WCP31

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Nov[embe]^r. 28^th. 1900

My dear Will

Not having your address yet I write this ready to post this afternoon if a letter or card comes after dinner. We were very glad to find that virtue (or cheek) was rewarded at last. Pray send us a full account of what your work is, how you like it, what kind of local boss is there &c. &c. &c:

Now for our adventures. We got to Amersham all right, found a waggonette waiting & drove off. The first half-mile from Station to Amersham town was f very bad it having been dug up to lay drain pipes & newly gravelled with very coarse stones &c. Afterwards the road was very fair, broad lanes with roadside grass, old untouched hedge banks, hills and valleys, great woods, and many orchards of fruit trees, especially cherries by thousands. The driver [2] told us all the banks & woods were full of primroses & other flowers and plenty of cowslips in the fields. Chalk is the subsoil & it appeared f here & there on the road-side, but in many parts it has many feet of gravel or sand over it. The woods bordering the road were hardly fenced at all so that any one could walk into them and the driver told us that no objection was ever made if the persons were not "after game", & also that there were footpaths in all directions. After about three miles of road always up or down hill we entered "The Grange" land by a Lodge & then through open fields with nice views all round (though we couldn’t see them, it being the foggiest day this autumn) to the house at the end of a ^long narrow lawn with trees & shrubs on each side. The house is old (about 200 years) a long straight front, stuccoed, but not bad looking, & capable of great improvements by creepers &c.

We entered a pretty Hall about 12 feet square, with black & white diamond pattern stone on [3] marble floor and a very easy & nice looking staircase round 3 sides, with landings at each turn. On the right in the drawing-room about 22 feet long by 15 ft. wide with a semi-circular end windows looking East over the very greatly sloping bowling-green with tress & shrubs on each side, and when clear having a view of "many miles" over wooded country towards London. Also a good window at side (south) with the view to Beaconsfield Church nearly 2 miles off. A very nice cheerful room I thought. On left the dining-room with one bow-window (south) about 18ft. x 14 ft. These rooms are perhaps 6in[ches]. lower than my study. Beyond the dining-room entered by a door opposite door from Hall, and down 2 steps is the kitchen, evidently part of an old cottage, very low, to which the other rooms have been added. Beyond the l kitchen is a scullery a rather better & lighter room also with a range & can be used as a kitchen. There is a passage out to back & [4] larder store closets, &c. I enclose a plan which will make this all plain¹. But the curious and awkward thing is that there ^is no way from the kitchen to the front door or to the bedrooms without passing through the dining room, or by the back passages & through the new room which the landlord has built for either a billiard room or an office! And even to get ^to this new room is very awkward. For owing to the easy stairs in 3 flights there is only about 5 feet height under them, so is he has been obliged to make 3-4 steps down to pass under the stairs, & then about 2 steps up into the new room! There is a very deep well, but water has been newly laid on from the Amersham Water Works.²

Up stairs the is a very fine bedroom over the drawing room, a small one over the dining room with a passage in front turning down ^{at the end} to the back where a small bedroom has been turned into a very nice bathroom & lavatory and there is also a W.[ater] C.[loset] and a good bedroom over the new room. Then there is an attic floor with one large and 3 [5]³small bedrooms, making 7 in all. There is besides a servants bedroom over the Scullery reached by a separate staircase from the kitchen I think.

I forgot to say that they did not give us the sandwiches we had ordered & paid for ^{at the Hotel} & Violet⁴ failed to find anything eatable at Baker Street or at Amersham,— but Mrs. Gurney was very hospitabley & Mr. G.[urney] very jolly, and we were cordially invited to lunch as soon as we had inspected the house, when it was near one o’clock. So we accepted and there was cold pheasants and rabbit pie, & on a good slice of pheasant each with potatoes, we lunched well, at least I did.

We had come so slowly & our early train was at 2.10, & the driver said he must have a full hour to be sure of catching it, so we found we must stay till the 4.20 train, & I am glad we did so, as we saw most of the [6] grounds and had a fine walk through the splendid beech-woods that form part of the Estate, got back about 2.50. dried ourselves, had some tea & just got back in time for train. From Baker St.[reet] we went with Vi[olet] to her diggings, had dinner at 7 with her & Madame Michaelis saw her school rooms &c. & then they both came with us to the 2d Tube,— & even helped us to carry our bags to the hotel, where we arrived about 9.50. had our old rooms & went to bed. Next morning had a good breakfast at 9.30. Then cab to Waterloo, walked a bit in the streets, & by 12 o’clock train got home at 3.30.

Now for the land. We walked down the Bowling Green after seeing an old kitchen garden with fruit trees &c. & a nice low wall on the s.[outh] side. Beyond this is an orchard of mixed fruit trees with a small pond and a fine Cedar just [7] on one side. Also a very light conical tumulus,— [1 word crossed through.] with a tree growing on top. and a seat with a winding path up it. I never saw a tumulus so steep and high, but I suppose it is a genuine one. Mr. Gurney thinks so. The park is only a field with a fine avenue of trees on the ^entrance road side ^(north) and I think a few others. Turning up the land to the west we found it very pretty bordered with fine beech trees &other trees and came to the beech woods which for nearly ¾ mile bound the estate on the West. They were very fine, having trees of various ages and some good oaks and splendid larch trees. Mr. G[urney] says that £.1000 worth of timber can be cut now, leaving all the trees under 1 ft. diam[eter]. to grow bigger. If parts of this wood were cleared away to form open glades and the a few of the biggest trees cleared round to allow them to grow, in a few years the wood would equal the finest parts of the New Forest. There are over 70 acres of this wood, and all along its borders are good sites [8] for houses with fine views, and the wood for shelter & pleasure.

The rest of the land is open fields with over ½ mile frontage to ^main road from Amersham to Beaconsfield, with a few trees in the hedges but with a slight south & East slope and pretty but not distant views. The land reaches to within ½ mile of the new railway from Paddington to Oxford,— which will take people to London in ½ hour & will be open in about 2 years. The land all around the house is a dark brown (coffee col[oure]^d) loamy sand, quite friable, and excellent for fruit, and I believe for almost all bulbs, shrubs, & flowers. I fancy it is a tertiary sand— perhaps the Thanet sand, & if so has little or no lime in it, & will do for Rhododendrons. The country [1 word crossed through] round about is as pretty & perfectly rural as any I know, and as it is all in great estates who_se ^owners object to building, it is likely to remain so for our time. I never expect to find a better place or a better investment, but I fear we may not be able to get it, thought it is certainly not dear even at £.15000. It has immense capabilities! More in next.

Your affectionate Pa | A.R. Wallace [signature]