6th May 1936 - Terrick to Mary

35 Nevern Place
S.W. 5

6th May 1936


My Darling, 

Well, are you thinking of me less?  I expect you are now thinking of me a lot less than I think of you.  Still I shall have plenty of opportunity after midday tomorrow as I have got a holiday from then till Monday morning.  On the other hand perhaps that won't make much difference to the amount I think of you.  You see I already think of you in all my unoccupied moments.  The catch is that I am seldom unoccupied.  From one minute to another I am always engrossed in one of a few things.  Travelling in buses & tubes and lying in bed, eating and talking to people who do not interest me I think of you.

Tomorrow afternoon I shall go to the British Museum.  On Friday I am going to Begwary (the way the present directory spells Beggary) by bus; Green Line to Luton and local buses to Bedford and beyond.  I shall stop in Bedford and look up something in an index of old wills that they have there.  I have rung up your mother and asked her to lend me one of her cameras, so Jill is bringing it up to Raeburn House tomorrow evening, then I can take a photograph of the old house if it still exists and send it to my father.  The directory of Bedfordshire mentions the hamlet of Begwary but funnily enough gives no list of inhabitants.  If it is deserted I shall plant the FitzHugh standard there and take possession under the banner of the hoggets and shirlings.

Renny rang me up today, he wants to know for certain if he is to come down this week-end and if Bodil is coming.  I told him I would ring you up tomorrow and find out.  He wants to come.

I am very tempted to get a Dekko film camera, giving our present one in part exchange.  There is so much more that one can do with a better lens and with different speeds etc.  On the other hand a better lens will mean that a light meter will be absolutely necessary.  At present we can be pretty certain of being right if we have the aperture full open, but with 1.9 lens we should over-expose if we did that, & we should have to guess the other stops if we had no meter.  Also I should have to wangle our titler to suit a different camera or get another one.  My dealer would allow me 50% on our present titler.  What tempts me to do it now is that Dekkos have just gone up by £1 and I can get one of the pre-rise ones.  I could pay the difference between cameras by instalments. 

Just now I am collecting silver paper to make light reflectors to save paying 7/6 each for them.  I am funny in one direction I plan to spend one & in another, quite independently, I try to save it.

It is hot!

I find that my short story classes this term are on Thursdays so that will fit in nicely with your Shakespeare.  This day last year was Jubilee Day.  The weather has been rather the same hasn't it.

I'll ring you up tomorrow some time in the morning.

Goodnight my dearest of dears.

Terrick    XXX