January 26, 1909 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
My dearest Robin,
I am glad you were not so absurd as to stop writing to me because I was absurd enough to say I didn’t mean to write to you, though as you will have discovered by this time I did not stick to it. I don’t know what can have become of my Christmas present. [References in this letter are to Robin–January 5, 1909.] Certainly I despatched it myself from Moreton. Perhaps it may turn up yet. Some letters seem to take much longer than others, though if you aren’t going to open it when you get it, it doesn’t very much matter, does it?
You do seem to have been having it cold. I don’t envy you your below zero days at all. I hope the pipes are still holding out. It would be rather a disaster if they burst. We got flooded here once owing to a frozen one. They have to pump our water from the farm and went on after the tank was full as the return pipe was frozen. We did not discover it till there was a huge river down the stairs and a lake in the hall!
It has been very sharp here the last few nights and we could not hunt yesterday. I thought about going to Wolford today but the ground seemed harder than ever so I gave it up. Since then the thermometer has gone up to 65º in the sun but I don’t think it would be fit to hunt.
Auntie and I are all alone for a few days. Geoff has gone to Cambridge to collect the belongings he has left there and sell his pictures etc. and Reggie went yesterday to the Blacklocks’ for two dances.
I saw in the Evesham Journal that the Kelowna district had distinguished itself at the Spokane Apple Show. Were any of your friends among the prize winners? I suppose Harry will be some day!
Thursday. I am feeling so melancholy today to think that the Ladies’ Ball would have been tonight if it had come off. It is still freezing hard. One consolation is my horse will be fit to hunt by the time the weather is. I trotted him sedately along the roads for 2½ hrs this morning. Yesterday I got Mrs. Warden to come with me but she wouldn’t today as there was a thick fog. Reggie wouldn’t come either as it was too cold, so I had to go alone.
We have been playing hockey this afternoon, rather a dangerous game this weather as the ball bumps up so. We have got a match on Saturday. I should think somebody ought to be killed with any luck. The Grisewoods and Hilda Robinson came to lunch yesterday and “Mummie” told us all sorts of weird tales which we are fast proving to be untrue.
Francie asked Marjorie and me to go and act a duologue at a Guiting concert next week but Marjorie wants to play mixed hockey so won’t go, which is rather sad as they don’t want me without her.
You seem to be frightfully gay. What a lot of dances you get, many more than we are having! You chose the the right year when you came back last winter. There was much more going on than this year. We might have been almost strangers still if you had been home this winter instead with so few dances; and I have not been out with the beagles at all as my knee has only just got well enough for me to run.
Nobody knows how the legend of the Heythrop Python got started–it was pure imagination.
Auntie has gone to play bridge at Lemington Manor to-day. The neighborhood has started a club and they meet every Thursday at the different members’ houses.
Reggie and I dined at Banks Fee on Saturday. The Witts girls and Miss Verney were staying there and Johnny Leigh was dining there–rather a grand little party, weren’t we! Four of us played bridge and the other three demon patience (whatever that may be–it seemed to be rather brainy, judging from their harrassed expressions, and there was a good deal of scrambling over it). Mrs. Godman was quite amusing and told funny stories at dinner!
How are you getting on with the floor staining? I do want to hear what it all looks like.
I had my first lesson in revolver shooting yesterday and I think probably the last, as I get a violent headache from the noise! It is an army revolver and much too heavy for me so my hand wobbled horribly but I managed to keep round the edge of the target most of the time. I fired once when I didn’t mean to, which surprised me a good deal. Fortunately, it went up in the air but I waited anxiously for a scream, as there was a farm in the direction it was going!
Yours with love,
Kathleen