LOT 400:  AUTOGRAPH LETTERS TO GEORGIE AND ARTHUR DOBLE

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS TO GEORGIE AND ARTHUR DOBLE, from Sacheverell, Georgia and Reresby Sitwell, 1940-1958.  a group of thirteen Autograph letters. a total of 27pp., 14 leaves, 494 lines, the personal family letters from Sacheverell, Georgia and Reresby Sitwell, written from Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, Alrae Hotel, New York, and Training Detachment, 7/B Grenadier Guards, Leawood Camp, Devon, twelve letters within original postmarked envelopes, addressed to Mrs. Arthur Doble, 2162, Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, P.Q, Canada.   comprises:  RERESBY LETTERS: Reresby Sitwell to Arthur Doble, August 14, 1940, Weston Hall.  1pp, single leaf, 19 lines. Reresby, aged 13, writes to his grandfather with his news from Weston Hall during wartime, 'Dear Gong-gong', I hope you are well and alright after that nightmare journey . . .What it must be like for those poor wretches that couldn't get away in time . . .  There are planes overhead the whole time, and we have heard several nights what we thought were Nazi bombers . . .' Reresby writes of a friend, Bernard, who was unfortunately called up the day before Reresby came back from Eton, 'He says his regiment were completely wiped out at Dunkirk and are therefore all new . . . Best Love Reresby  . . . PS. . . write soon and tell me all your adventures';  Reresby Sitwell to Georgie Doble, November 14, 1941, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 36 lines.  Rerseby writes to his grandmother thanking her for her sweet letter and cheque, which he will spend on savings certificates and Christmas presents. He has been sent back from Eton with one of his colds which he suffers from for nine or ten months of the year. Reresby informs Georgie '. . . the reason I get them (colds) so often is partly because I am growing three to four inches a year at the moment . . .   ' ;  Reresby Sitwell to Georgie Doble, August 27, 1942, Weston Hall.  4pp., 2 leaves, 90 lines. 'Darling Granny Do, Thank you a million times for the lovely things which I found in poor darling Gong-gong's trunk . . . ' Reresby updates Georgie on the events of a recent family holiday to Scotland, stalking Red deer in the mountains and horse riding everyday, . . . 'Mummy was furious when she saw that Daddy could ride perfectly well, when considering all the brilliant opportunities they had of riding in the past . . .the journey back was rather hectic . . . the corridors (of the train) were packed with soldiers, Daddy tripped over a prostrate colonel in the passage . . . ' ;  Reresby Sitwell to Georgie Doble, January 19, 1944, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 38 lines. Reresby's letter of condolence to his grandmother after the death of her husband, Arthur Doble, 'My Darling Granny Do . . . it must have been such a dreadful blow to you, and I too shall miss him dreadfully . . .I am sure Gong-gong would loathe to be a short-sighted, crippled old man of eighty, and I cannot believe that my other grandfather is enjoying life to its full, at his age, and the state he is in now  . . . Daddy rung us up while we were in London, and when I collected Mummy to go off for lunch . . . she told me the news . . . When we arrived back at Weston, poor darling Mamma got very hysterical . . .We all feel so distressed for you, as you will be so lonely without Gong-gong, and his great sense of humour and intelligence . . .Best Love, my darling from Reresby';  Reresby Sitwell to Sacheverell and Georgia Sitwell, April 3, 1946, Training Detachment, Devon.   2pp., single leaf, 49 lines, (lacks original envelope),  Reresby writes to his parents from Training Detachment, 7/B Grenadier Guards, Leawood Camp, Devon, 'CAUTION: - This is going to be long . . . ', Reresby apologises for the awful writing paper, '(Battle Camp and all that you know) . . .  ', enthusiastically and in great detail, including two sketches, he tells his his parents of 'recent idiotic section attacks and a Night Scheme . . .', Reresby and a friend, Robin Leigh Pemberton, were Platoon Commanders over Guardsmen for the first time, Pemberton's platoon got lost for an hour, 'the result as you can imagine was Chaos, on the whole, & to everybody's surprise I did better than the blue-eyed boy Robin! . . . Sorry about all this military stuff; but as I never tell you anything about my training other than the idiosyncrasies of sergeants, I thought it might interest you, . . .  Isn't it wonderful news about Virginia? I am so glad . . .  ';

SACHEVERELL'S LETTERS:  Sacheverell to Georgie Doble, 13 Nov, 1941, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 41 lines, Sacheverell writes to his mother-in-law of his concerns regarding the severity and frequency of Reresby's fearful colds, and the length of time his son has missed school, 'Georgia seems fairly well, she misses Francis terribly, poor thing, I do feel for her about it . . . 'I feel quite jealous of you being able to drop into that store and find Francis having luncheon there, I would give anything to see him . . . ', (Sacherverell and his wife Georgia had sent their eldest son Francis away to stay with an aunt in Canada during the war) . . 'I do wish I had lived in Victorian times. I should have liked to have been born about 1820 and died about 1912 (92!) they had no worries at all, that I can see' . . . How fascinating  . . . Mrs. Temperley marrying. I saw her at Claridge's surrounded by cabinet ministers';  Sacheverell to Georgie Doble, 7 Jan, 1942, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 45 lines.  Sacheverell writes of his grief and shock on receiving Georgie's telegram, announcing the death of her husband  Arthur Doble, 'Dearest Georgie, Your telegram about poor Arthur has just come, Georgia left the house, only ten minutes before it arrived, to go to London by car . . .  I am trying to telephone through to her at Antoine's . . .It is so difficult to know what to say to you, what can one say, except banalities. You know how fond I was of Arthur, and I know he was very fond of me . . .I will write to you again tomorrow . . . thinking such a lot of you, and always with affection, Ever and loving Sachie';  Sacheverell to Georgie Doble, 11 Jan, 1942, Weston Hall.  2pp. single leaf, 45 lines. 'My darling Georgie, Just another line to tell you how much I am thinking of you . . .  Georgia feels utterly miserable . . . I wrote a little thing for the Times, which I hope is going in early this week . . .It is excruciatingly cold here, so cold that it hurts . . .  Reresby has grown enormously, and is really a big boy now, taller than Georgia, he has been very upset too . . . Your loving Sachie';   Sacheverell to Georgie Doble, c. 1952, The Alrae (Hotel) New York, (Oct., 1952).  2pp., single leaf, 31 lines. undated, with a manuscript note in pencil, by another hand to the back of the original accompanying postmarked envelope, 'after leaving Montreal Oct. 1952',   the letter written on the hotel's printed headed paper, 'Dearest Georgie, We got back here safely last night, and thank heavens are having a quiet day . . .The feature in Boston went fairly well, but not quite as good as in Montreal, I liked Washington more than Boston, I thin., I can never tell you, how much I loved seeing you again - . . .  the heat here is terrific. We are here till next Monday - then Buffalo, N.Y. - then Chicago. A charming letter from Francis last night. Nothing! from Reresby of course! . . . ';  Sacheverell to Georgie Doble, 21 April, 1953, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 22 lines, , 'Dearest Georgie, . . .  How sweet of you to say that about the money! But are you sure that is alright for you? I still wish we had been to Quebec, and Ottowa, and Toronto. It is maddening as we were so near. Life here is as usual. Francis had one of his worst Eton reports arrived to-day - worse even than usual. They all say how insolent he is - and it is very disheartening, though they all say they like him very much, which is the best thing! But it does cost so much keeping him there and it does seem so much for so little . . .  Osbert seemed rather better, I thought, the other day when I had luncheon with him in London. I saw Edith, also - in wonderful form. I am working so hard - but chiefly articles - and seem to get nothing done, Hermoine Hobson is driving us to London for the day on Friday. Very best love, darling Georgie, Your loving Sachie';  Sachie to Georgie Doble, 19. Xii., 1953, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 25 lines, Sacherverell thanks Georgie for a lovely present that arrived the previous day, 'I cannot thank you enough for it, darling Georgie. I am going to try and see if we cannot do something nicer with it, but it looks for the moment as though it will have all to go on water . . .  Getting on the water system has cost us about £400!!! . . . Georgia looked lovely going to the ball. I went to the Flemish exhibition . . .in March, they are going to have a huge exhibition of Augustus John . . .  I think he may come very well out of it, as an even better painter and draughtsman than he is supposed to be . . . We have our wonderful friend Paddy Hadley (Professor of music at Cambridge) with us for Christmas  . . .  We are going to do the big book on Old Roses, and I will send you a prospectus in about 6 weeks . . . ';  Sachie to Georgie Doble, 3 Jan, 1958, Weston Hall.  2pp., single leaf, 28 lines, 'I've just got back from Vaynol staying with Michael Duff . . .  Do you remember coming back from Vaynol just 2 years ago when you were here? . . .  The champagne lasted wonderfully - and so did the wine - and anything that was left was finished by dear Paddy Hadley who came last week end, and he certainly loves a drink! . . .  Xmas went really well. Penelope was quite nice, without trying to be! Reresby was charming, as ever, but enormous! Waistline something incredible. Its sad - as he is now just a very fat young man, very nice, though. Vaynol had such lovely views of Snowdon (which belongs to Michael Duff) . . . we shall be drinking your health at 4.30!! best love, darling Georgie, Sachie';  GEORGIA'S LETTER:  Georgia Sitwell (nee Doble) to her mother Georgie Doble, July 3, 1941, Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire.  2pp. single leaf, 25 lines, 'My darling Mother, I left out the dates of your letters when I wrote from Ascot last week - June 5th and 6th were the last I had . . .  We left Weston yesterday. We had to come in the middle of the week as Sach is always busy with the Home Guard on a Tuesday + has a big parade on July 6th . . .  there is no news to speak of as I have spent the last few days gardening, driving Sach . . so have done nothing and seen no one of any interest  . . .  Don't forget the magic word NYLON. I am hoping and praying for the cheque from Sash soon. Please thank Daddy for the £25 I had from the bank last week in case my letter to him gets lost. I will write to him again about it tomorrow in order to be sure he receives my thanks. Oceans of love, Your own Babs'.  the letters within a brown envelope with manuscript pencil inscription 'Letters to Georgie Doble / from Sachie + Reresby'.

Provenance: 
The Sitwell Family Library, Weston Hall.

(Qty. 13)

Est. £400-600