1967 - 'Our Village', Mutiny at Sherborn, de Gaulle says 'Non', Rector's miserable end

1967

Sunday, Jan 1st  - Michael Collard over to lunch and tea from Reading. We talked about schools today, more and more ‘directors’ of this and that and ‘heads’ of the other, headmasters with larger and larger schools who can communicate less and less with either their own staff or their own children, but spend their time ringing each other up on the internal telephone.The planners and committees hard at work on paper schemes for comprehensive education for which there are no buildings or any money to build them. At the bottom of the whole pyramid the poor bloody class teacher with more children and fewer classrooms.

(See index of names at end of this post)
 
Saturday, Jan 7th - Snowed intermittently all morning and afternoon. Reading, writing and arranging post cards of which with Venetians I have now collected 310 by scraping English galleries.

Monday, Jan 9th - Papers report trouble in China. A split in Communist Party. It looks as if a civil war may be starting.
Vi Worgan’s first day at Bourton School, rings up to-night to say how pleased she is with it.

Sunday, Jan 15th - Jack Lee rang up so drove over and fetched him to lunch and tea. It appears that he led a revolt of the staff and compelled Mosey to send Mrs M away to a nursing home in Cornwall. He says she is a mental case. They also insisted on contracts of service being drawn up by a solicitor in Cheltenham. Mrs M. drunk again in front of boys. While he was staying with them she got tight and asked him if he were a priest in disguise. Told her ‘No, a man’.
He brought with him photos of Cross Lake [Manitoba] where the mission is. Canoes, dog teams, priests and nuns etc. His father seems to be dying at their summer house in New England nursed by one of his daughters, a nun on leave between one job and another. Says Indian women so lascivious that priests have to wear beards to keep them away.
Wrote (for postcards) to some American galleries.

Monday, Jan 16th - Mosey has given Lee timetable. Went to see how he was getting on and found him stuck so gave him some help on method, though this was difficult as no squared paper, no pencils, no rulers and no rubber! When these obstacles surmounted got most of it done. Mosey would not come down from flat so gave myself 5a and 5b in history. Probably in no time cursing and swearing at school and its muddle and wishing I had not.

Sunday, Jan 22nd - Mosey pleased I had taken over history. Thought he could not be anything else! Have been working hard at collecting illustrations for the 18th century and found it great fun. Am going to do a course on architects, writers and artists starting with Wren and St Paul’s. Bought Tom Jones in Cheltenham for 8/6, more than I expected.

Sunday, Jan 29th - Mary’s birthday on Friday. Kept it on Saturday with excellent lunch at Bay Tree. On return from Bay Tree went for a walk. On our return overcome and lay together on bed in clothes.

Sunday, Feb 5th - Heard that old shouting Miss Payne had said to Mrs Shelmerdine, ‘Of course the Barnes’ garden has everything!’

Thursday, Feb 7th - Got Frank Harris ‘Life and Loves’ from Library. Loves all right! Don’t wonder no hope of publishing it before the case of Lady C. All methods, shapes and sizes described. Also loud explosions that took place at Edwardian dinner parties.

Sunday, Feb 12th - 67. To lunch at Bay Tree. Had an excellent sole but too greasy for me and developed indigestion.

Sunday, Feb 19th - Had invited Lee to tea at 3. He arrived with a boy at 2! We had just cleared the lunch! They appeared to have come early in a borrowed van because of some row which had made Lee send in his resignation. It seemed Mosey had punished his form and he had offered to give it up but the boys had retaliated by writing ‘we want Lee on’ the blackboard. Possible disorder and mutiny were round the corner.

Saturday, Feb 25th - To Malvern to one day school on Humanism. A party from Cheltenham and altogether about 36. Two talks given by secretary of British Humanist Association, H. J. Blackham, who, I discovered by chance,  is brother of Olive Blackham at Roel Farm.
Many of older humanists one meets fighting old battles against religion - atheists and secularists - rather getting together on the human programme with like minded men of all religions.

Wednesday, March 1st - Just heard our neighbour’s wife hitched and walked to Burford to get a prescription for her ailing husband because he had a cancer operation and was too ill to drive the car. Mary pressed on her our help in an emergency, but they will not ask you if they can possibly avoid it.
Our anniversary dinner tonight at Bay Tree, then to bed.

Tuesday, March 7th - Mary Clayden to lunch on Sunday. On her recommendation sweated out to ghastly cinema in Chipping Norton to see Viva Maria. She had seen it twice. Can’t think why. Only shows once more how hopeless it is to rely on your friends’ recommendations where films are concerned.

Monday, March 13th - To Broadway to tea via Temple Guiting. When went into church found vicar praying at the altar rails. Never known that before! A very pleasant sensible man who had moved there nine months ago.

Friday, March 17th - When I went into 5B today I found stuff Lee had written on blackboard about ‘God bless the Pope’ and ‘Hang old Billy’ with a picture of gallows. This a reference to the Boyne as it is St Patrick’s Day! Have written him a testimonial. Was I rash to do so?
To-night went to Humanist meeting in Cheltenham to hear talk on Mountbatten report on prison security. The public had got worked up about escapes though in fact no more than usual. Clearly the prison service a dead end under the hand of the Home Office civil servants. No leadership, no initiative. Even when a prisoner escapes everything must go through the proper channels. No staff participation in scheme of management. All about Crimean level! No promotion under 18 years of service, then automatic. No chance to earn promotion or to feel it might pay to show initiative.

Wednesday, March 22nd - Wrote for cards to Boston, Cleveland and Vienna. Yesterday Parish Meeting. Old Mr and Mrs Hunt, the ancestors of most of the village, Emily, Scarry, girl from Gawcombe, Mr Gibson and one council house man - 9 all told. Scarry seemed to think this good as at Slaughters only the chairman and secretary came. Discussion of registration of common and barn. Scarry agreed to spray common for nettles, but meeting refused to enter for Bledloe Cup. The war memorial is a scandal. The wooden cross has disappeared. Hope can activate the new rector to do something about it.

Good Friday, March 24th -  Wind too cold to do anything in garden, though Graham Kitchin dug next door. At age 17 I fasted, now had fish, egg sauce, potatoes, cauliflower, strawberries and milk - both from tins. Sent list to Medici Society for 57 cards.
Oil tanker, Torey Canyon, stranded on rocks between Land’s End and Scilly has made huge oil pool at sea. A fleet of detergent ships is trying to emulsify it before it reaches Cornish coast. Expect sea birds, poor things, will take years to recover.
Rang up Nora. Sylvia has had a stroke, but is better a little. Tom Wheeler very ill and Richard Clayden in hospital with meningitis but now out again.

Easter Day - To Oxford to lunch with Mary’s mother, roast chicken and Spanish Burgundy. Lay down after lunch then talked to Mrs Pierce, 89. She remembered being taken to see Mr Gladstone when he was given an honorary degree in 1890 and disturbances between the London mounted police and the undergraduates when Edward VII came to open the new Town Hall. It was the custom to parade in Christ Church Meadow after church to see the notable university characters.
Heard tonight that tanker has broken up. More oil released and being driven by a westerly gale up the Cornish coast.

Wednesday, March 29th - Last night RAF and Navy bombed tanker, set oil alight and kept it burning by dropping petrol on water.
Today took Charles Colston, whose father is a big farmer near Chipping Norton, on a history expedition to Hayles Abbey and Tewkesbury. Tewkesbury quite knocked him out. He had never seen anything like it before and he could only say ‘fantastic’. Father standing for county council and canvassing in spite of sowing!
Wilk rang up to say Tom Wheeler has died after another heart attack. Very sad. His testimonial collected but never given to him. Now too late. Funeral on Tuesday.

From Henley Standard obituary of Tom Wheeler, caretaker at Henley Grammar School for nearly 40 years, by C.C.C (Clem Clifford).
Tom - for that is how he was always known - was, as it were, a link binding together the successive generations of old pupils. Headmasters and staff came and went but Tom remained and few old boys would return to the school without seeking him out. He remembered them all and called them by their Christian names....It was the same for the pupils.... for they were his friends.... In dealing with things he had the same soft deft touch. He delighted in complicated mechanisms that refused to work for invariably he was able to diagnose the trouble and would put it right. If one asked him how how a particularly intricate piece of repair work had be done he would smile happily and say, ‘Oh, I made a proper job of it.’

Tuesday, April 4th - Up at 6.30 to catch train at Charlbury, Reading 9.0, crematorium 10.30. To Greet  Wilk and Cherry when saw Lipscombe! However was as anxious not so see me as I was not to see him, so that I did not have to avoid shaking hands with him (which I was determined to do!). A large congregation - could hardly get in. Lipscombe further back on other side. After service Clem came up and spoke to me. Also had a word with Len and Mrs and Marcham, Isherwood, Attrills, Wally. Home about 3 o’clock. Mary expressed surprise that Tom as a member of working class was cremated. Replied that after all he was a stoker!

April 7th - 14th - [Holiday in Exmouth, visits to family graves at Shillingford, Dunchidoek (‘where Ms Ellis doing flowers’), to Wilfrid Westall in Exeter, Ruth Brown (‘seemed very happy and jolly’), and Doddiscombsleigh (where admired seven sacrament window - Christ in center, surrounded by Eucharista, Matrimonium, Conformatio, Ordo, Baptisma, Penetentia, Unctis) and the Tudor Dunsland House, which destroyed by fire later in 1967. ‘We saw some good churches and houses, but bitterly cold winds and absence of sun made it a rather disappointing holiday. No sitting on beaches or picnics possible’.]

Tuesday, April 18th - To Dr King. He thought my chokiness in past two months due to increase in blood pressure. Gave me a course of M.S.D. pills.

Wednesday, April 19th - In the New Statesman Peter Fleming quoted this advice to a school by ‘Wully’ Robertson*: ‘Boys, I have a great deal to say to you, but it won’t take long, so remember it. Speak the truth. Think of others. Don’t dawdle.’ He added Chivalry, ‘an ideal that led men in the middle ages to behave more decently, to show more mercy and to betray each other less often.’
*Chief of Imperial General Staff 1916-18. First and only British soldier to rise through ranks from private to field marshall.

Sunday, April 22nd - To Packwood House and Coughton Court. Packwood House done up by a rich man, very soigné like a nice museum. Coughton by contrast was lived in, used, worn (sometimes worn out) and unpolished. Furniture bought in the C17th and still there because never been changed or renewed. Continuous Catholic tradition from days of the dissolution of the monasteries. Saw again the shift Mary wore at Fotheringay.

Sunday, April 23rd - Had a letter from Marjorie W. Clem Clifford had apparently got over his 1957 huff and said to her ‘How lovely to see Mr Barnes. Isn’t he a charming man? Such a sense of humour and looking so fine! You know I don’t think I was mature enough to appreciate him before. It needed a contrast to bring out his true worth....etc’. To which she adds Ha! Ha! and so do I.
Jack Lee has lost his sister Julia, the nun, who had been sent to Ceylon. While travelling on a river boat she had been dragged under by a pregnant woman who had fallen in and whom she was trying to save. Julia was a good swimmer but got in the paddle wheel and was killed. He was very upset and could not understand why ‘if the fields were white for harvest’ God should allow a worker in the harvest to be killed.

Tuesday, April 25th - After breakfast had a chokey fit which got so bad I took a brown pill. In the afternoon it threatened again so asked Mary to call Dr King and ask him to visit to-morrow.
To-day funeral of D Adenauer in Cologne Cathedral, the most important since Churchill’s and many parallels - the restored cathedral among many new buildings, the foreign guests, the carrying of the coffin to the great river and the departure by water to Bonn.

Wednesday, April 26th - Dr King came in, took blood pressure, said it was going down. Trying to make sure heart problem and not ruptured diaphragm. Got up for tea put in new postcards (19) which arrived to-day from Cleveland.

Friday, April 28th - This morning got Humanist wth photo of B. Russell in 2 1/2 inch collar such as Father used to wear. Mary said after her father’s death they tried to sell his collars to rag and bone man who left them by outside gate, so put in dustbin where seen by neighbours in passing and how horrified he would have been.
Got Mary to start mower and cut front lawn but even this made me choky. had to take brown pill.

The garden front of St John’s:
“Given over to the use of a court whose days of royalty were numbered, its walks and quadrangles were filled, as the end came near, with men and women learning to accept sorrow as their lot through life, the ambitious abandoning hope of power, the wealthy hardening themselves to embrace poverty, those who loved England preparing to sail for foreign shores, and lovers to be parted for ever....St John’s College is not mere stone and mortar, tastefully compiled, but an appropriate and mournful witness between those who see it now and those by whom it was once seen.” Clio, a Muse - Trevelyan

Saturday, April 29 - New rector’s installation. Went with Mary half an hour before service started but so many people from his old parish came by coach that hardly room to move. The Bishop of Tewkesbury presided and Vi Worgan played the organ for three hymns. A collection for more clergy! We started off with the Established Church. Oath of Loyalty to the Queen, subscription to the 39 Articles, Oath of Canonical Obedience, and when that was over the more religious part of the service, pulpit, lectern, font and altar. As part of the induction he knocks on door, rings bell, and gives out notices! A funny little Welshman with a stutter. Mary did not take to him.

Tuesday, May 2nd - Heard at six p.m. G.B. applies for membership of the Common Market. The political case offers large short term gains and larger long term; the economic balance short term loss and long term gain. We neither want to be isolated from Europe nor dependent on America. In Europe we can be on a footing of equality.
General de Gaulle argues Europe must be free of outside influences, East and West; Europe is only Europe if it is in the hands of Europeans. France is the heartland of Western Europe, drawing both on Mediterranean and Atlantic. Europe must be united in accordance with and not against the grain of history.
It seems to likely to be another two or three years before we are in and another two or three before the effects begin to show. 1973!!! It’s a gamble! No one would have believed in 1945 that Europe would have taken the road it has.

Thursday, May 4th - My postcards from Boston arrived. Among them a Tiepolo, a bearded man is taking the wraps off a lady, ‘Time Revealing Truth’.

Friday, May 5th - Woke up at 5 a.m. with pain and lay in bed with it on and off till 5.30. Took medicine but it did not seem to help. Hospital at 2.0. A woman radiologist. Had hardly got into place when the screen went so that she could not see the meal going down. However she was unperturbed and said it probably did not matter. Ugly as sin, bad legs, big specs and severe hairstyle, but friendly and approachable.

Monday, May 8th - 25 years later Montgomery has been back to El Alamein. He quoted a poem he picked up from an unknown man picked up after the battle.
Help me, O God, when death is near
To mock the haggard face of fear
That when I die if die I must
My soul may triumph in the dust.

Tuesday, May 9th - A bad day. Woke up with choke at 7.30. Had it again in Stow. Chicken and wine for lunch. Lay down and a very bad attack developed in the afternoon. Hardly moderated when Dr King appeared. He clearly thinks probably heart after this afternoon.
Letter from Wilfrid.
Esau was a hairy man and he loved hunting too.
He went out shooting rabbits for to make an Irish stew.
He told his brother Jacob
That he was an awful ass,
But he sold his birth certificate
For a sandwich and a Bass.

Thursday, May 11th - A bad night yesterday. Woke up at one o’clock with an attack. Took a brown pill. Second attack 2 a.m. Brown pîll. Stayed in bed all day. Dr King today at 12.30. X-ray negative, no hiatus hernia, no anything except angina, which is a cheerful prospect indeed! Proposed to come in again on Monday to see what had happened.

Saturday, May 13th - Sat up for tea and walked into sitting room. Mary talked to young Gibson farmer over fence and Miss Leopold, who is a first class bore, got into the back garden but was not introduced as was Mrs Shelmerdine this morning. She is one of those visitors who chatter insistently to the third party without any reference to the invalid, like Kay Peach, and nearly drives me potty. Graham Kitchin came in to cut the grass. He was pleased to drive the motor mower. To cheer me up he told me a man had died of a heart failure last week after being hit on the head with a hammer when he fell off a scaffold!

Thursday, May 18th - Pains in night bad. Got Mary to ring up Dr Robinson. Arrived at 8.15 and gave me injection of morphine. Back after surgery and said I should be in hospital. About 12 an ambulance arrived and I was taken to the Radcliffe.

[The Diarist was in hospital for 14 days. He was advised by Dr Robinson to go into a four-bed ward where one was better cared for than in a private room. Hospital life provided him with plenty of material for his diary. Some extracts follow]

I was in the hands of a firm of four doctors, Dr Acheson, an egg head with dark walrus moustache, very pleasant, the consultant, Dr Spry, young and good looking, Dr Callendar, a woman doctor from Philadelphia, and the house physician Dr Reid.
The sister was a squat bandy-legged dark little Welsh woman with a pale face and dark little button eyes which seldom looked at you direct. She had a penetrating voice and was an obsessive character who drove herself  to the limit and everyone else.
After three days I was moved up the corridor. Mr Woodward, a coach driver, was my neighbour, and here was an odd character, Squadron Leader O’Malley, Radley and Balliol. His father had been an ambassador and his mother was Ann Bridge, the author of Peking Picnic. He was full of talk, back chat and complaints. It came out later that he had been employed in the “world’s polecat’ (South Africa) broadcasting corporation but had been dismissed after a public fight with a fellow employee. He and his wife were working at Blackwells (Pickwick front, Scrooge inside, he said), but he seemed to have lost that job too. What was really wrong with him seemed to be drink, diabetes and nerves. ‘You can drink Brasso,’ he observed, ‘but it’s better strained through shammy leather.’
A disturbing element  was a tough little man, Edmonds, from Cowley, who had been a miner in Durham. He was a compulsive smoker. He got across sister because he was always trying to light up when he thought she was not about. His mental process was to speculate what he would do to her if they were married in and out of bed. O’Malley he regarded as a natural confidence trick man, but was alarmed when O’Malley told him ‘Nasty things happen in hospital at night.’ I loathed him at first, but discovered in time he would do anything to help you. He managed to get my headphone from the Light to the Home programme which was a great amenity.
Wandering up and down the corridor was a character called by O’Malley the ‘dusky warrior’, a West Indian band leader from St Vincent. At visiting times swarms of Negroes turned up to see him, including at least three pregnant women. Edmonds was replaced by a college servant with a liver complaint. Once no less than 12 doctors turned up to feel his stomach.
On Tuesday of the second week, Dr Acheson, hearing I lived in a bungalow, said he could see no reason why I should not go home on Saturday, June 3rd. The ambulance arrived when I was eating lunch at 12 o’clock and by one they backed into the drive. I was home again, 10 lbs less in weight and very long hair. What I felt I needed was a spell in a Trappist monastery where there would be no talking and no noise and no listening!
Everything very green. Our neighbour, Graham Kitchin, had cut the grass, Mary had put in bean sticks and my seeds had come up. My programme became: breakfast in bed, morning in bed with cat til 12, shave and wash, lunch, lie down 2 till 4, tea, and sit up till 9.30.

Monday, June 5th - War broke out between Egypt, Syria and Jordan and Israel. In 24 hours the Israeli air forced destroyed the Egyptian planes and then went through the Egyptians like a wire through cheese.

Saturday, June 10th - By the end of the week they were up to the Canal, had recaptured whole of Jerusalem and had seized the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. Nasser resigned, but later agreed to stay on for the present.
This evening Mr Larkins came up and went through the bees, now invisible in the grass. He was awfully kind and worked from 6 to 9.30 and said he would come back in a week’s time.

Thursday, June 15th - Had letter from Jack Lee. He was at Crookhouse Court School near Newbury with 10 boys from Sherborne. He gave no news of Walters, the Belgian boy, with my 20 postcards!

Monday, June 19th - Wrote John Griggs and Hazel Reynolds. Dr Robinson says I must be careful for a year! but should take gentle exercise. Could drive car. Up we went to Stow at 3 o’clock. Had haircut and tea at Anne’s. Had last driven six weeks ago.
Graham cut grass in evening and Larkins came up to look over the bees. Said he thought prospects were good. Really neighbours are most kind and helpful.

[Newspaper cutting with no date and no name of publication, but probably June as refers to start of GCE exams - an extract]:
40 QUIT SCHOOL IN ROW
More than 40 pupils at a £400-a-year school for sons of Colonial civil servants and businessmen have been withdrawn by their parents after disturbances to which the police were called.
The pupils, aged between 11 and 18, ran through the building at Sherborne Park smashing windows and overturning furniture. Then they threw a bust of the headmaster, Mr James Mosey, 63, into the River Windrush.
Tonight, only 13 boys out of 57 - all with parents living abroad, were still on the premises.
The trouble broke out on Monday when the boys’ privileges, for which their parents pay extra fees,  were withdrawn.
On Wednesday night Mr Mosey named 40 boys and told them they were being expelled. A coach and two taxis were waiting to take them to the station. But on the way the boys phoned the police and returned to the school.  After talking to the policer, Mr Losey agreed to take the boys back.

Monday, June 26th - Lying down at 2 o’clock when that madman Jack Lee turned up with a boy. They had come up at half term and were camping at Sherborne. Told the story of the mutiny in detail. Started with Mosey retiring to his flat and refusing to answer or take phone calls. Police called in four or five times, on one occasion because Mrs Mosey feared rape - as Lee said ‘Wishful thinking’. At one assembly boys so frightened by H.M. they backed to the end of the hall, one ran out, and all the rest followed, leaving only prefects.

Tuesday, June 27th - A good day - Stow - met greengrocer who told me Mrs Moeran leaving Adlestrop but has found some people from the north. Miss Baxter has apparently been thrown in and advised him to send in his bills quickly!
Over 20 good cars from Brussels forwarded by Walters from his new school near Warminster - the Walters Bequest!


Sunday, July 2nd - Donald arrived. Enormous paunch but very friendly with cigar. Talked of old boy establishment’s network in higher medical posts. Familiar with this as reading Liddel-Hart on on how Hore Belisha tried to clean out the Augean stables of the pre-war army. One experienced man was turned down for the command of one of our armoured divisions because of his divorce - the cavalry officers’ wives would not call if he was appointed!! These lines I liked:
'Fight on my men' said old Sir Andrew.
'I am wounded but I am not slayne;
I will lie down and rest awhile
And then I'll rise to fight agayne.'

Also Eric Gill, Speight, rather lecherous: lines which would suit the present ‘mini skirts’:
“If skirts should go much shorter",
Said the flapper with a sob,
"There'll be two more cheeks to powder
And one more place to bob."

Wednesday, July 5th - Wrote to Albi for 20 postcards from Musée, which visited with Molly 30 years ago.

Thursday, July 6th - To Berkshire Downs, the White Horse. Up on ridge to track near Wayland’s Smithy Cave, to which we walked. The Ministry of Works had restored it, replaced the stones of the burial chamber and reset the boundary stones of the long barrow. The two megaliths at the entry, almost as big as Avebury, very impressive. They are surrounded  by a ring of beeches. I do not think I had been there since summer of 1935 when I took the first two forms from Henley Grammar.
It is an extraordinary thing that for 2000 years or more the grass has never been allowed to obliterate the Horse. It shows what a hold it had over the villagers in the vale below it. Mother used frequently to talk about the ‘scouring of the White Horse’ and how it was not carried out frequently enough. Certainly when we went past it on the train to Exeter before 1914 it was sometimes hard to see. Now, like Wayland Smith, it is looked after by the Ministry of Works.

Saturday, July 8th - Cill, asked by Mary to keep an eye on me, came in at 12. She had had a row with the matriarch and was rather weepy. Repeated old Burnside’s hymn: ‘Don’t you cry; You’ll be an angel By and By.’ Replied she was not an angel but a bitch. Sorry for that girl, but perhaps she will be better (or worse) when the matriarch is gathered.
Head clerk at Delhi garlanding the wife of bank manager with wreath of flowers. ‘Memsahib, it is a great honour for me to put this nosegay round your neck. The fragrance of these flowers will depart, but your smell, Memsahib, will remain with us forever.’

Monday, July 10th - This summer looks like being a good one. To-day the hottest day of the year so far. Tried to get the new rector, who looks like a stage parson, to put back wooden war memorial cross, alleged by Bubb to be in his garden. We might then be able to clean up this corner of the village.

Tuesday, July 11th - Letter from Hilary and Lise. They are in their new home, which appears to be a gentleman’s residence. Jacob has started to crawl and found by so doing a paint pot. Fortunately he did not try to drink it, but smeared it over himself.
Another blazing day. The woman opposite is practising the bagpipes. Most inconsiderate.

Wednesday, July 12th - Old Mr Harwood, the Stow coalman, arrived with a ton of Phumacite, £17-15s, cheaper than the coal merchant at Stow. He is rather a pet, very courteous and polite.

Sunday, July 16th - Wedding anniversary. Bottle of Beaujolais for lunch. Gave Mary box of chocolates, but she thought fucking had better wait for a couple of months. 20 pleasant postcards from Albi, but they do not publish any of the brothel ones - Les Elles - apparently.



Thursday, July 21st - Took Cill up to Stow and we had coffee. Said I was not much help when she wanted a shoulder to cry on a fortnight ago and as she was leaving for a fortnight for holiday in Italy gave her a kiss. She offered her cheek and seemed pleased.
Mr Unnick[?] in Stow was talking about asinities of the  purchase tax. On a sheet of wrapping paper is so much if paper hanging up, but if folded in four and put in a box it is taxed because it has been “processed”. Same with a sheet of cardboard if it is cut up in a guillotine.

Sunday, July 23rd - Michael and Miss Birch to lunch. Heard of Pymonie’s latest muddle - letting her flat in Sidmouth to two women who on entering found it filthy, no power because the electricity bill had not been paid and 3 teacups, two without handles. When the infuriated husband rang up yesterday when Pymonie was in London Miss Birch had to take the abuse. Much talk of ‘old lags I have known’. Roger the Raper had been down, mad as ever, Maureen is permanently locked up in Rampton.
An old bedridden woman in Adlestrop had been  given a television set by the Lady of the Manor. When she was alone this had caught fire. Her sister came back and found her dead in bed. Everything was black including the dead sister’s face. As she had made no attempt to turn the bedclothes back it seemed likely she had been asphyxiated. Killed by kindness.

Tuesday, July 25th - Read Kilvert to Butters. Said Bertha is so obviously attached to older children that Cill feels inferior. The house which should have been put in her name is in the name of the elder sister, Mary, and so on. At any rate the car is Cill’s and she can drive it, which is something.

Wednesday, July 26th - De Gaulle’s latest ploy has been to visit Canada after the Quebec and shout ‘Vive Quebec libre’. ‘Not,’ as the Times said, ‘the way to behave.’ We might send a Welshman to Brittany to do the same, or better still a German to Strasbourg! De Gaulle cancelled his visit to Ottawa and flew back to Paris.

Saturday, July 29th - Went to Cheltenham to work on Louvre postcards in library

Thursday, Aug 3rd - Sent Nicholas a birthday card with a photo of Grandpa attached. Larkins came in and brought 110 lbs of honey in tins. Thinks crop about 200 lbs.

Friday, Aug 4th - Report on Aberfan report out (see 1966, Oct 23 & 24). The way the Coal Board works sounds like a governors’ meeting at Henley. ‘A tale on bungling and ineptitude by many men charged with tasks for which they were totally unfitted, of failure to heed clear warnings and total lack of direction from above.’
To Cheltenham. Worked on Dresden Art Gallery in library.

Saturday, Aug 13th - ‘A bad day at black rock’. I thought I would be useful and weed the cyclamen bed. Unfortunately I dug up and threw away a honeysuckle seedling, very minute, which Mary was intending to pot and had recently pointed out to me. Her attitude to plants resembles some women’s to their offspring. ‘Listened to nothing that she said. She might as well not be here. I heard nothing and remembered nothing because I was not interested in what she said.’ I apologized but the rest of the day the atmosphere was strained and I was glad to retire to bed in disgrace.

Monday, August 14th - Curiously enough Gwynne [Gwynne and Winnie Meara tolunch on Aug 12th] brought me Muggeridge’s latest book, Tread Softly. I could not make out whether it was a gift or a loan, or indeed, since it contained some passages of pornography, whether he was trying to get it out of the house before the boys found it or Winnie saw it. Winnie is so very good that I always feel inclined to commit some fearful obscenity. Perhaps indeed I need not feel like that about her. She and Mary when they were girls, I am told, accustomed to comparing growth of pubic hair.
Weakness of Muggeridge is the fact that all the things he condemns, television, the BBC, the popular press, The Observer, ‘that Salvation Army shelter for the ideological bums and drunks of our time’, have provided him with a living - biting the hand that pays him.

Friday, Aug 26th - Florrie to Bourton Bird Zoo in a.m., tea in garden in afternoon. Told me how they went to Henley Regatta in a wagonette and changed horses at Benson. Picniced there on the way home. In those days the college barges of the competing crews were towed down and moored along the banks. As a child she used to go to school on a horse train to Cowley. Their house was lit by gas, except in the sitting room where there was a hanging oil lamp because ‘the gas was oppressive’.

Sunday, Aug 27th - To Marlborough Arms, Witney, for lunch with Maclagan - 40 years on!! He was a little guzzled fat man. He recognized me at once though surprized to find my hair was white. A rather dull pathetic undergraduate in 1921, he had become a rather dull pathetic unattractive fat little man in 1967.

Friday, Sept 1st - Wrote letter in Italian to Brera for 29 p.c.s. Heard nothing from Dresden or several American galleries.

Monday, Sept 4th - A letter arrived from Nora from Denmark. The new house sounds so nice I might contemplate a visit! Jacob a splendid little boy and very good tempered.

Wednesday, Sep 6th - Did my first stint on Charles I’s Picture Gallery at Bodleian.

Saturday, Sept 9th - To Stow. Asked in Smalley’s, the iron monger, whether they knew anyone who could translate German. They sent me to a Mrs Jeffries at Bradwell. She read the letter from the State Gallery at Dresden in a minute, put her paper in the typewriter and knocked off a reply! A find indeed! Had been a secretary in Berlin and said in those days you always ended letters Heil Hitler!

Tuesday, Sept 14th - Visit to Blenheim Palace. Arrived just before 2 o’clock. Entry 4/-, 2/- to park on grass in park, 2/6 for guide, 5/- for tea. Total 17/6. I had not been since about 1930 or 1931. Mary had never been in Palace. The visitors were well arranged and you were allowed out on the terrace for tea. A lot of pictures had been sold, but there were still some interesting portraits. The  stone has not weathered to a pleasing colour and the North Court is gravelled and without a single blade of grass. The formal garden would be very pleasant on a sunny day but there is an almost complete absence of flowers. We started with a party in the great hall and walked through the state apartments to saloon, which is a grisly place to eat in, and then into the long library. Sir Winston now competes with John Churchill. Yuy are shown the brass bedstead on which he was born near the hall, his vest, and in the library his puce siren suit. We were both very pleased with our trip.

Friday, Sept 15th - A Mr Peter Gamble, Headmaster of Alvescot Lodge, rang up and invited me to an interview on Tuesday. I wrote to him as a result of finding an advert in the Personal Column of Times for the Anglo-American College Ltd.

Saturday, Sept 16th - Cherry and Mary both very smart came to lunch at the Bay Tree. Cherry seemed happy and contented. Rather sorry for her sake that Paul upon whom so much money was spent to give him a Roman Catholic education has now had her grandchild baptized in C of E and given up his Roman catholicism. Lunch 14/6 each, coffee 1/6 each, 2 glasses of wine 7/- Total £2 15s 9d.

Monday, Sept 18th - Michael Collard came over. He had been to see Peggy, the helper, at Adlestrop. According to her the maladjusted have been allowed to run wild by the new owners. They are no longer confined to the park, they go out to the surrounding villages, ride Colonel Reeves’ horses and the one woman there retires to the flat at night and lets them get on with it. It does sound as if they cannot go on long like this without a major scandal. These new people have been trained on educationally subnormal and not emotionally disturbed and just don’t know what they have taken on.

Tuesday, Sept 19th - To Alvescot Lodge to see the H.M., a clergyman. It looked like ‘gracious living’ + coaching. He had only six pupils and was just starting. He had come from Millfield School, where, he said, he had once had the princes in his class. When he asked Mr Tilley, the vice principal, in to meet me, I recognized as a very whiskery and rather unpleasant beaver I had once seen at Sherborne. He was a show off in the American style and wished to sell himself.
Law Journal reports: ‘The marriage suffered a setback in 1965 when the husband was killed by the wife.’

Thursday, Sept 21st - Hilary arrived from London at Kingham at 6.45 with large bottle of Grand Marnier and a set of photographs of the grandchildren.

Friday, Sept 22nd - Went into Cheltenham to see Dr Zhivago. Very long, three and a half hours, but a fine film, massive snow bound and full of atmosphere, also on the whole rather more intelligible than the book.

Monday, Sept 25th - First morning at Alvescot. One Jordanian, one moron (?), one boy, Chalcraft, from Framlingham. Two periods, geography and history. Pleasant classroom, blackboard.

Tuesday, Sept 26th - Took Hilary to Cheltenham buying clothes for himself and children. England a low cost country compared with Europe. Said Nora was rather a trial at Munke Bjergby as she would tell them six ways of doing everything.

Saturday, Sept 30th - Reading extraordinary story of disappearance of Amalie Earhart in 1937. Probably caught by Japs on a spy flight over Marshall Islands and died in prison.

Thursday, Oct 3rd - Heard to-night with regret that that talkative, dynamic and flamboyant character Sir Malcolm Sargent had died to-day. He had been too ill to conduct at the Proms but had been patched up by the doctors and came onto the platform at the last night.

Wednesday, Oct 4th - The Riksmuseum postcards arrived long before U.S.A., Italian and East German.

Sunday, Oct 8th - Another good man died on Saturday, Clem Attlee. He gave independence to India, Ceylon, and Burma, launched Britain as an atomic power, continued the wartime alliance between Britain and the U.S.A., decided to take no part in the new European institutions, nationalized a number of industries and established the welfare state. Some of these policies have been wiser than others. He was no politician in the television age and little interested in the press, though he is supposed to have done The Times crossword!

Thursday, Oct 12th - Yesterday to I.A.H.M. [headmasters’ association] at Kingham School. General shortage of scientists and mathematicians commented on. Places at new Technical Universities and even some ordinary universities not full. Sixth formers have turned against science. Query revolt of our young against bombs, bad teaching, shortage of teachers, etc.

Wednesday, Oct 25th - Michael came over to lunch and drove us to Stratford to Romeo and Juliet. Juliet (Estelle Kohler) looked very nice but you could hardly hear what she said. Reflect that I saw it in the early . The penalty of old age is I think the actresses of old were far better!

Wednesday, Nov 1st - A picture of Prince Charles and Princess Anne attending opening of the new session Parliament for the first time. They looked very miserable. As he may have to wait another 30 years till he becomes King very difficult to know what to do with him. I hear the poor wretch is to be sent to University of Aberystwyth to learn Welsh!

Friday, Nov 3rd - Up early to Cheltenham where working on Italian and German galleries. Ordered new cloth trousers from Cypriot tailor - were 9gns, now 10! Got some black open work stockings which hope to persuade M to where when we go to bed!

Sunday, Nov 5th - A dreadful day of NE gales and rain. Didn’t go out except to post letters. Papers full of two anniversaries - Balfour Declaration and the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The government have lost two safe seats, one to the Conservatives one to the Scottish Nationalists. Clear if general election now there would be a Tory landslide. A very disappointing end to all our hopes of a radical government of two years ago. Still Divorce, Homosexuality and Abortion Law reform, otherwise conservative in economics and dithering over Rhodesia where I suspect a sell out is coming. No one trusts Wilson, least of all the Zambians.

Thursday, Nov 16th - Dealt with Wesley. As Marzin a pious Moslem, this not too easy! Read to Cicely. Have now finished half Zhivago.
The Chinese in Singapore have been suffering from a retraction of their penises which they believe if not stopped will vanish into their abdomens! This is supposed to be caused by eating vaccinated pigs. Western medicine regards it as a purely psychological affliction, but the trade in pigs has been affected.

Sunday, Nov 19th - The government has decided to go it alone and not accept a massive foreign loan with strings attached but to devalue, thus boosting exports, encouraging the use of home products and hoping thus to balance exports and imports. I think this is the best course to take remembering 1931 - 32.
Starting at Oswestry foot and mouth disease has swept across the Midlands and now reached Chipping Norton. 100,000 animals have been slaughtered. This is the most serious epidemic since the 1950s.

Thursday, Nov 30th - The new tests  for drivers suspected of over drinking when driving have been introduced this week. Blowing into a plastic bag which contains crystals which change colour if the driver is dangerous. At the police station he can have blood or urine tested. Disqualification for a year follows automatically with a fine of £100 or prison. Refusal to take the test means a fine of £50. This is due to our new minister of transport, Barbara Castle.

Friday, Dec 1st - Our village! Old Mr Bubb, our late rector, is so miserable - no wife, no relatives, no voice - that he has been taken in by Mrs Simms and a doctor sent for from Bourton. Mary goes out and meets Mrs Webb who tells her that Miss Worgan found June and Hilda ‘loving themselves’ on the sofa next door. ‘Silly, isn’t it!’ was her comment. They spend a lot of time with the curtains drawn and we think June must have made a pass at Cill and that is why she will not go there any more.

Saturday, Dec 2nd - More trouble on the railways. ‘Work to rule’ on Monday by drivers. Technical advances, the new diesels, have made firemen unnecessary. There is no longer any coal to shovel. A second man in the cab is necessary  and it is proposed that this should be the guard. But the drivers and firemen have in the past considered themselves aristocrats and have their own union whereas the guards belong to the N.U.R  [National Union of Railwaymen]. The presence of N.U.R. men on the footplate must in the end mean end of separate unions, hence the go slow and chaos in the consumer zone in the south where the Loco mens’ union is strong. Luddites again!
Went to see old Bubb in the house of Mrs Simms. Found him fixed upon two chairs in the front room. Very short of breath and wheezy and hardly audible. The doctor from Bourton had been to see him (I don’t think he had ever seen a doctor before!) and told him he should go to Cheltenham Hospital and have an operation on his throat as soon as possible. He has had this throat trouble ever since we have been here so can hardly think it is cancer, but it must be.

Tuesday, Dec 5th. Took Cill to Cheltenham. Got a model of The Endeavour.

Thursday, Dec 7th - A sharp sprinkling of snow which had frozen on the road. Mary very nervous about going to Stratford for the ‘Shrew’. However we went. Play last seen in 1962. To-day done very much as a music hall which rather obscured the two principals, Petruchio and Katherine. Theatre full of secondary modern types and young men from the Tec, mostly spotty, long haired and dirty looking. Got home about six. Still, in spite of prophecies of disaster we went, so the tickets were not wasted as they sometimes have been in the winter months.

Friday, Dec 8th - Lucky we did. Today six inches of snow and a bitter north wind. Marcia Kitchin brought back the meat from Stow, but no books alas. Pat sent me an appreciation of Stevie in the Barnardo House magazine and a nice letter. She is now running the cottage in N. Devon as a home for unmarried mothers and children. Good for her.

Monday, Dec 11th - New Concorde airliner (to New York and back in day a joint Anglo-French enterprise) brought out and shown to an admiring audience at Toulouse. Can’t help hoping it will not kill too many people and test pilots. The first Xmas card arrived from Norman and Eric - a printed plan to tell you how to find them. They always send something pretty miserable but Betty Fairthorne is worse, sometimes a bit of brown paper.

Wednesday, Dec 13th - Heard to-night old Bubb discharged himself from hospital after he had seen the specialist who told him he had cancer of the throat and arrived back by himself at his new house at Stow. Donald diagnosed cancer over a year ago but now it has got too bad to do much about and he cannot take much food. He seems determined to die in his own house. While he was with Mrs Simms the new rector called. ‘If it had been my house I would have shown him the door!’ he told Mrs S.

Friday, Dec 15th - Heard later old Bubb had come back in an ambulance and directed them to Mrs Chapman’s, who refused to take him and the police had to be called! He has now agreed to go into St Luke’s and they are waiting for an ambulance to be sent. He seems to be in his house and being looked after by various female friends. What a ghastly story!

Tuesday, Dec 19th - 20 cards arrived from Berlin - ordered at beginning of November.

Wednesday, Dec 20th - A white frost all day. Did Christmas tree in porch, pleased with effect.
Heart transplant man is still alive but not doing so well. 4 p.m. Vi Worgan just rang to say Bubb died in his sleep and is to be buried at Icomb on Saturday. He was 77 and had been here for 15 years.  Later: Cill brought in Cicely for a reading of Zhivago. Mary gave them a dozen mince pies and I gave them a bottle of Chianti.
Heart man in S. Africa only lived 18 days. Died they say of pneumonia and not ‘rejection’ of transplant. They are all set to try again.

Friday, Dec 22nd - Mary’s temper not good, grumbles, not much that I do is right. Not much to talk about in common except trivial local gossip and then she complains that I am silent, don’t listen to what she says etc etc. Jonquils and irises arrive from Cherry, but they were ‘a waste f money’, then some carnations from one of her friends. They apparently were not.

Saturday, Dec 23rd - To Bubb’s funeral at Icomb. Church was full, about 80 people, even had a man in village parking cars. Clergy in strength - Bledington, Rissington, Adlestrop, Bourton, the Archdeacon representing Bishop and himself, a man in the Rowlandson tradition. Right in front sat the Blackwells, whom he couldn’t stand (old Blackwell known as Bitchie) and two nuns from the convent. We had Advent and Easter hymn and were spared St Paul, instead lesson from Revelations. The Archdeacon gave an address on the lines that the dead man was an “unobtrusive” man of God. You might have said he was a very lonely hypochondriac bachelor with few close friends, but kind and pleasant though one found it difficult to get very far through his evasiveness and protective vagueness. I’ve met far more unpleasant clergy in my time.

Christmas Day - I woke about 7.30. It was still dark but I could hear the rain running off the roof; Mary brought in Badger who gave me a Christmas purr. After breakfast we opened our presents. Had book tokens, writing paper, M. of Works season ticket and model of ‘Endeavour’. Reply at 10 to call from Bromme via Copenhagen. Lise answered. Nicholas spoke to me but I was not able to hear very clearly what he said. Almost half an hourlater Hilary rang up, clear and gruff. Things both mental and physical much better in the home since Lise gave up teaching. Her father had had a heart attack and was in hospital in Copenhagen. Not long for this world, Hilary said!
Then went out to get a bunch for dinner table. Wych Hazel, Gentian, Prunus, Jasmin, Hyacinth, Polyanthus, Primroses, all in flower.
Listened to Queen who mentioned Canada, Malta, West Indies and made frequent references to ‘my eldest son and daughter’.
I think we’ve got most of the Christmas things:
Holly and Ivy - allegory of passion. I remember being told about this as a very young child.
Mistletoe - Over door covered in white berries held in superstitious awe and connected with ancient fertility rite though so far have kissed no girls under it!
Fir Tree - Pre Christian cult of Northern Forest tribes reintroduced by Prince Consort.
Synthetic snow on tree - stage coach and snow, believed to date from great frost of 1847 when mail was delayed.
Robins and Wrens - again robin friend of man, related to crucifixion, and wren a sacred bird, both pieces of folklore believed o come from Med. in Bronze Age.
Giving Presents - Roman Saturnalia, revelry and licence Dec 17th-19th. Giving presents, forgetting distinctions of rank, C4, undergraduates serving scouts, officers serving men.
Feasting to mark winter solstice and turning of the year.
Lunch turkey (brought by Florrie), sprouts, potatoes, stuffing. Asti Spumante. Rasberry jelly. Christmas pudding reserved to be eaten with cold turkey.

Wednesday, Dec 27th - Finished the model of The Endeavour but do not think I shall rig her. It is too difficult.

Saturday, Dec 30th - The Florentine galleries at last replied after more than two months and hope to get some cards before Easter! Went to read to Cicely to thank her for her book token. Found her rather low and Cil rather scatty. She asked Miss Worgan if she was afraid of death. She replied of pain but not of death. Very sensible. Considers Cil suicidal anyway.
6 a.m. emergency; After peeing in bottle went to sleep momentarily, turned over and found the whole thing had emptied and I was lying in a small pond. My new electric blanket was soaked right through. Pulled of sheet and got back into bed only to find two short tails soaking.

Sunday, Dec 31st - Cold wind with a snow flurry after breakfast and hills white all day. Bitterly cold, did not go out. Ended year in bed with Mary, my darling wife.
Like 1947 last year was a bad year, though not as bad. Started off with oil pollution and ended with foot and mouth. The only bright spot was the summer weather.
We scuttled out of Aden, we were forbidden entry into Europe by de Gaulle, refused more money by the bankers and lost the Arab oil because they blamed us for their own folly. The Canal was closed The Rhodesian stalemate continued. After trying to defend the pound in November we devalued. Three years effort was in ruins. Now all will depend on the new Chancellor, Mr Roy Jenkins. We had long dock strikes, building strikes, strikes and go slows on the railways. London went Tory for the first time since 1934 and the bank rate was 8% for the first time since 1914!

Lists 35 books read in 1967.
Christmas cards 63, including religious 15, charitable 13, candles and holly 10, Topographical 11.


Index (non-exhaustive) of Names 1967
Adlestrop - July 23, Sep 18. Alvescott - Sep 15, 19, 25. Attlee, Clem - Oct 8. Attrill, Norman & Eric - Apr 4. Blackham, Olive - Feb 25. Blenheim, Sep 14. Brown, Ruth - Apr 7. Bubb (Rector) - Dec 1, 2, 13, 15, 20, 23.   Butterfield, Miss (Butters), Cicely - see Roberts. Clayden , Mary (Cherry) - Mar 7, Apr 4, 28, 29, Sep 16. Clifford, Clem - Apr 4, 23. Collard, Michael - Jan 1, July 23, Sep 18, Oct 25.  De Gaulle - May 2, July 26, Dec 31. Gibson, Mr - May 13.  Griggs, John, - June 199. Hilary, - July 11,Sep 21, Dec 25.   Humanists - Feb 25, Mar 17, Jacob - July 11, Sep 4.  King, Dr, Apr 18, 25, 26, May 9, 11. Lee, Jack - Jan 15, 16, Apr 23, June 15, 26,  Kitchin, Graham - Mar 24, Dec 8.  Larkins, Mr - June 10.  Lipscombe - April 4, Feb 19, Mar 17. Mary - Jan 29, May 13, 11, 18, July 16, Aug 13, Sep 14, 16, Dec 22, 31.  Meara, Winnie & Gwynne and twins - Aug 14.  Moeran, Pymonie - July 23. Mosey, Mr & Mrs James  - Jan 15, 16, 22, June 19, 26.  Montgomery, Gen. - May 8.  Muggeridge, M - Aug 14. Nicholas - Aug 3. Nora (Barnes) - Mar 24,  Sep 4. 0'Malley, Sq Ldr, - May 18. Payne, Miss - Feb 5. Pierce, Mrs "Florrie" - Mar 26, Aug 26, Dec 25.  Radcliffe Hospital - May 18.  Rees, Wally - Apr 4, Reynolds, Hazel - June 19.
Roberts, Mrs Bertha, Cill, Cicely. Robertson, 'Wully' - Apr 19. Robinson, Dr, - May 18.  Sherborne - June 19, 26. Shelmerdine, Col & Mrs - Feb 5, May 13. Wayland's Smithy - July 18,
Westall, Wilfrid - Apr 7. Westcote village - Mar 22, Apr 29,  July 10, Dec 23. Wheeler, Tom - Mar 24, 29, Apr 4. Wilkinson, Margery,- Apr l4, 23.  Worgan, Vi - Jan 9, Apr 29, Dec 1, 20.