Letter Six
15/12/22 16:03
My dearest Bunty,
Sir Hector has finally taken the plunge and placed an advertisement in the back of 'Horse and Pony' and 'The Tatler' but thought 'Country Life' a bit over-expensive per square inch so we shall have to lower our standards a bit if we do get some bookings for the New Year here on the Estate. Catriona, our sturdy Estate Manager is a little to over excited about all the potential guests. You know I think she is on the lookout for another husband. Her first and, to my knowledge, only husband treated her so badly I believe, leaving her and her son all alone in the world as he ran off with someone from the Theatre, a comic actress of little talent from what I can make out. Still Catriona keeps a brave face on it all and I must say that since coming to the Estate has turned the old place around financially. She is an asset to the House and I shall have to keep her busy and away from any single gentleman guest she sets her hat upon. I would be lost without her.
Before New Year we are having a small family Christmas celebration. I have managed to get Sir H to cut the number of days that his sister and her dreadful children hope to spend here. I cannot abide the way she sometimes addresses me, as if I have stolen the Estate from under her! And as for the children, well, birching is needed there! Last year Cook was in tears with their demands and I was amazed she did not throw the turkey stuffing down their nasty throats. I have managed to get them limited to 23 rd December to 27 th , enough time for me to prepare myself for the New Year festivities. It is a pity you are not coming up this year, but it is probably just as well as I have been reading in the Telegraph that the Christmas bookings on the trains cannot be made as yet as nobody knows when the track mending will take place! How I miss our little branch line and how convenient it was for Daddy to come and go from Westminster when he had the Deerestalker seat. I know that times change, but I never remember the branch line tracks being repaired in all the years I travelled from Cheltenham back for the hols. All I remember is that there were lots of changes of station on the way here and I was so glad to be met at the station by a buggy and hardy retainer to load my trunk onto the back and head through the town.
Do you remember some of the other girls from school? Some did not amount to much it can be said, and some married so far beneath them that their aghast parents must have questioned all that schooling and finishing. I am glad that I married well.
Still, before Sir H' sister and family arrive from Sevenoaks in Kent, I have the estate party to organise. This is just a little 'thank-you' from Sir H and I to the workers on the Estate and the tenant farmers. We have had a successful year all in all and I would like to push the boat out a bit this year and have Father Christmas visit to distribute gifts to the young ones, something small they can treasure forever. Sir H has not been encouraging in this plan and has said that he will be "Father Christmas over his dead body'. Sometimes I believe that he is a real Scrooge, so I shall keep him away from the malts this year as last time we had an estate party he had to be carried up to bed by Ruaraidh our gillie and it was most embarrassing. Thankfully nobody of real importance saw that happen. I would not have been able to show my face in town for some time until that scandal had broken down. You know how small towns chatter, especially about those in "the big house'. I cannot ask Ruaraidh to be Father Christmas as he has his own young family to prepare for this year, and I am sure that gossip of a wife of his will not be able to keep a secret if I did ask him. It spoils the look of surprise on those young faces when they can guess who it is under that lovely red and white suit.
Your ever friend, Flora
This story first appeared on www.panetwork.co.uk in 2004
Sir Hector has finally taken the plunge and placed an advertisement in the back of 'Horse and Pony' and 'The Tatler' but thought 'Country Life' a bit over-expensive per square inch so we shall have to lower our standards a bit if we do get some bookings for the New Year here on the Estate. Catriona, our sturdy Estate Manager is a little to over excited about all the potential guests. You know I think she is on the lookout for another husband. Her first and, to my knowledge, only husband treated her so badly I believe, leaving her and her son all alone in the world as he ran off with someone from the Theatre, a comic actress of little talent from what I can make out. Still Catriona keeps a brave face on it all and I must say that since coming to the Estate has turned the old place around financially. She is an asset to the House and I shall have to keep her busy and away from any single gentleman guest she sets her hat upon. I would be lost without her.
Before New Year we are having a small family Christmas celebration. I have managed to get Sir H to cut the number of days that his sister and her dreadful children hope to spend here. I cannot abide the way she sometimes addresses me, as if I have stolen the Estate from under her! And as for the children, well, birching is needed there! Last year Cook was in tears with their demands and I was amazed she did not throw the turkey stuffing down their nasty throats. I have managed to get them limited to 23 rd December to 27 th , enough time for me to prepare myself for the New Year festivities. It is a pity you are not coming up this year, but it is probably just as well as I have been reading in the Telegraph that the Christmas bookings on the trains cannot be made as yet as nobody knows when the track mending will take place! How I miss our little branch line and how convenient it was for Daddy to come and go from Westminster when he had the Deerestalker seat. I know that times change, but I never remember the branch line tracks being repaired in all the years I travelled from Cheltenham back for the hols. All I remember is that there were lots of changes of station on the way here and I was so glad to be met at the station by a buggy and hardy retainer to load my trunk onto the back and head through the town.
Do you remember some of the other girls from school? Some did not amount to much it can be said, and some married so far beneath them that their aghast parents must have questioned all that schooling and finishing. I am glad that I married well.
Still, before Sir H' sister and family arrive from Sevenoaks in Kent, I have the estate party to organise. This is just a little 'thank-you' from Sir H and I to the workers on the Estate and the tenant farmers. We have had a successful year all in all and I would like to push the boat out a bit this year and have Father Christmas visit to distribute gifts to the young ones, something small they can treasure forever. Sir H has not been encouraging in this plan and has said that he will be "Father Christmas over his dead body'. Sometimes I believe that he is a real Scrooge, so I shall keep him away from the malts this year as last time we had an estate party he had to be carried up to bed by Ruaraidh our gillie and it was most embarrassing. Thankfully nobody of real importance saw that happen. I would not have been able to show my face in town for some time until that scandal had broken down. You know how small towns chatter, especially about those in "the big house'. I cannot ask Ruaraidh to be Father Christmas as he has his own young family to prepare for this year, and I am sure that gossip of a wife of his will not be able to keep a secret if I did ask him. It spoils the look of surprise on those young faces when they can guess who it is under that lovely red and white suit.
Your ever friend, Flora
This story first appeared on www.panetwork.co.uk in 2004