Christmas Letters

1957

Greetings!

Please excuse this method of “mass communication” but my correspondence has gotten way out of hand and this is about the only way I can cope. Some (few!) people will have heard parts of this year’s news already and will, I trust, bear with the repetition.

The year got off to a very sad start, for my mother died on January 18th. I spent 2 difficult months at home attending all the legal and other responsibilities and looking after my family. They now have a housekeeper, and I was able to return to my job in London in March. I was completely worn out and very depressed for a long time, and gradually began to pick up the pieces of my life here.

I have had many interesting trips and experiences, although this summer was not as fruitful in this respect as the previous ones, since I was poisoned by a severe sunburn (over-exposure on an overcast day at the beach) in July, and was laid up for some time. In fact, it was about 6 weeks before I really recovered. Of all of the ridiculous things to happen in England! Even in my misery I had to admit it was funny. Then I went up to Scotland for my vacation, and after a rather hectic time seeing plays, etc. at the Edinburgh Festival, caught what I assume must have been the famous Asiatic flu, and spent a week being ill in a place called Ullapool, on the northwest coast of the Highlands. There I was quite spoiled by the zealous Highland hospitality of the landlady, who fed me 6 times a day and thereby established a habit pattern which has resulted in my gaining about 20 lbs. since I returned in midSeptember. I’m delighted, of course, but it means a lot of frantic letting out of skirts to accommodate the expanding girth.

In May I spent a weekend in the city of Norwich, which proved to be one of the most interesting places in England, with many historic features, yet not “touristy.” I have also made trips to Rottingdean, Guildford, Exeter, Torquay, Oxford, Lynmouth & the Doono Volley, Jordans Meeting House (old Quaker place where Wm. Ponn is buried), Ystradgynlais (there’s a neat Wolsh mouthful for you!--near Swanson--where I visited friends, who drove me down the Gower Peninsula and also to Brocon). But the most hilarious long weekend I think I’ve ever had was the trip to Laugharne, the Welsh village where Dylan Thomas lived and which was his chief inspiration for the play “Under Milk Wood.” My friend and I decided the original was even crazier than the play, and agreed we’d never laughed so hard so continuously for 3 days in our lives. The Welsh are quite mad, and delightfully witty.

I have continued to see lots of plays, London being such a treasure-house of theatres; I especially enjoy seeing all the Shakespeare productions at the Old Vic, and have also been to some parties there were one can talk with the actors. I have also been to a number of productions (free!) by the students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which is England’s no. 1 training ground for actors.

I watched the Duke of Edinburgh play polo one day at Cowdray Park, and went to the famous Ascot races* (England’s big fashion show-- like the Easter Parade in NewYork) and saw the Queen and other members of the royal family there. I also attended the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts summer show, and the types attending this were just as interesting as the exhibit--everything from the nobility to seedy Bohemian-type art students, etc.

*People go to look at each other, not at the horses!

Probably my most outstanding experiences this year  were the occasions when I dined at the House of Commons and at Lambeth Palace. The first mentioned was as a guest of an English lady whose local Conservative Party Association and their M.P. (Member of Parliament) hold the dinner, which was preceded by a guided tour around both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We had a fine meal of pheasant, etc., followed by toasts and political-type speeches. It is interesting and amusing to see how politicians are basically the same in all parts of the world ”Hurrah for our party, and the country will go to the dogs if the other party gets in!”

The dinner at Lambeth Palace (which is the London residence and “headquarters” of the Archbishop of Canterbury) was an even more exclusive event, and a rare privilege indeed, since not even English people get to go there, let alone lay foreigners. I was the guest of an archdeacon, which is an office I don’t think we have in our Episcopal Church in the U.S., but is a sort of administrative position next in line to a bishop. The occasion was the annual ecclesiastical dignitaries from foreign churches, but the only one they had this time was the hand of the Armenian Church in England. We first had sherry in the Great Hall (which contains the library) and I was introduced to the Archbishop and his wife--both very jolly and good-natured types, as, in fact, everyone there seemed to be. Then we went upstairs to the dining hall. I must say it was quite an experience to be at a dinner where the Archbishop says the grace! He gave a short informal talk after the meal and the toasts. I was seated between my host andthe Bishop of Lincoln, and opposite a Canon Somebody-or-other MacLeod-Campboll of Charterhouse, and Sir Henry Dashwood, “a noted ecclesiastical lawyer.”

It was a very colorful gathering (about 100 people) because of the various types of ecclesiastical and academic dress the men wore. Most of the women were in evening dress. There were red cassocks, purple cassocks, and black cassocks, academic robes with different colored hoods, ordinary priest’s clothing, and ordinary evening dress. But what I thought were the most picturesque “outfits” were the ones like my host’s, which consisted of a sort of black frock coat, short knee-length cassock-like affair, knee brooches, long black silk stockings & black patent leather shoes with big silver buckles. Some of the bishops, including the ones sitting next to me, wore this same outfit in purple--very striking indeed.

After the meal we returned to the library and heard a concert of 15th and 16th century music played by a recorder ensemble, while we strolled about looking at the special exhibit of early Americana manuscripts etc., showing aspects of Church life and history in our colonial days.

Needless to say, it was an unforgettable occasion, and I could hardly believe I was really there. I hope I didn’t look too wide-eyed and open-mouthed, but that was the way I felt! I wish I had time to write everyone more often and more fully, but as you can see, life here is terribly busy, on top of the fact that I work from 9 to 6! So trusting you understand, I wind up with best wishes for a happy Christmas and New Year…. And please don’t let my failure as a correspondentdeter you from writing! All letters eagerly devoured and much appreciated!