WELCOME HOLIDAY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21186, 5 November 1938, Page 11

WELCOME HOLIDAY

LADY RUNCIMAN RETURNS On returning to her peaceful London home at the back of Westminster Abbey, Lady Runciman began making plans for a longed-for country house holiday, postponed during six strenuous weeks in Czechoslovakia, states the "Daily Telegraph.” The little party of 16 that returned by train with Lady Runciman consisted of the wives and children of members of the British Legation. Some of the travellers were bringing children back to school. Lady Runciman hoped to go north to Doxford Hall, the Northumberland home where she farms. She will act as hostess to two grandchildren. She will take north souvenirs of her stay in Czechoslovakia, including beautiful pieces of glass. This holiday will provide welcome relaxation after 12 to 14-hour days, spent in helping her husband’s mission in the task of amassing information. Her command of history and languages proved invaluable. She spoke the two tongues best known to the Czechs apart from their own -Slavonic language—German and French. In these she conducted interviews. Industrial and political leaders talked freely to her during her tours with her husband of depressed and other key areas. Surprise at her knowledge of their problems was due to the fact that they did not know that this Old Girtonian and former woman M.P. is deeply read in history and politics. As Hilda Stevenson, daughter of a north country M.P., she was studying the making of modern Czech problems as far back as the nineties, when she won a first-class in the Historical Tripos. She has kept up her study of history. Entertaining also occupied a good deal of her time during the stay at Prague. She and her husband only had time for two meetings during the day, at breakfast and lunch. Now Lord and Lady Runciman are interested in the disposal of their picturesque Town house, which he built 30 years ago. He finds that he has “so many properties” on his hands.

LOOK TO YOUR WRITING

Handwriting is coming in for a lot of attention in London at the moment as the result of an exhibition dealing with the progress and the art of handwriting. Among the exhibits is a facsimile letter of Queen Elizabeth to her sister Mary—a really beautiful and still legible page. A letter from Florence Nightingale displays clear, resolute, businesslike penmanship.

One woman said she was cured of bad handwriting by receiving a letter from a friend which took about two hours to decipher. She wrote remonstrating with her friend, who wrote back and told her that her own was just as good as a jig-saw puzzle. “We then made a plan to improve our writing: moreover, we kept it.”

Bad writing in some instances is a form of conceit. It seems to say: “My communication is very important, so you must take time to decipher it."

It is as well to remember, though, that there are relatively few women who have taken to the typewriter for personal correspondence. Let’s hope they stick to their own calligraphy and make it what the dictionary says: “The art of beautiful writing.”