It is now Thursday 20th of July, this year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred & sixty seven. Happy Centennial! We went on to Salisbury and saw the cathedral which is lovely and I found the tomb of a knight, the son of Fair Rosamond & Henry II, William, known as Long-Espée, Earl of Salisbury. Do you know Fair Rosamond’s story? But Queen Eleanor wasn’t nasty.
In the afternoon we went to see Nelson’s ship the Victory which Charlie loved but which I think is overrated and give me the Duke of Wellington any day. In a museum there, there were figureheads and I never was so disappointed in my life, I didn’t know figureheads were like that – crudely carved and garish and UGLY! Oh!!!
However, Brighton quite made up for it and Stonehenge because at Brighton we saw the Royal Pavilion built by the Prince Regent, later George IV as a summer place. It is perfect – marvellous – ludicrous – fantastic – overwhelming – stupendous. Impossible to describe. It is Indian outside – with a million Taj Mahal domes, and mad Chinese inside – priceless – I will send you a couple of postcards but you must send them back, they are part of my collection. Mummy & I absolutely loved it.
Then we went to Canterbury and saw the cathedral in the evening.
We saw the spot where Thomas à Beckett had been killed but the shrine had been destroyed by Henry VIII of cursed memory and some fool nobleman had his memorial thing with a bust of himself just above on the wall so there was just the floor & 3 square ft. of wall.
A Family History in Letters 