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
Darling 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