Feb. 16th KITEBROOK,
MORETON-IN-MARSH.
Dear Mr. Stubbs
I am afraid I cannot grant your request about the photo for I have not been taken since I was fifteen, & you would not recognise that. We had an exceptionally dull Bridge party on Saturday. Everyone seemed half asleep after the dance.
I am just starting out hunting.
Wishing you Good Luck
yrs very sincerely
M. Kathleen Freer
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March 25th /04 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Dear Robin
I suppose you have arrived long before this. How do you like your new corner of the world? You must have had a very rough passage, it seemed to do nothing but rain and blow the whole of February. It has been snowing today!
Mrs Style is getting up some theatricals at Moreton for Easter week, the piece is to be “My Soldier Boy”, it ought to be good as Col. Grundy, Mr Greenwood, Mrs Rose, and Miss Haughton are acting, also Mrs Richardson, we wonder very much what she will be like.
I have just got a new bicycle with a free-wheel. I had never been on one before & as I was told that once on I should never be able to get off I was horribly nervous. At last I started down the drive with the gate shut at the end so I had to get off or run into it. I got off.
The hunting is nearly over now we have had some rather good days lately. I have not got a horse yet but I have just heard of two & hope one may suit.
Mrs Rose is getting up another dance at Bourton, we think it is too far and so are not going. I have not heard of anyone who is except the Johnsons. We want you and Mr Leigh back to stir up the neighborhood.
I have just got a new puppy, such a sweet little thing, a fox terrier, it only came yesterday, & seems very miserable at present. I am trying to think of a name for her. I am so tired of “Spot” & “Smut” etc.
yrs very sincerely
M. Kathleen Freer (Local reporter)
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May 19th 1904 39 Elm Park Gardens
London
Dear Robin
So many thanks for your letter. I am so glad to hear you are having a good time. I hope you have quite recovered from your hockey accident; moral: remove your glasses before again indulging in this dangerous pastime, or I shall be reading in the columns of the “Morning Post” of an “awful disaster on the hockey fielld.” I have quite conquerred my unruly free wheel now and can get off without the aid of a gate now. The most serious accident which has befallen me was a puncture which I could not find. I struggled in vain with a bowl of water for a whole afternoon, at last Mr Barnsley came to the rescue and found it at once by merely looking at the tyre. The only use he made of the water was to upset it all over me.
We came up to London yesterday for three weeks. Aunt Fanny is looking after an Aunt of hers who has been ill, so I am looking forward to spending a good deal of my time beneath one of the elms of Elm Park Gardens, contemplating the beauties of the surrounding chimney-pots and passing cabs; I hope the weather will be warm. I gave your message to Marjorie but she says she never sent you one. Either she or Mr Leigh must have been “romancing” I am afraid.
We have been spending a long afternoon at Earl’s Court, at the Italian Exhibition. “Venice by night” was perfectly lovely seen from a gondola. They have got a new thing this year called flying fish, something like Merry-go-rounds only high up in the air, we did not venture in it. I wanted very much to go down the chute but no one would go with me.
I hope you have got a horse by this time. I have got such a nice one, a thorough-bred.
I think we had better toss up who shall cook the first meal, I think if I will you will not long survive your home-coming, for even if your constitution would stand the cooking I think you would probably die of starvation as I should only provide you with toffee & peppermint creams. I think our theatricals were a success although Marjorie Grisewood did not act after all as her aunt died just before. Norah Prichard was simply excellent as the masculine woman and Reggie as her effeminate husband made quite a hit. The two plays were “Woman’s Wrongs” and “Dearest Mamma”. I was young & foolish in one, and an awful old terror in the other. I am sending you some photos of Reg & myself which I thought you might like to see, they are supposed to be very good.
I have been playing a good deal of tennis since the clubs opened, the courts at the Junction are splendid this year.
Your dances sound rather melancholy. I should think the good old English ones are nicer aren’t they?
We are going to Eton for the Fourth of June Festivities. I am looking forard to it very much as it will be the first time I have been.
I wonder if it is stale news to you by this time that Sophy Witts is engaged to be married, (I don’t think it has been announced in the Eversham Journal) to the agent at Havod in Wales, I can’t remember his name.
What sort of a place is Kamloops is it big or little? You have never told me anything about it. Have you got your strawberries started yet?
Mr. Brassey sent me a “brush” the other day of which I am awfully proud as the fox was killed after one of the runs of the season, from near Tew to Blenheim Park on Feb. 22nd. It was a capital run & I think it was clever of my little cob to be in at the death for eleven miles with my not altogether fairy-like form to carry was a bit rough on her.
I am hoping to go to some theatres next week. I am very anxious to go to the Duke of Killicrankie which I hear is screamingly funny. Do you indulge in theatres in Kamloops or is it too select? There seems nothing more to report so I think I had better stop.
Yrs very sincerely
Kathleen Freer
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July 16th 1904 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
My dear Robin
I found your letter waiting for me when I got back from Scotland the other day, feeling very cross and tired after travelling all night. I slept soundly but unfortunately we had to change twice which was a little disturbing. We stayed at Bannock in Perthshire for a fortnight. Of course it rained nearly all the time but we soon got used to that & fished hard all day. I had never fished before & I did not catch anything very large except the boat and a rock or two and occasionally myself!
The views from some of the mountains round were lovely, even surpassing those of Elm Park Gardens. I did go to the “Duke of Killiecrankie” when I was in London and liked it immensely. I thought it was very funny. Kamloops sounds a very dangerous place to live in. The trains must be worse than motor cars unless they are like Welsh ones & go about five miles an hour. I hope you are enjoying yourself at Kelowna. I expect you were glad to see Mr. Leigh again.
We are having a very gay time just now, tennis nearly every day. I played in an American Tournament at the Witts’ last week, with Mr Garnet. Mabel Witts and Miss Hornby won and we were second. There was an American Tournament at the Junction last Thursday. I drew a Mr Johnson, a very fat parson who could not run a yard and was always getting into difficulties over the handicaps. I had to give up trying to explain at last & do the scoring myself. The Stow tournament is the week after next. Marjorie Grisewood and I are going to play together in the Ladies’ doubles. I am afraid we shant survive the first round as we never can play properly together.
I wish you would not use such horrid ink it all came off on my fingers when I read your letter! Or did you forget to blot it? Please dont send any more messages to my Aunt for I simply dur’n’t deliver them, her hair would stand on end! You see her ideas are somewhat old-fashioned and if she knew I wrote to you it would give her what is commonly called “fits, and the “local report” might come to an untimely end. I don’t mean that she would have any objection to my writing to you personally but that I should write to anyone of your sex except my brothers and an uncle or so would astonish her.
I went up for the Eton and Harrow match which was great fun, although there was never any doubt about the result. Harrow played very well the second day & did their best to make it a draw, but, much to our joy Eton won by an innings and twelve runs.
It was fearfully hot at Lords and after grilling there all day, we went to the Orchid & then on to a musical party at the Brasseys. I was very tired & I am afraid very bored as I knew no one. The next evening we went to “Veronique” which I enjoyed immensely. Mr Graves who was taking the leading part was so funny that all the other people on the stage sat down and laughed and it was some time before they could get under way again.
Did you see the Orchid before you left England? I liked some of the songs immensely especially the “Little Mary” one. I hope the mosquitoes are beginning to diminish you have my sincere sympathy for the midges in Scotland were something awful! This seems an appalling dull letter but it is really too hot to be anything but dull!
Yrs very sincerely
M. Kathleen Freer
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Sept. 4th /04 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Glos
My dear Robin
I was very pleased to get your letter on Tuesday. I hope your new horse is turning out more successfully than the other, it is most unpleasant when they fall down, one that I hunted last winter had an awkward knack of catching his toe.
Tennis tournaments have been quite the rage this summer about here, there have already been eleven & there are two more this week. I have not been able to play in the last three as I sprained my wrist again, but it is better now & I played a little at Sezincote yesterday, on some hopelessly soft courts. I had not much control over my racket & the ball seemed to go everywhere but where I expected it to go. Hilda Spencer has been the great winner this year and has carried off five prizes.
I am playing in a ladies cricket match at Moreton to-morrow which will be rather amusing I expect. I dont think we have got a single respectable bowler on our side. I practised hard all yesterday morning and bowled a straight ball about once in six overs!
I am so glad to hear you have found a farm to suit you. I hope you will get on well with it. You will be quite an experienced chef by the time you come back to England! I shall look forward more cheerfully to the meal which you promised to cook for me! It will be nice for you to have Harry Leigh living with you. I expect you would find it a bit dull by yourself.
The Moreton Gymkhana took place last Wednesday, as usual in pouring rain. The great feature of the day was the “Lucky Tent”. At the door you took a ticket with a number on it & then went in to find the thing with the corresponding number. I got a pipe, so appropriate! It was most amusing to see people issuing forth–old gentlemen with dolls or drawing slates, small children with teapots or huge glass vases, or something equally absurd. We are thinking of having a “Rummage Sale” to get rid of all the rubbish we got.
The summer seems to be fast disappearing, & it gets horribly cold in the evenings.
I am beginning to look forward to hunting again. The Heythrop begin cubbing next week I think, but I expect it will be rather too early for me, I dont like getting up at 4 in the morning.
Next Thursday we are going to the agricultural show at Maugersbury. One of the great events is a Polo match. Was it not sad about poor little Glyn Prichard. I expect you saw all about it in the Eversham Journal, he was such a jolly little chap.
I played in a golf croquet tournament the other day which was rather fun. I was second, beaten by Marjorie Grisewood. I played in one before that & carried off the booby prize! I had a partner who got through two hoops during the afternoon & he was not even amusing to make up for his bad play.
I am not sure where to address this letter so I shall send it to Kamloops & hope for the best.
I have absolutely nothing more to say, there is nothing going on except tennis, tennis, tennis every day.
I saw Miss Risley at the Stow club the other day while whither she had gone to watch your brother play tennis.
Yrs very sincerely
Kathleen Freer
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Nov. 13th /04 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Glos
My dear Robin
I hope you are getting settled into your farm by this time. I expect it takes some-time to get everything into working order. Have you taken the cat with the six kittens with you? They sound most delightful pets! I am so glad you won the tennis match even though you were beaten (that sounds rather Irish, but I dare say you will understand it) 37 miles sounds a very long drive but I suppose you dont think so much of distance as we do in England.
There seems likely to be no Stow Ball this year, as Captain Becher has gone to live in Bourton on-the-Water and has given up the Secretaryship & no one else seems inclined to do anything. It will be a great disappointment if it does not come off. Everyone says it is “a pity” or “a shame” and protests loudly to everyone else but they dont get any further. Hunting has begun in earnest now that we have at last had enough rain to make jumping possible. My horse promises well for the future but at present there is a delightful uncertainty about each fence. Some, he jumps in first class style and others he rushes madly through, making a nice gap for anyone who may be behind. The latter method is not altogether successful with stone-walls, as you might imagine. It is so warm here now that the trees are shooting, and our strawberries are beginning to flower.
We spent a few days in London about a fortnight ago, and went to see the “Cingalle” and “His Majesty’s Servant”, I enjoyed them immensely, especially the latter, which was very thrilling. I went over to lunch with the Grisewoods yesterday. Marjorie and I are going to act two little duologues at a village concert at Kingham next week. I am quite expecting to spend a week in gaol afterwards, as the plays are copyright and they dont mean to pay the fees.
We won our first hockey match the other day against the East Glos. 2nd XI and are awfully proud of ourselves. Some sneering onlooker suggested that we ought to have a bonfire or a big dinner to commemorate it.
As I am answering your letter you will conclude that I am not “bored” as you express it. I like to get your letters it is interesting to hear what is going on, on the other side of the world.
Geoff has been home for the last week with a broken collar-bone, and as he cant hunt we have to drive after the hounds, we really had quite a good day with the Warwickshire last Tuesday, and drove over ploughed fields & waded across the fords of brooks & did all sorts of things calculated to improve the springs of the cart!
I must stop now as it is so dark I cant see the ink pot.
Yrs very sincerely
M. Kathleen Freer
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Dec 15th /04 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Glos
My dear Robin
I must write to wish you a merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all the other usual wishes of the season. Do you have a very festive time at Kelowna?
I hope you have managed to cook a plum pudding nicely. We have been having horrid weather lately, one day quite warm and the next a sharp frost so we have not been able to do much in the hunting line. We had a hopeless day at Heythrop on Monday, and scarcely got outside the park. We went to Stow Ball last Tuesday, there were quite a lot of people there–180 somebody said, and such a lot of strangers. We arrived even later than usual, I think! We made superhuman efforts to get up a party to go, but only managed to get one cousin & he is a hopeless dancer, whose only delight seemed to be to run into everyone else using me as a buffer, charming for me, I assure you! We are going to Bourton to-night and I suppose we shall have to be in time as we have got Marjorie Grisewood staying here to keep us up to the mark. She insists on starting at 7.30 as the dance begins at 9 o’clock. How are all your pets? the cat & kittens and those useful horses. I am now having my steed lunged over a stiff pole to try & make him rise better. I think it will do him good if he comes down once or twice and hurts himself.
Have you been playing any hockey on the ice this winter?
Friday. We had a most amusing little dance at Bourton last night. Lady Sherborne kept everyone in fits of laughter the whole evening; do you remember her last year? I think she was even funnier if possible this year. She brought a whole party of “lords” & “ladies” and “honorables” which made us all feel awfully insignificant! She kept one particular favorite at her side the whole time and took a “turn” round the room with him every now & then with her eyes shut and a wrapt expression on her face. One of the lords was dispatched at intervals to look for her ermine tippet which kept on getting lost. She refused to take one of her party home unless he danced with her, & when she finally left she took away a lot of crackers! The whole thing was most comic. I am beginning to feel awfully sleepy tonight. Fortunately there is no Bridge!
Yrs very sincerely
Kathleen Freer
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January 15th /05 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Gloucestershire
My dear Robin
Ever so many thanks for your letter and good wishes for Christmas, which arrived on Christmas Day. I am afraid long before you get this letter you will have thought I had forgotten to answer yours, but such is not the case, I have thought of it every day for the last fortnight, but somehow when the Boys are home for their holidays their is never any time to do anything. I have got out a sheet of paper and just settled down to begin several times when they come and carry me off to practise hockey or run a drag or something of that sort. The drag is frightfully hard work and I generally collapse after the first two fields, and begin cutting off the corners, if there are any. You are indeed well up in Shakespeare fancy knowing the titles of his plays! I don’t believe he ever wrote them though I generally get jumped on for saying so, but as long as people dont ask me my reasons I dont mind. When they do I never can find any.
“The brave and dauntless hero” turned up in the shape of Mr Scott and he managed the Stow Ball splendidly. I have not since heard of any injured dowagers. He took a tremendous lot of trouble and even gave up several days hunting, so we ought to be very grateful.
The Moreton dance was at the “Swan” this year. It was last Thursday. I enjoyed it more than any of the others this year. There were only about ninety people there and it was not the least stiff. Do you remember the floor last year, how depressed it made everyone?
We went to a childrens dance at Banbury on Monday, it got rather boring after a bit, as I knew scarcely anyone and hate dancing with strangers, however it was really a splendid dance, a lovely room and capital music. I have never heard the Choristers so well played since Heythrop. It is still the rage, I insisted on having it twice at Moreton as I helped arrange the programme!
We stayed with the Blacklocks in Banbury, one of the sons, Cyril has just come back from Canada where he says he met you and Harry Leigh when you first went out, do you remember him? He was with Harry Leigh’s brother for sometime.
We have won another hockey match and are awfully proud of ourselves! We beat East Glos. 2nd XI on their own ground by one goal to none, that one scored by my worthy self just four minutes before time was called! We think we shall have to play the 1st XI next as we have beaten the 2nd twice.
We had a most amusing match at Stow the other day. I took a mixed team against the Witts Family–ten of them. Several of the boys had never played before and it turned into a regular bear-fight and everyone rushed madly about. We were 2 goals all at the end so we had to play for five minutes more each way to decide and they got another goal. Then we all set to and abused one another, it was a tremendous success!
I hope you have returned Mrs Parson’s call by this time, and all the other So-and-Sos and Such and Suches. Have you been to any of the dances yet?
I wish our parson were of the pleasant drowsy sort, he keeps us very much awake by hissing out that we couldn’t be more wicked if we tried and pleasant little home truths like that. It was bitterly cold this morning and when he said he “supposed we were all longing for the end of the sermon” I should have liked to have mentioned that I for one certainly was!
I am afraid I can’t solve the question “Why is it impossible to write to one’s relations?” I have often wondered myself, perhaps the Editor of the “Royal” could tell us, it sounds like a riddle, the only thing I can think of is that it is one’s natural dislike for anything that one is obliged to do.
I very nearly sent your dissertation on “Rotteness in Letter-writing” to and Essay Club to which I had to send something, but I was afraid if it got a prize you might claim it!
How strange that the Cheltenham Press did not mention my wonderful success as an oakum-picker, it gave me quite an appetite for Christmas Fare when the week was over.
You seem a little hazy as to my native county, it is not Warwickshire but Gloucestershire, however Moreton is such an important place that your letters arrive all right.
Mrs Zelf’s annual entertainment is coming off on Thursday, they are going to act “Patience”, I hope it will be as good as the “Pirates of Penzance” last year, for that was splendidly done for amateurs, wasn’t it? A good many of the same people are acting.
I am just starting the search for a hunter again. I spent all last winter trying horses and got what I thought was a very nice one quite at the end of the season, but he has not fulfilled his early promise and I cannot persuade him to jump, he rushes madly through everything, as our groom says, “he is too cunning and wants a pair of spurs!” As I am not prepared to ride with the second spur on the handle of my whip I suppose we shall have to get rid of him. I saw a very nice looking horse the other day belonging to Mr Crocker which I hope will suit me, it is warranted a good fencer any way. I hope to have a trial day on it when the frost goes. How is your steed? We are having absolutely horrid weather, bitterly cold and a perfect hurricane. I believe it is snowing too. Though I am sitting in a room with a big fire the thermometer is only 46. I don’t like it. It reminds me of the days when I was at school where they seemed to think it good for us to freeze.
I am so glad you use nice ink now which does not leave the print of your name written backwards on my thumb when I read your letters!
Very sincerely yours
M. Kathleen Freer
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March 14th /05 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Glos
My dear Robin
I hope you are not quite frozen yet. I think British Columbia must be a perfectly horrible place if it gets as cold as all that. Is it equally hot in summer?
I have just been spending a week at Daylesford Rectory where we had great fun but all the festivities are over now and we have settled down to meditate upon our sins till Easter.
We have been driving after the hounds this morning, but they were having a really bad day and it poured with rain and hail and we got very wet and cross so we came home. I have descended to hunting in wheels now as I had a fall about a month ago and sprained my right hand and wrist and have not been able to use it since. I have only been able to write for the last few days.
We are trying to get up some theatricals at Easter, and have settled on a charming little play called “Orange Blossoms”. It sounds peaceful but its not indeed everybody quarrels with everybody else, but of course just as they are going to shoot each other they find they have made a mistake and make it up again.
“Patience” went off splendidly but of course we missed a shining dramatic light in Harry Leigh! Some of the performers came to the Moreton dance where we had an opportunity of admiring them in real life, but we came to the conclusion that the aesthetic surroundings of the play showed them off to greater advantage; perhaps “distance lent enchantment to the scene!
I am sorry you have such a poor opinion of the gentler sex. I am afraid you must be singularly unfortunate in your acquaintance! I cannot find the little ditty you mention in my mental vocabulary. I know one beginning “Oh Woman! in our hours of ease” but evidently that does not quite express your meaning.
March 16th
I am glad your dance was such a success. I did not know you lived in such a thickly populated neighborhood. I suppose you are a first-class “Two-stepper” now aren’t you? It has quite taken the place of the polka about here now only very few people are really good at it. The Heythrop Ball was great fun, we arrived almost first so you see your last year’s lecture on punctuality had borne fruit! We entered the front door at the same time as the band! and were of course among the last to leave in fact the Johnsons were about the only people there when we came away and they where sitting on the door-step waiting for their carriage. I am afraid I got a little bored before the end as I had my arm in a sling which rather interfered with my dancing and I hate watching other people it makes me so curious. You have no idea how difficult it is to dance semi-detached in a very crowded room! We didn’t have the “Choristers” either which was a great disappointment as I think it is quite the best valse there is. We have got it on the gramophone and it is really awfully good.
Marjorie Grisewood and I are going to start a magazine to be called the “United Effort” will you send us a contribution? A few hair-breadth escapes–“Wild Adventures of the West” “Tracked by Red Indians” “Scalped” or something of that sort. We are all going to write on subjects we know nothing about because we think the things will be more original, and more interesting, at least to the reader. I am going to drive Mrs Style up to Stow this afternoon to play hockey. I hope the springs of the cart will be equal to the test. I saw your brother the other day he seems to be working very hard at his music.
I believe Cyril Blacklock means to go out again or at least Mrs Blacklock means him to. He only came home for the hunting, I think. I think I have got to the weather stage so I had better stop. By the bye how dare you talk about “drizzly England”, it is at present pouring as though it never meant to stop again, but I dare say its only an April shower, we are having March & April in one this year.
Yrs very sincerely
Kathleen Freer
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Monday Evening KITEBROOK,
MORETON-IN-MARSH.
My dear Robin
I cant resist writing to tell you that we did not have a blank day after all, but perhaps you know it already? I think you can hardly have been out of earshot before the fox was holloed away. I wondered if you would come back but I suppose it would have meant missing your train. It was a pity they did not find half an hour earlier. We had quite a good forty minutes. I got rather a bad start as Mr Mu????den had a fall at the first fence and in front of me and his horse kicked him in the back, rather badly I am afraid as he did not seem able to pick himself up. He was blocking up the only possible place in the fence so we all had to go a long way round; fortunately the hounds checked and we caught up again.
I hope you’ll change your mind and come back to hunt next winter, I prophecy a nice mild season!
I hope this will catch you before you sail, or by the time it reaches you, you will have forgotten all about the hunt
Well good-bye and good luck
Kathleen
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April 26th 1906 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
Glos.
My dear Robin
Your letter arrived on Sunday so I was able to spare a few minutes to read it, but really its horrid waste of time my writing to you!! Things are positively standing in rows waiting to be done, we are in the middle of rehearsals and all their attendant worries. I fear my hair will go grey before its over (that will save having a wig anyway) besides acting, and superintending the costumes and doing head carpenter I have had to undertake the thankless task of coach and stage manager until my uncle can come. I get on all right with everyone except my brother and of course he thinks he knows better than I do. I have learnt four different parts so far, but I believe we have really decided on “My Lord in Livery” and “Popping the Question,” now. We found a splendid play first called “Miss Hobbs” in which I had a lovely part but we could not find anyone to take the hero’s part so we had to give it up, and try two short pieces instead with less characters. Did you see “My Lord in Livery” when they did it at Blockley? I remember seeing you at one of their entertainments, but I rather think it was “Liberty Hall”. You don’t seem to have had a very cheerful voyage, I hope you were nice to the kids at meals and spread their bread and jam for them.
“Glanders” seems to be an awful thing. I hope you won’t lose your horses. I heard that they had had to destroy nearly all the horses at a livery stables in Oxford not long ago, because they had got it.
Mrs Becher got up a 6 – 60 dance at Bourton the other day, but I believe only about forty people went. The Byasses asked us to go with them, but we didnt come up to the scratch!
I only had about ten more days hunting after you left, about three good ones and the rest something after the style of your last day at Pomfret. The N. Cotswold are awfully proud of them-selves because they killed 49 brace of foxes, its splendid for that little country, isn’t it?
We had a great day at Moreton races last week, the races were not up to much and it was very cold but still we managed to enjoy ourselves.
We have not begun tennis yet, we marked out the court and immediately it snowed and froze so we have given up the idea for a bit. Geoff has one won the first two rounds of the freshmen’s singles at Trinity and is playing the semifinal to-day, if he wins the whole thing he will play for Trinity Freshmen in the “inter”-College matches or whatever you call it.
There is really no news about here. A few people including Dorothy HoaseHoare are indulging in mumps, and I expect to get them shortly!
We are off for our annual sojourn in Elm Park Gardens as soon as I have made up my mind about the mumps.
I hear your brother had sold Quar Wood, report says, to Mr Hewitt though why one house is not large enough to hold him, I dont quite see!
The Grisewoods are going off to Italy in May. I do envy them. I should like to see what the world looks like outside this little island.
What an awful thing the earthquake at San Francisco must have been. Did you feel anything of the shock? I saw in one paper they did in Victoria, but I think it was only the Daily Mail!
I hope you wont find it necessary to adopt the ???? something or other’s methods of doing things, they dont sound inviting!
I heard the other day that the Peppers were leaving Shipton because Miss Pepper had seen a ghost, but it seems they are only off to the lakes for a few weeks! I have not seen my ghost any more, it is so dull now I know what it is.
I really must stop and go and put down the carpet on the stage.
I was just going to say “Think of me on May 2nd figuring on the boards before one hundred and ten pairs of eyes” but I am afraid you wont get this letter in time. I hope the “theatre” will hold all the folks who are coming. I think they will be rather like sardines!
Well good bye I must turn my attention to the carpet
Very sincerely yours
Kathleen
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Aug 26th /06 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
My dear Robin
I was beginning to think you had forgotten all about the folks in the old country when I got your letter. I had almost given up expecting it. I should think you will have given up expecting one from me by this time, my reason for the delay has not been nothing to say but no time to say it in, which I consider a far superior one. I made noble efforts to put pen to paper on the last two Sabbaths but directly I started it was always tea-time or Church time or some other “time”. As its about the middle of Church and raining hard I hope for better luck today. I hope the haymaking went off well without any serious apoplectic fits!
What bad luck your little mare getting kicked. I was so sorry to hear about it. I hope you have found another by now, though I do call it rather indecent haste! Mine is quite sound again and is being got into condition for hunting. I have not ridden her myself yet, as I thought it would be as well to wait till after playing for the Stow championship to get smashed up, as she has bucked off both the stable boys and our old groom and will probably treat me likewise, and the ground is very hard!! Reggie’s story is that the groom now has to lunge her for half an hour each morning before he dare get on her, and then can only exercise in a small field because she is so difficult to catch. I dont know how much of its true, but it looks cheerful for hunting doesn’t it?
I am afraid tennis is nearly over now. I have been playing hard all the summer, but it isn’t true I only live to amuse myself, as judging by your last letter you seem to imagine, in fact I do heaps of other things besides, including hard manual labor in the garden. Anyway I don’t think its the things one does which amuse one, its more the people one does them with for it isn’t the least amusing to play tennis with three people one hates or dance with anyone who treads on your toes or anything with anyone you dont like, is it? On reading this through it sounds as though I were annoyed, but I’m not. I only wish to correct the false impression I seem to have left upon your mind. To return to the tennis, I am awfully proud of myself as I won the singles at the Junction!!!!! I had a handicap of 15.3 and there were no very brilliant performers in the field, so I had a fairly easy time of it, there were only five entries altogether! I was crushed the next week at Stow though, by Marjorie Grisewood whom I had to play level. Next Tuesday we play for a cup presented by Francie Witts, there is no handicap so I shan’t have a look in. Miss Steinmetz seems painfully likely to win it. Marjorie and I are going to act two duologues at a fête in Mrs Styles’ garden on Sept. 5th it is instead of a gymkhana this year. It was to have been last week only they have got scarlet fever in Moreton and thought it wouldn’t be safe. I think it will be a bit risky on the 5th.
Mrs Grisewood has quite distinguished herself at last. Mrs Cholmondeley has been very ill for sometime and last Tuesday Mrs Grisewood was told or imagines she was told she was dead so she spread it round the country and Miss Young wrote a letter of condolence to Miss Cholmondeley and the poor old lady is still alive now!! Mrs Johnson also sent her maid with a note, but with unusual sense in one of her class she saw the blinds were not do down so took the note back, rather a let-off for Mrs Johnson.
I hear Mr Leigh is coming home soon. By the bye I fail to see the connection between his having a photo of the hockey team and the somewhat distant though none the less sure approach of Christmas perhaps you will explain? if you haven’t forgotten.
The new North Cotswold Master has already begun hunting, but our old slow coach does not start till Sept 17th I believe he is still amusing himself in Scotland.
I played for Stow in an exciting ladies cricket match the other day against Slaughter, the latter won by six wickets, but as it was too early to leave off they all went in and we got them out for five runs! I believe we are to play the Stratford ladies one day, some of them are rather vicious one I bowled out two years ago hit me hard at hockey six months later and lamed me for three weeks, however we played quite amiably on the same side last summer.
Yrs ever
M. Kathleen Freer
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Feb. 12th /07 Kitebrook
Moreton in Marsh
My dear Robin
Ever so many thanks for your letter and all your good wishes. Your letter came as quite a surprise, at least a fortnight before I had begun to think of expecting it. I am afraid I have hardly followed your lead in answering quickly, but I went away soon after I got your letter and since I came back a village concert has claimed all my attention and it seemed so silly to send just two or three lines all those many miles, so I waited till I had time for a proper letter, although I dont think there’s much to tell you.
It began to freeze the very day after I wrote and told you we were having a nice open winter! and it has been freezing more or less ever since. We have had a few odd days hunting here and there. Yesterday was my first for 24 days and you could hardly call that hunting, the ground was just like a hard bit of toast with a scrape of butter on it. Very few people turned up and those who did grumbled the whole time and hardly dared move. The master kept muttering that it wasn’t fit to hunt and we all heartily wished he would take his hounds home but that did not seem to occur to him. Last night it froze again and snowed a bit, but it rained all the morning so that looks more promising.
You seem to have had ghastly weather on your side of the pond. I read somewhere of the thermometer going down to 40 degrees below zero–surely that cant be true anyway I hope its not where you are. Everyone here has been skating violently but as my ankels are too wobbly to allow me to join in the pursuit I have been reduced to walking. Capt. Daly got into a very deep pond at Heythrop but fortunately came up again through the hole. I hear his remarks on being dragged out were distinctly choice and he declares he heard Church bells at the bottom of the pond whether it was morning service in New Zealand or his own funeral knell I don’t know. Tomorrow we are going to Leamington to the grandparents, fortunately I am only going to stay a few days and am then going to the Barnsleys till Aunt Fanny comes home.
Your “Surprise Parties” sound awfully jolly, but when they were real surprises they must have been still better.
The Moreton dance was a great success and I think there will be one next year, anyway I mean to do my best to help the committee up to the mark so mind you are at home for it. Did you see any account of it in the Evesham Journal? Do you take it still? We went to a dance at the Fenwicks the night after I got your letter so I was able to carry out your instructions about thinking of you on the way home, but I am not very sure that I managed the envying part for it was freezing 18 degrees and snowing a little, so I was rather glad to be thoroughly covered up but I suppose its only what one’s used to–Miss Dugdale drove herself home in an open motor. Anyway I was very glad I had not got to light the fire when I got home!
How do you know the lady-wives as you call them prefer England to your far superior clime!!! if, as you say, they dont acknowlege it? Have you the gift of second sight? That must be very awkward for other people, I should hate anyone to know what I was thinking about. Personally I should think if one could do it, it would be rather jolly to cook and do things for oneself, but I am afraid I should soon starve if I went to a desert island by myself to try for as I believe I once told you the only things I can make are gingerbreads and toffee which would bet a bit monotonous. By-the-bye weren’t we to have had a cooking competition when you came home?
Tonight we are going to some theatricals which Mrs Sammy is getting up at Stow. The piece is “The Pantomime Rehearsal”. I shant have time to finish this now so I will wait and tell you about it tomorrow. I expect it will be rather funny.
And it was funny! Mrs Style in flowing Greek robes doing dumb-bell exercises–an example of the “Sandon Girl” was superb! The play began at 8 and finished about 11.30–there were so may encores! We all got a bit weary of it, as there is not much plot about it but chiefly songs taken from all the comic operas and dances which of course Mrs Sammy revelled in.
I am not to be allowed to hunt Geoff’s horse at present as it is being taken immense care of to run in a point to-point race at Cambridge the end of this month. He is not going to ride it himself but is going to give a “friend” the chance of breaking his neck. It is a wonderful jumper and seems a very willing sort of beast. I believe it has never been known to say no toanything even when so weary it can hardly crawl. I saw Geoff take it at some fair-sized post and rails towards the end of a long run and great was the fall thereof (the rails I mean). The beast blundered through somehow and went merrily on to have a shot at the next obstacle!
An old lady of 80 came to play Bridge this afternoon. Fortunately I was only required to look on. She played with Grandfather and great was his consternation when she declared diamonds on five to the eight! It was quite amusing for me and she jabbered the whole time and told heaps of “tall” stories! She was very deaf and so are Granny and Grandfather so the conversation was distinctly funny at times as none of them heard a word the others said. We had a truly exciting village concert at Compton the other night. Norah Prichard and I acted two duologues. The parson sang excruciating comic songs and never got near the right note even by accident two village girls squalled and there were a few more interesting items which lasted from 8 till nearly 11 o’clock! As there are several cases of scarlet fever in the village I considered it a most dangerous proceeding.
The Peppers gave a fancy dress dance in January which Reggie & I attended. They had the most splendid music, only a piano & one violin but the piano-man was splendid and quite kept the thing going. He sang or whistled or roared with laughter the whole time, and put words to most of the valses or made nursery rhymes fit into them. Mrs Styles is going to try and get him for Moreton next year. I hope she will be able to. I am sure my dress was quite the most original–a paper lampshade. All went well till a burly creature clad as a Scotsman thrust his dirk through it which rather destroyed its first freshness! Reggie went as the King of Hearts and Miss Pepper as the queen so perforce they had to dance together.
Quite the most fetching was Mrs Pepper as “Diana”, so appropriate, wasn’t it?
Well I really think I have covered enough paper with nonsense, but there really isn’t anything else to talk about except the suffragettes or the Thaw trial and they are about as idiotic as anything else. They all want shutting up, or hanging. When do you come back? About November I suppose, in time for the Christmas festivities. Fancy thinking of next Christmas already!
Yrs ever
M. Kathleen Freer
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[undated second page of a two page letter]
2
Bourton actually indulged in a dance last Friday, in honor of the cricket week. [One of Kathleen’s dance cards is from Bourton on Friday, August 23, 1907. Harry Leigh was one of her partners.] Reggie and I made a huge effort and went, it was such a jolly one–quite the best Bourton dance I have been to, there was such a lot of “go” about it. What a pity you could not come back with Harry Leigh in time for it. Fortunately it was a nice night and we were able to stroll about “little Venice” it looked so lovely in the moonlight. When are you coming back? In time for the hunting I suppose? I do hope we shall get a nice open season. My mare was quite sound all last season so barring accidents she ought to be all right this and we are looking out for something for Reg (and me when he is away) so I shall do well. We have taken to driving the cob I used to hunt but I think I shall hunt her in the holidays at any rate.
No, I have not seen Mrs Bryant. I escaped calling with Aunt Fanny she seemed to like her. I have met the two Miss Bryants at the club & thought them very nice girls.
I took my first trip abroad in the spring–actually succeeded in moving my respected Aunt out of her native land at last! We tried to get someone to go with us but couldn’t so we got a bit bored with each other by the end of the three weeks especially as it rained most of the time, however I loved it. We went to the Italian Lakes and to Lucerne on the way back. I thought Bellagio quite the dearest, quaintest little place I have ever seen and should have liked to have stayed there for ever. We can neither of us speak a word of Italian and sometimes got in hopeless muddles in shops. One day we were lunching in a small café and could not make them understand we wanted some soda-water–they kept bringing us mustard! Finally the manager was produced and we got it. Then we asked for cheese and the brilliant waiter brought us more soda-water!! I tell Aunt Fanny she will have to take me abroad each year now she has once started. I took crowds of photographs but have not managed to develop any of them yet.
I hope you will appreciate, and profit by, my example in answering your letter so quickly, if you dont write sooner than last time (i. e. in less than seven months!!) I shant answer at all, possibly that wont worry you though! Anyway you will be back long before then and we can discourse at shorter range! Looking forward to seeing you in the despised old country soon
Ever yrs very sincerely
M. Kathleen Freer
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January 27th /08 KITEBROOK,
MORETON-IN-MARSH.
My dear Robin
I am sending you a list of music but I am rather afraid it wont be of much use to you as I now remember that, when I asked them, the Orchestrelle people said they had no agents in Cheltenham, so probably yours is not the same library. The address of mine is–The Orchestrelle Co Aeolian Hall, 135 New Bond St Is that the same, I wonder? I have put down some two-steps and operas which we have had and liked very much and Chopin’s Funeral March is wonderfully good on it!
I hope you will have a good day at Pomfret. My mare is quite sound again so I shall get my day tomorrow if the weather does nothing absurd this time.
Yrs very sincerely
Kathleen Freer