Tuesday 28th August 1945, Marks Hall

Finchingfield. (Watercolour borrowed from linked page.)

My darling,
                I ought to have written yesterday but it was such a glorious day that I was persuaded to go touring with the Griffiths family. We have been doing quite a bit of exploring recently and have discovered some very interesting and pretty villages miles away from main roads. Essex is intersected by hundreds of miles of narrow lanes and it is interesting, if a trifle baffling, to nose along them in a car. Yesterday we got completely lost and made three circuits of a kind of rural maze, passing and repassing the same group of rustics, before we managed to find the way out. Later in the day we discovered that the Americans, who used to infest this area, had uprooted all the signposts and pointed them the wrong way; and, since it evidently delights the local folk to watch the frantic efforts of tourists to get away from the neighbourhood, the signposts have been allowed to remain in their mendacious condition.

            We had tea at a village called Finchingfield which is so perfectly picturesque with its duck pond, village green, thatched houses and old windmill that it just didn't look real. But what an awful existence to live in such a village! No wonder such hamlets are full of pubs. The merciful anaesthesia of booze must be the only alternative to complete insanity.

            Your Friday's letter came yesterday morning and I was delighted to read that Kate is still thoroughly satisfied with your condition. If I remember my baby lore, it should bring considerable relief to you wen the infant finally decides to take up its position opposite the exit and I expect you'll know when that takes place without needing Kate to tell you. I'm sure everything will go swimmingly.

             I don't suppose that there has been a pregnant woman so interested in theology as you are since the Virgin Mary, but I don't propose to continue our discussion by letter. It can be done orally and at a more propitious time. After all, think of pre-natal influences. Wouldn't it be awful if our offspring decided to be a parson!

            I think Christine Margaret is a very nice name indeed and we'll just close for that if sex should permit.

            If the hot weather has returned to Scotland as it has here, you have had a remarkably fine month at your country residence. I am sure it must have done you good, and your mother will be delighted to be away from the town in hot weather. As you will be leaving at the end of the week, I'll send my next letter to Hyndland Road and I'm eagerly looking forward to the time, four weeks hence, when I'll be there myself.

           Take care of yourself darling and keep well ...