SPRING TERM
After a short holiday in Paris, Evelyn stayed with Alastair in Barford for a few days for some proper R & R. Ready for term two of four at Aston Clinton?
It was newly married Richard Plunket-Greene who bought a motorbike from a shop in Sussex Place (London) for Evelyn, in order that - with himself no longer around - Waugh could travel to and from Oxford. Talk about a loyal friend! In London, Evelyn waved Richard and Liza off on their journey to Lancing on the south coast, but the arrangement was for Evelyn to visit them within a day or two. Nevertheless, when the new term began at Aston Clinton, all was different for Evelyn because Richard was no longer there to share the purgatory of life as a teacher. No longer there to share in a mutual escape into heavy drinking. Which I somehow associate with this photo.
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
Evelyn travelled to Aston Clinton on his new bike. 'Yesterday to this school on my bicycle which did not go well and finally outside Tring made me wheel it a long way and buy it a new tyre,'
Friday, 29 January 1926
Evelyn had a cold after a return journey by bike to Oxford. The journey to Oxford was partly to visit Alastair in his nearby studio. But Evelyn also had dinner at the George with Harold Acton and Brian Howard. 'The journey back was beastly wet and windy and no light on my bicycle. Once I fell right over and all the time was skidding all over the road. I feel the worse for it.'
The new regime - have bike will travel - was not going very well, was it?
Saturday, 30 January 1926
Evelyn biked to Barford to meet Alastair again for the day. The journey was a disaster as the bike 'sheared off a key'. As a result, he never saw Alastair but was looked after (cold dinner supplemented with lashings of beer and port) by Mrs Graham. He slept at Barford overnight. 'Next day the bicycle flew back and I was able to shave and put on a black coat in time for luncheon.'
The following Tuesday, Richard and Liza arrived and the three of them got drunk together. On Saturday, the pair came again and they went to Oxford so that Evelyn could try on a suit of grey tweed at Hall's. It ended up being a drunken evening involving Harold Acton. In the end, Evelyn slept at the Bell. Does this mean that Evelyn let Richard and Liza sleep in his bed at the school? I don't know, but I think it more likely that they all slept in the Bell that night.
'On Sunday Richard and Liza went back. They have persuaded me to buy a new bicycle called Francis-Barnett. I had tea with the Crawford girls. Today I feel exceedingly tired and none too well and am vexed that it is my prep.'
It seems to have been agreed that the motorbike idea was a sound one, but that Evelyn needed a bike he could rely on. It's this second bike that Pat Grinling took three photos of Evelyn with, which are coming up shortly.
Ash Wednesday, 1926
As soon as Evelyn was given a holiday, he collected his new bike from Aylesbury. He drove it very slowly (it had to be 'run in') to Oxford where he had dinner at the George and went to a party at Merton. Then home: 'It did not rain until I had only a few miles to go. Just opposite the Bell, the engine stopped. I could not make out why and was afraid it had broken, but I was glad to see this morning that it had used up all its petrol. This seems to me gross overconsumption when I consider the promise of the catalogue.' Evelyn goes on to say that he had got back to Aston Clinton at 2am, and that he was tired. His head ached and the children, even the nicest of them, got on his nerves.
Fine, but at least Evelyn had a new modus operandum that he could rely on. Which maybe explains the timing of this photograph by Pat Grinling.
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
Evelyn: "Ah, Pat. Take a picture of me on my Oxford bike, if you will."
Pat: "Sure."
Evelyn: "If I teach you nothing else this term, let me teach you this: teachers live on alcohol, bikes on petrol, and it is all too easy to underestimate the thirst of their respective engines."
With Richard gone, the adjustment to the new regime was not just a matter of finding a new mode of transport. Evelyn needed company. Two new masters, Gleed ('quite nice in a Brasenose way') and Chambers ('definitely dotty') had been taken on. It was the latter that Evelyn chose as a potential drinking partner. After dinner, Evelyn persuaded 'poor Mr Chambers' to accompany him to the Bell to drink sherry.
However, of more significance than this was the first mention (coming up) of two children whose names would become a regular feature of Waugh's diary for the remainder of his Aston Clinton stay.
Sunday, 21 February 1926
'Today Charles and Edmund took me to see a pond which they have been making in great secret in a corner of the park. They have dug it out of the mud and diverted a steam to flow through it and bordered it with moss and stones. We went to a pond near the stables and caught some fish to put in it.' In other words, they used the presence of an existing pond at Aston Clinton to stock the new pond with fish.
But who were Charles and Edmund? Their surnames are not used. Their ages are never mentioned. Perhaps this is them:
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
I will return to Charles and Edmund as soon as Evelyn does.
Monday, 22 February, 1926
'By this morning's post my glasses were sent to me and also the proofs of the photographs taken by the man from Tring. They are rather amusing, particularly the one in ordinary clothes in which I have the expression of a popular preacher.'
These photos can be found in various biographies. But I am going to collect them together here, in part to compare and contrast the photos of Evelyn that Pat Grinling was taking in situ. In other words, these photos were taken by a professional photographer at his studio on a single afternoon. Whereas Pat Grinling's collection grew organically over a year or more.
In which of these does Evelyn Waugh look like a popular preacher?
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Photos of Evelyn Waugh by unknown Tring photographer.
I think it's the one on the right, as the other is the photo that Evelyn sent to Terence Greenidge and also had included as his author photo in Georgian Stories, the volume that was shortly to appear with his story, 'The Balance'. He wouldn't have wanted either Terence or his readership to think that he looked like a preacher, popular or otherwise.
Below is a blow-up of the photo that Pat took of Evelyn on his bike, plus a photo of Evelyn in smart clothes taken by the Tring guy.
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Left: Photo (detail) of Evelyn Waugh by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis. Right: Photo of Evelyn Waugh by unknown Tring photographer.
It would seem that Evelyn's hair was a few weeks longer in Pat Grinling's photo. So maybe Evelyn's visit to the photographer was at the start of the Easter term. It's only in Grinling's photo that the subject is smiling and flashing a bit of cheekbone.
Friday, 26 February 1926
Evelyn tells us that on Tuesday he went again to Oxford, this time to see a friend and try on a suit at Hall's. He met his brother, Alec, nearby, had dinner with him and spent the night there, driving back in time for breakfast at Aston Clinton. However, he was still lame (following the incident in which he damaged his ankle in November) and so wasn't able to take part in games.
He then reports that Doctor Crawford had let him have one of the rooms in the stable to turn into a sitting room. 'Edmund and I went down this afternoon to explore them. I liked two, one of them with a delightful window but, I am afraid, too large for my money.' Let's be clear. Evelyn had a bedroom in the house, but he wanted a sitting room in the stable, possibly so that he could do some entertaining. All part of the post-Richard era at Aston Clinton.
Monday, 1 March 1926
'This afternoon I have been for a run while Edmund and Charles dusted the room in the stables which Crawford has given me. Tonight I had some rum to drink with the captain.'
Clearly, Evelyn hadn't given up on his fellow teachers, He had tried Chambers with sherry and now he was trying Hyde-Upward with rum.
Monday, 8 March 1926
'The Captain and I drank all the rum with the result that I woke up with my cold almost cured while he spent the next day in bed.' Lesson: never go drink to drink with an alcoholic.
Evelyn went to London on Tuesday and bought furniture for his sitting room. Some chairs, a rug and two tables - very common looking according to the diarist.
On Thursday he went to London, again by bike. He returned the next morning on icy roads that gradually thawed as he got nearer Aston Clinton. 'All day I was very tired and only Edmund to call me next day reconciled me with the prospect of the match against Oxford.'
Another rugby match against Oxford? It seems so. And this time there are photos of it. Alec Waugh is recognisable in the hooped shirts and socks, and in the same diary entry, as we'll see, Evelyn mentions him as being there.
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
The whole page from the album displays two photos of the away team in the top half, and photos of the home team and its support in the bottom half. At least that's how I interpret this set of four images:
Photos by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
The diary entry reads: 'It was rather a jolly game which they won entirely through Archie Harding. Our side played well - particularly Charles.' Evelyn doesn't say so, but his injured leg clearly stopped him from taking to the field and producing another multi-try scoring performance for Aston Clinton. 
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
'Afterward we dined at the Bell and drank a good deal.' (Judging by the pics of the Oxford team, the drinking had already started on the pitch.) 'Richard came for a few minutes to try and get me to a dance. We danced instead with the boys and carried off the situation without disgrace until Matthew Ponsonby, having been sick at the gates, attempted an entry. Luckily we got him away.'
It seems that it was one thing to be drinking and dancing with the boys, another being drunk and disorderly with them.
'Next day Alec and I rested. I went down to the pond and watched the children digging in it. Charles covered in mud from head to foot. Edmund with his Eton trousers turned up to the knee leaving an absurd pink hiatus between them and his socks.'
Alec had obviously agreed to give a talk to the school as a successful author (The Loom of Youth and various other novels) and Evelyn reported that the talk was audible, intelligible and adequate. The children seemed to enjoy it.
Saturday, 13 March, 1926
Evelyn tells us that he hosted three tea parties in the week. One for the Miss Crawfords and Bill Holmes a Court, who was not as frightful as Evelyn had been led to believe. One for Charles and Edmund. And one for the prefects who ate prodigiously and who Evelyn thought enjoyed it.
Monday, 15 March, 1926
I'm not sure if the 'Richard' mentioned in the aftermath of the rugby game was Richard Plunket-Greene, but here he is mentioned. 'Liza and Richard arrived unexpectedly in their red car. They came to tea with Stuart, Campbell and Blackburn in the stables.' As these are presumably the surnames of schoolboys, they could include Charles and Edmund.
I imagine that Richard and Liza admired Evelyn's bike. So let's use that as an excuse to introduce two further photos that Pat Grinling took of Evelyn on his second motorbike. First, this study of the intrepid motorcyclist outside the front of the main house:
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
And second this composite photo, using two of Pat Grinling's originals. To be honest, it's the only way I can get a picture of Evelyn in the speech room:
Two photos by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis. Montage by Duncan McLaren.
In the afternoon, Evelyn travelled with Richard and Liza to London to see Olivia.
'We found her packing bottles in a bedroom littered with stockings and newspaper. Fatter and larger generally, unable to talk of much except herself and that in an impersonal and incoherent way. I sat on her bed for some time trying to talk with her, my heart sinking and sinking until Richard and I went out to drink cocktails.'
Ah, the stirrings of empathy. The warm feelings of one suffering creature for another. Evelyn tells us that he returned to school by train more depressed than he had been for some weeks.
Friday, 26 March, 1926
Evelyn reports that he has been entertaining Young 'the lecher from Benbighshire'. He came on a motorbike that Evelyn greatly admired - a Sunbeam. They lunched at the Bell and went to watch the children play football. Young 'fell in love' with one boy.
All Fools Day, 1926
Evelyn seems to have lost track of his diary at this point, for he repeats himself. 'Young of Denbighshire came down and was rather a bore - drunk all the time. He seduced a garage boy in the hedge.'
I suppose that would have been marginally better than Young seducing a schoolboy in the hedge, as Waugh was responsible for the schoolboys' welfare. Though what exactly did that mean in 1926? Young was entrusted with being a teacher, for God's sake.
I wonder if this is a photo of Young of Denbighshire aka Grimes of Decline and Fall. It seems to me to be true to the spirit of the guy. Irrepressible, but not someone you want to meet in a hedge while you're still shy of your 16th birthday.
Photo by Pat Griinling. Courtesy of Rupert Grinling and Sue Willis.
As we'll have confirmed by what happened in the summer term, Evelyn Waugh had his pupils' best interests at heart, more or less preparing them for the adult world. Having said that, Waugh didn't know how to deal with a predator like Young. There is no way Evelyn should have invited Young to stay at Aston Clinton, knowing his proclivities, when Evelyn himself was responsible for the children's immediate environment and healthy development therein.
Next page:
SEPT. 4, 2024
