CHAPTER VI
ANOTHER END
In 1945 six years of war came to an end: the relief was beyond all surmise; things at Hyde went on much as usual and were to do so for another two years, for it was not until 1947 that we packed up again and moved.
Miss Leila prefaced almost every Staff Meeting, for those two years with "Well, Friends, we are on the last lap now."
It was a long lap though and during its passing Miss Leila went off again with the Secretary to see what future home for the Community might be in the market: this time she hoped for something permanent.
Eventually, a large Georgian Mansion, near Ashford in Kent was heard of; this was the family seat of the Brabournes who no longer lived in it. Lord Brabourne was willing to rent it to the Community and it was decided we should go there.
The children left for the summer holiday, never to return to Hyde again.
An unbelievable clearing up and packing took place and during the last week we were there, when many of the Staff had already gone, we heard that a Mrs. R., the wife of the owner of the house, was staying in Wareham and would be coming to take away wine and a safe which were in the locked cellar of the house: we had often wondered what was down there.
The following morning we were just finishing an agreeably late breakfast when the local taxi drove up to the front door: we got up prepared to meet Mrs. R. but the taxi was empty; it was all a mistake, the driver thinking he had to fetch Mrs. R. from Hyde House. He was sent back to Wareham.
About an hour later one of the Staff, a stalwart woman who had done years of yeoman service with the nine and ten year-olds, was going to the front door with a large sack-cloth apron tied round her and armed with a bucket of water and a scrubbing brush: she was probably going to scrub the front porch and steps. The taxi drove up again and this time out of it stepped a woman elegantly clad in a fur coat and with high-heeled black patent leather shoes, black handbag and gloves and a black hat.
The door was opened to her by the stalwart woman who put down the bucket and held out her hand. They shook hands and Mrs. R., looking extremely surprised, tottered down the hall. She took off her coat to display a fine rope of pearls, and left it on a chair with a small paper bag: then through the door that led to the stone passage she made like a bee to a flower, and, as one very familiar with it, for the cellar door. She unlocked this with a key she took from the patent leather handbag and with a torch went gingerly down the cellar steps and disappeared into the depths below. Sounds were heard of bottles clanking and there was a lot of banging and knocking.
Later that morning, she emerged and was to be seen sweeping the back passage in pearls and gloves. On the hall table was the paper bag out of which stuck half a loaf and a lump of cheese.
She went back to the cellar and was then heard sobbing and banging away at some very hard object. The woman who had met her at the door was sent down to further deal with her. She was revived with a pot of tea and aspirin: she refused lunch with us upstairs and ate her bread and cheese in the cellars; we could not make out what was the matter.
In the afternoon a lorry appeared in the back yard and two men got out and went down into the cellar. They then staggered up and down the steps with what seemed like hundreds of bottles of wine and bits and pieces of silver - spoons, forks and a candelabra. Mrs. R. graciously sent up a half-bottle of wine to us and we celebrated in the kitchen with this. There were only a few drops each and so in lieu of glasses, egg-cups were about the right size.
Mrs. R. became more or less hysterical and the banging in the cellar louder and louder. At last it transpired that she could not get the safe door open. She tottered up the cellar steps and phoned for help, and a very old car arrived in the back-yard with a man who had a blow-lamp and the safe door was blown open. We never knew what was in it.
Finally Mrs. R. left in a Land Rover which came to collect her and she was driven away with the fur coat and the gloves and little black hat, as we thought, never to be seen again but at ten o'clock that night the 'phone rang; it was Mrs. R. again in a frantic state: a Deed Box was missing, it had been put down somewhere and she had forgotten it, it must be found and brought down to her that night.
After a great search it was discovered behind some door. I got the school car out and drove down to Wareham with it and at half-past ten handed it over to Mrs. R., who was by now in a silk kimono, at the Red Lion Hotel. She thanked me warmly and I drove back again. We never knew what was in that Deed-box either.
That was the last really memorable event I experienced at Hyde House.
I was sad, in many ways, to be leaving Hyde; although we had known hard times there we had known good too and we had come through those six years without any major disaster and learned a great deal.
I knew too, how much I should miss the green weir and the perpetual lovely sound of the water running over the stones of the river.