(Marie was then staying in the rectory, and various references in the diary make me surmise that she had been Caroline's - and perhaps Freda's also - governess, perhaps either French or German, or by nationality just probably Swiss - and not all that much older than her pupils at Borley. Anyway, although there is very little French in the diary, what there is proves to be correctly and grammatically written - of the German I cannot say anything at present, but this might be also. Marie wrote earlier in the year about probably leaving the two girls where she was because they were going to be presented. Then that same summer she went to Switzerland and brought back nice Swiss lace for Caroline and Freda. When she left Borley she was going on to Ireland. I can only repeat, that I have had the same intense impression of life, vitality, sexuality - mainly indirect I would think, despite the passages quoted - as that sirocco atmosphere which the entire Tatum family gave me...... In fact, I have been most moved by this almost cinematic portrait of this otherwise obscure country family - and it is like a film with shot after shot rushing along almost in that terribly quick and jerky way of the older films, timed to a different frame than the modern ones. But moved too, at the contrast between those early and evidently very happy years, and the increasing emptiness, and then complete desolation of the rectory. Harry alone, ill by then, doubtless very queer, wandering round it, and the two sisters returning to it for that seance in the Blue Room. For me, that is the sadness, the poignancy, and the haunting - but naturally that can find no place in any psychical survey. I also stress that nowhere in this diary is there any reference at all to anything untoward in the rectory or outside. A fire which was minor once in the outhouses attached to the conservatory was the only alarm, and a very temporary one, which I can find. But in church, which they attended regularly - and which clearly Caroline did out of a sense of fitness and duty, for I could not detect any marked religious or moral sentiments a tall in her - the Rectory pew faced the congregation, and she mentions more than once being "in the gallery" for the singing in which she took an active part. But that gallery as of now seems tiny, but perhaps the choir in her father's time was as well. Now I started this tired as I have said, and after a couple of sheets discovered I had made no carbon, and since this is in the main most of what I want - would you be terribly kind, and at my expense, get this whole screed photostated and send me the copy? My photostater at the University is a charming and brilliant young man, knows about Borley in a way, but he is not over discreet - and this is where intense discretion is required, because the diary is not my find, it has been most generously lent to me and I must respect to the full Groom-Hollingsworth's trust, since he too is much aware of the folly of disclosing what is important carelessly or too trustingly to others. If he knew you personally as I hope he will, I do not think he would mind - but of course, this is one of those communications which establishes you completely as you have been for so many years now to me, a gentleman, man of honour, and of the highest ethical and moral principles and scholarship. You will respect its secrecy I know. You have no idea how much you heartened me last night by saying in so many words for the first time what I have been saying to you and a few others for so long - thank God that perhaps all this new material will bring psychical research out of the filthy slime and totally unscientific approach into which it has sunk since The Haunting of Borley Rectory and the introduction of Trevor Hall into it, however shortly, and if not to enlarge the field, at least highlight in new ways, some of it. Wait of course until Groom-Hollingsworth has completed at least the investigations, but if they come up anywhere near your expectations or standards, then I would be most grieved if he were not eventually offered at least a chance of the Perrot Scholarship for one year, because I think he is just the kind of person who could make the best possible use of it - and not for selfish ends only. I read the eulogy of P. Shaw Jeffrey on his death in 1952 aged 92 in the Colchester Grammar School periodical for that year, which is precious since a rare copy so I am registering it today to Groom-Hollingsworth. In his way, albeit in a minor one as headmasters go, he certainly made from a very small and seedy grammar school what would pass now for one of the better minor public schools - at least the system, for good or bad. As for Henry or even Harry Bull being totally gross and careless clerics of the worst squarson type - definitely 'no.' Not intellectually, but certainly Henry kept more or less abreast with general affairs, constantly attended clerical local meetings - and nor was Henry such a bad husband according to his lights, and quite possibly his wife's. For her birthday that year of 1885, a special bonnet sent down from London by train - gold and brown straw with a bunch of primroses on it, for her birthday was in April. And they went out a great deal together as well. Henry also tried to do his best for his sons - all of them. At one moment in the diary, Basil - who later died from pneumonia caught in a freezing train during this last war- went to Canada, and enormous preparations and warm, also grieving, farewell attended it. Why he came back, not known; or when. Caroline early on makes a prophetic reference to "too many old maids" but she made the best of what she had. She was not the type, any more than her younger sisters, to probe deeply into things, or perhaps even to foresee the future except at primitive escaping and marital level for her - if the others had their chances, then I don't think they recognised them when they came. That often happens even now. I don't think any of them could express themselves except about love perhaps, but Caroline often mentions picking violets and primroses in the woods, and how one evening she and others stopped on the verge of a wood just to listen to the nightingale. Yet, at the end of the diary,a longish poem in German, and that when translated may show she had more depth, or at least more gropings, than what I have transcribed suggests. A very simple family - but not a negligible one even without Borley as we think of it)

The Old English Dictionary defines "sirocco" as an oppressive, hot, drying wind out of Africa. -Pat Cody

According to the Old English Dictionary, "squarson" is combined from the words squire and parson. The Squareson was both in one person. I've also heard this type of vicar called a "hunting parson." Many men in this period were forced into the church by good birth but poor fortune, as eldest sons inherited everything. Not having a true religious calling, they enjoyed the pleasures of a country gentleman more than the responsibilities to a parish. - Pat Cody

Instead of "according to his lights" substitute "in his eyes" to understand this. "Lights" was thieves cant for eyes or windows. - Pat Cody