Yes, I am STILL laughing hysterically over the letters between the Mitford sisters. Alas I go in TWO DAYS so I cannot the lug the huge bloody thing with me, oi doi...and I got oi doi from THEM.
Giggling
Here is Nancy's grumbly letter after a dishwasher episode, AREN'T we sisters?!
....."The washing up machine fused the lights. Tiresome, already against it, turned on me the look Monmouth turned on the headsman when his head was still on-I'm in thorough disgrace.
Woman [sister Pamela] on Wednesday. She seems to have cocktail parties every day in Paris. Wondair [wonder].
Later. Well the fuse was mended by an idiot boy & dirty plates (which she had already washed as far as I could see ) were put in the machine & there was a noise like a spacecraft going off for half an hour & then, like Howard Carter waiting for Ld [Lord] Carnarvon, she summoned me & we OPENED THE DOOR. My dear-washed and dried and polished. It's like a miracle & even Tiresome [her maid] is now forced to admit.
This letter is pretty dull-pray forgive.
Love, N."
If I must say so myself, I DO find it ENTIRELY refreshing to happen upon another soul, albeit deceased, who compares the sound of a dishwasher to that of a spacecraft going off.
Another one,this one pertaining to the fascinating world of, brace yourself, RODENTS.
"Dear Miss [one of many nicknames of youngest sister Deborah]
Feeling sure that I've got a dormouse in the garden (needle teeth getting at pears & apples on the tree) I looked it up in Ency. Brit. [Encyclopedia Britannica] "Before retiring it becomes very fat. Treated as a delicacy on the Continent." I looked it up in Larousse-alas the accent is on the word delicacy & the whole article devoted to how one can catch them. There are two way. You can bait a trap with gingerbread, of which they are passionately fond, or (hold everything) you can make a snug little nest & catch them while asleep. Honks [sister Diana] said Debo will never come again if you tell her that. In fact I may have to leave-but where for? Certainly not a land where they course hares. Meanwhile I'm off to buy some gingerbread as an innocent offering.
If I go to Blighty [England] about the 17th Nov. for a fortnight [two weeks], a few days in London to stock up with Pot I thought, could you have me to stay at Chatsworth? I am very much interested in Shetland ponies & would like to visit a few studs. Wife [sister in law of Deborah] has invited me for the Sussex Shetland Club Ball-will you ask her what date it is?
Do you know who comes next week? WOOMLINGS [yet another nickname for sister Pamela]. She dos. Of course she won't say which day, oh no no, but she is giving me the treat of bringing the dogs. Wondair [wonder]-oi doi.
Much love , N."
Here is the editor's note which explains the oi doi-I die.
"When the Mosleys [Diana and husband and sons] were living at Crowood, one of the farm workers used to act in a mummers' play, taking the part of St George going into battle against the dragon and reciting in a strong West Country accent, 'Ba'le to ba'le with thee,oi croi/Thoue upon this ground shall loi,/Clash of steel: oi doi."
I am sure this is lost on ALL of you readers, but I don't,no no,tis wondair to me,oh oi doi screaming [sisters' word for laughing].
Another, you ask? OH INDEED!
This is on the subject of hedgehogs.
"Dear Miss [It's Deborah,Duchess of Devonshire]
I say I've found the second hedgehog which I thought had been chased away. No-he's been with us all along unseen unsung, in an only fairly cosy nest in the unused green house. So I've made him more comfortable. But I'm slightly off hedgehogs since reading that their brain development is very low-only a shallow groove between the lobes. (How is Sophy's [Deborah's youngest daughter] groove? I liked to think of a brilliant genius scuttling about my garden & dreaming clever dreams all day propounding extravagant theories as to how the milk gets to him in an apparently cow-less suburb. Nothing's ever as nice as one thinks & here I am, landed with two halfwits.
That's all. Shall I see you in London? No don't start getting cross [mad] I've got your letter somewhere & will look. I'm very old & scared you see.
N"
AHA! victory! I found the letter which makes me really feel a soulmate with these crazy sisters, alas the letter is from Unity who shot herself in the head but lived nine years longer,very sad.
I will just type the funniest part, we aren't fans of Nazism are we? NO
"...I do hope you are having lovely weather for your motor tour [road trip]. We have been having a heat wave for a week, but today alas it's raining.
The other day when it was boiling hot I found a secluded spot in the Englischer Garten [English Garden in Munich] where I took off all my clothes & sunbathed, luckily no-one came along. While I was lying in the sun I suddenly wondered whether Muv [their mother] knew I was sun bathing naked, like when she knew that you were bathing naked, & I laughed till I ached, if anyone had come along they would have thought me mad [crazy] as well as indecent."
oh I can relate TOTALLY to that.
Must rush off to do laundry,feed worms,nip to heiau,come back, nip off again!
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