Two enormous countries where you can’t get servants & where everything in the shops is machine-made

Then there was talk about Russia & I said, ‘You must realize that to us in Europe, Russia & America seem exactly the same, two enormous countries where you can’t get servants & where everything in the shops is machine-made.’ She said I’d got it all wrong & her customers have gracious lives like anything.

Nancy to Jessica, 28 August 1957, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 319

Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste

I heard the following blissful remark – one old count to another old count about a third: ‘Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste’! And the same ones about the Dsse de Vendôme whose death has plunged the Faubourg into widows’ weeds, ‘Well she must be in heaven by now’ as if she had caught a tram. Oh how funny they are.

Nancy to Diana, 4 April 1948,  ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 265

She always asks them (a) why they became clergymen (b) if they wish they had been made a bishop and (c) if they enjoy sleeping with their wives.

Andrew says he insists on having the [Christmas] Tree either before Birdie [Unity] comes or after she’s gone as she embarrasses him so much with the clergymen as she always asks them (a) why they became clergymen (b) if they wish they had been made a bishop and (c) if they enjoy sleeping with their wives. I must say I do see.

Deborah to Diana, 1 December 1946, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 255

I never attempt the Hoover or lighting the stove or any of the moderately tough things

Darling, housework. I make my bed & wash up a coffee cup & then I go to bed & sleep the sleep of utter exhaustion until dinner time. What does it mean & how can people manage? I never attempt the Hoover or lighting the stove or any of the moderately tough things.

Nancy to Diana, 7 January 1946, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 248

I naturally wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me

I do think that family ties ought to make a difference. After all, violent differences of opinion didn’t prevent you & me from remaining good friends did they. My attitude to Esmond is as follows – and I rather expect his to me to be the same. I naturally wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me. But in the meanwhile, as that isn’t necessary, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be quite good friends, do you. I wonder if he agrees.

Unity to Jessica, 11 April 1937, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 106

They think of literally nothing all day but bulls and the Virgin

You know we started off in Spain, and you’ll never believe this but they are two hours late for every meal – two hours, Fanny – (can we lunch at half-past twelve today?), so of course, by then, you’ve stopped feeling hungry and only feel sick, then when the food comes it is all cooked in rancid oil, I can smell it now, it’s on everybody’s hair too, and to make it more appetizing there are pictures all round you of some dear old bull being tortured to death. They think of literally nothing all day but bulls and the Virgin. Spain was the worst of all, I thought.

N. Mitford, Love in a cold climate (1949), collected edition. Kindle loc.16,932

All the fault of that damned padre

Uncle Matthew went with Aunt Sadie and Linda on one occasion to a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. It was not a success. He cried copiously, and went into a furious rage because it ended badly. ‘All the fault of that damned padre,’ he kept saying on the way home, still wiping his eyes. ‘That fella, what’s ’is name, Romeo, might have known a blasted papist would mess up the whole thing. Silly old fool of a nurse too, I bet she was an R.C., dismal old bitch.’

N. Mitford, The pursuit of love (1945), collection edition. Kindle loc.11,246