Из воспоминаний младшей из сестер Митфорд
Про мать - мать мальчика и шести девочек.
Long after it was all over Muv told me that each daughter had had two or three years of adolescent rebelliousness or just bad temper, which had made life difficult for everyone in the house. As there were six of us, she went through twelve years of this kind of tension and it is not surprising that she retreated into her own thoughts from time to time. Her deafness in old age increased the impression she gave of being miles away. Two naughty grandsons fighting each other almost to the death said with glee, 'Granny Muv doesn't mind, she's so lovely and deaf.'
My sisters complained that she was strict. Perhaps after trying to make five girls stick to the rules she got tired of saying no and I was allowed a little more rope - but only a little as the tramlines of approved behavious were still in force. It was not till the 1939 war that circumstances swept these away. One surprising indulgence was that I was allowed to go hunting alone from the age of twelve. Our old groom, Hooper, accompanied me to the meet and left there with the other hunt members, and we met again for the ride home. A friend of mine, an only child who longed to do the same, told her mother about this. 'Oh, it's all right for Lady Redesdale,' said the mother, 'she's got five more girls so it doesn't matter if anything happens to Debo.'
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When I was about ten, Muv got us all together to test our future housekeeping skills for an as yet unknown husband. Under the headings 'rent, rates, wages, heating, cleaning materials, food, clothes, travelling, and other necessities,' she instructed us to account for an income of £500 a year. We pored over our sheet of paper, trying our best to apportion the money. Nancy finished almost before the rest of us had started. We read out our proposals and when it came to her turn, she waved her paper and said, 'Flowers: £499. Everything else" £1.' Muv gave up.
Long after it was all over Muv told me that each daughter had had two or three years of adolescent rebelliousness or just bad temper, which had made life difficult for everyone in the house. As there were six of us, she went through twelve years of this kind of tension and it is not surprising that she retreated into her own thoughts from time to time. Her deafness in old age increased the impression she gave of being miles away. Two naughty grandsons fighting each other almost to the death said with glee, 'Granny Muv doesn't mind, she's so lovely and deaf.'
My sisters complained that she was strict. Perhaps after trying to make five girls stick to the rules she got tired of saying no and I was allowed a little more rope - but only a little as the tramlines of approved behavious were still in force. It was not till the 1939 war that circumstances swept these away. One surprising indulgence was that I was allowed to go hunting alone from the age of twelve. Our old groom, Hooper, accompanied me to the meet and left there with the other hunt members, and we met again for the ride home. A friend of mine, an only child who longed to do the same, told her mother about this. 'Oh, it's all right for Lady Redesdale,' said the mother, 'she's got five more girls so it doesn't matter if anything happens to Debo.'
***
When I was about ten, Muv got us all together to test our future housekeeping skills for an as yet unknown husband. Under the headings 'rent, rates, wages, heating, cleaning materials, food, clothes, travelling, and other necessities,' she instructed us to account for an income of £500 a year. We pored over our sheet of paper, trying our best to apportion the money. Nancy finished almost before the rest of us had started. We read out our proposals and when it came to her turn, she waved her paper and said, 'Flowers: £499. Everything else" £1.' Muv gave up.