November 10, 1908 KITEBROOK,
MORETON-IN-MARSH.
My dearest Robin,
I have been trying to decide from the photographs what shape the rooms must be and how they fit together. I can’t arrange for the hall to have a door into the kitchen. Does one go through the dining-room to get to it or run round outside the house? That would be rather chilly in the winter. Please send me a ground plan to satisfy my curiosity. The stairs will wander up through the drawing-room ceiling too! I am afraid I am not much of an architect. It’s like a Chinese puzzle trying to fit the inside in.
I am having a very strenuous week. Yesterday I hunted at Boulter’s Barn (if possible, less sport than usual). Today is our hockey practice. Tomorrow we go to London for the day for me to try my habit. I have already tried it three times and the last spent an hour and a half sitting on an old wooden horse and still it doesn’t do. Thursday and Friday I hunt and Saturday play in a hockey match. Sunday I shall lie down and die!
Laurie is coming to lunch today and I am going to drive her up to make her first appearance on the hockey field. We are all going armed with shin-pads and bandages and Norah says she shall get a fencing mask. She (Miss Lawrence) is coming back here to tea and Mr. Sneyd is also coming, so we shall have a cheerful evening.
We shall soon be stopped hunting by frost–we had eleven degrees last night. The ground is so hard already that it can’t make much difference. We have had no rain for weeks.
I actually hope to get as far as New Barn on Friday. Guelina Chietham has asked me and my horse to go to Rockcliffe on Thursday night.
Mrs. Witts has taken to hunting again!
We are hoping to go to a matinée tomorrow after we have done with the tailor. We want to go to “The Marriages of Mayfair” if we can get there. We hear its very good and wonderfully “put on”.
We have already started to collect our Stow Ball party. So far we have secured Hereward Dawkins and asked a few other cousins. I don’t know if Geoff means to come back for it. We have not heard from him lately, though every other person I meet says, “I saw your brother at Newmarket the other day.” I am getting quite tired of hearing about it. He was twenty-one yesterday and henceforth no one will be able to put a finger in his pie, I suppose!
Maugersbury Dower House is let, to two men I believe, and Miss Hewitt has been told to furnish it. I should love to see what she makes of it. It’s rather a responsibility for her. I feel sure whatever she does, “Uncle” won’t like it. He and his bride are expected back early in December. She took to her bed as soon as they got to Paris. A cheerful beginning to the honeymoon, wasn’t it?
Has Harry appeared in a smart green knitted tie yet? The work which occupied Norah’s fair hands for many months! I hear it is at last finished. I think I shall have to learn to knit ties to adorn your Sunday neck. (Geoff says they won’t keep tied.) At present I can only knit socks and I am not very good at that. It’s only by accident they turn out a pair.
Later. We have got safely back from hockey with no casualties. Laurie will turn out quite a player one of these days–appearances are deceitful! She and Mr. Sneyd have just left–together. He gallantly offered to escort her home. He says she crochets waistcoats for Mr. Eustace. Truly, it is time I embroidered négligé slippers for you. I am not doing my duty!
Instead of waistcoats and ties I can only send my very best love.
Yours ever,
Kathleen