course they all speak French as well).
When I was in Bayreuth I was summoned to the Presence of Frau Winifred-you realize she is Wagner’s daughter-in-law? It’s a real link with the past. She says Siegfried W. only had one photograph in his room, that of Grandfather.1
Honks & Debo & I all have a great craving for Farve so we think we’ll get a medium & have a few words with him. Rosamond Lehmann,2 who often talks to her daughter, got Mrs Ham the other day. She said, ‘It’s far better here than I would have expected’. She must have changed is all I can say. But as Honks says, we shall know at once if it’s the old boy-they can’t pull the wool over our heads with him.
There’s really no news-here I am working away & seeing nobody. But thought I’d faire acte de présence so to speak. I suppose you are deep in Dr Bedwetter.3 (I’m told he’s taught all the Americans to do so & that’s why nobody can have them to stay. Correct?)
Much love, Soo
Get on
LOOK-stamps pristine, you can use them again & thereby diddle the Frogs of several frongs. Prague Nov 4th.1 Remember remember the 5th of November-I hope you won’t get blown up in my coat, think of stitching it & you together again, quelle horrible surprise.
My hair was cut in London by what I thought was a faithful hairdresser. I was writing to you & Honks & Woman & not watching him & lo & behold I am an active Lesbian, Irma Grese,2 a prison wardress, a Great Dane breeder, anything but an ordinary English woman. I suppose he did it to force me to buy a wig. I hope it will grow by Friday when Honks & Jean [de Baglion] loom.
I must write to my old Hen so will close.
Much love, 9
Darling Debo:
I hope you didn’t see Panorama1 with a lot of semi-strangers, it was so dreadfully sad. Al [Mosley] said it was like a Western where the hero walks away into the sunset & the girl suddenly runs after him calling ‘Come back!’ but it’s too late. However, Kit was very pleased with it & to have been given the chance to say many things he longed to say, & he got telegrams & telephone messages of congrat, & the book seems to be selling, so all is exceedingly well. Just that for anyone fond of him one wouldn’t wish to watch among rather hostile strangers. The boys were delighted with it, they rushed round to the Ritz at once & we all talked about it, & then they brought me here & we talked with Wife. Jerry [Lehane]’s verdict: ’Twas great, but a touch sad.’ (Say that in his voice & the tears will well.)
All love darling, Honks
Dereling,
Oh keep the reviews. I only saw Coote1 which is what I call a good selling review viz. longing to be nasty but obliged to admit the merit. How was Panorama? When do you get back.
Col says Gen said two years ago when he saw Widow Kennedy (whom he had rather fancied) ‘Au fond c’est une vedette-tout ça finira en un mariage dans un yacht de milliardaire’.2
Bugger I must go. I’ll write again.
Love, N
Dear Miss
I went to Paris & saw the Mosleys & all is as before I read the book. The fact is they are two different people now, of course they don’t realize it themselves. Very odd, because generally people hardly change at all in life. I still feel angry about Tom but nevair.1 I wish Randolph [Churchill] was here to defend him-I wonder what Nigel [Birch], Garrett2 & co think. There seems to have been a chorus of praise for the book & I hope it will sell but, even if not, the chorus has been gratifying.
I say Miss oh Miss do sell those 830 insects. Honks believes it is they & they alone who are driving you to the bin-where I suppose you will arrive in a padded horsebox. Be a good soul & take the step for everybody’s sake I beg I beg. Surely you’ve had the insects by now? Also please have a month’s holiday-while you are away the sale can take place you’d hardly know anything about it & then think how reech you will be. Reech & healthy & wise.
Love, N
Get on
I wonder where you are, did you go to Prague, wasn’t it yesterday, oh I hate writing into the blue (or red).
It is v. nice of you to be concerned re me. The thing is I really prefer having slightly too much to do. The things I don’t like doing (like platforms) make the things I do like doing far better by contrast. What is exhausting is wondering various things which I can’t v. well write but could enlarge on when we meet & otherwise I like all the things I do except being reminded about rows between one & another, whether it is people in the house, or keeper v. forester v. farmer, or me v. the planning officer, or me ½ v. the agent about the shape of windows in a new house. But I suppose on the whole things go v. smoothly in that way & one of these days I’ll tell you re the really tiring part.1
Now lady, among all that the insects are therapy. Most comforting, stout, staunch & square. Do say you see. And filling in pedigrees is therapy to the last, & looking up in stud books, it is relaxation like 0 else I swear. Sorry to go on re myself but as you kindly showed an interest I can only tell the answer.
People changing, Honks & Sir O & the book. I think people can change completely. As one can only tell exactly from one’s own pathetic experience, I know it to be a fact. People didn’t invent the word MELLOWING for nothing, All Passion Spent, Lady, that’s what. When one is young & clever & energetic & always thinks one is right nothing can stand in the way (Sir Oz). When one is in love with someone one thinks is right & has been wronged or spurned or whatever you like-ditto (Honks). I absolutely know for instance that I am not the same person I was 15 or 20 years ago when I couldn’t ever do anything except be in love, such a bore as Brando would say. Think even how one’s taste changes, how one liked completely different houses furniture pictures colours, everything really when one was 20. Don’t say you always liked the same, perhaps you did, then you must be (a) an unusually strong character & (b) impervious to noting things as time goes by.
So I’m sure both Honks & Sir O have changed enormously, & perhaps 3½ years in prison had more effect than one allows for-I wot not. That’s my idea anyway.
Shall I ever see you more?
Much love, 9
You see we’re all Saints now & we certainly weren’t. It’s quite easy to be a Saint when one’s old I note.
Darling Sooze
Prague fascinated me. It is too beautiful for words to describe & the Fr embassy, where I stayed, one of the prettiest houses I ever saw. I was shown everything of interest by a Prof. told off to lug me round. But oh dear it is sad. Russians everywhere, gazing into the shop windows-which are about on a level with Moreton
in Marsh during the first war-as if they were in the rue de la Paix. Poor things, they are very small, very young & look as if they had never had a proper meal in their lives. Nobody can speak to them & my Prof, who is a Cuddum, says their officers tell them that the Czechs are lazy dogs who have been subsidized by USSR for 20 years ‘Everything here belongs to you really’.
I’m exhausted, having had a young lady from Sunday Ex1 for 3 solid hours interviewing me & I’m also nervous as I can’t remember what I said. Interviews are the devil. I only accepted because I want to broadcast that I’m on Frederick, hoping to deter others. If it’s funny I’ll send but I expect it will only be shaming. She was an awfully nice young lady but unconscious I guess of what might embarrass ONE. The great thing they always ask is why do you live in France? You’d think they would see why, for themselves. She’s pregnant. I said is it your first baby? And she said the first successful one. I longed to probe but am too polite!
Have you noted all the carry-on about Sir Oz? He says he was never anti-Semitic. Good Gracious! I quite love the old soul now but really-! Also I’m very cross with him for saying Tud was a fascist which is untrue though of course Tud was a fearful old twister & probably was a fascist when with Diana. When with me he used to mock to any extent & he hated Sir Oz no doubt about that. If Randolph had been alive he would have sprung to his defence. I miss Randolph.
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