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Grace Family at Battle Abbey

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                                    Dita and Nurse Annette inside the Abbey Gateway 1904

 Though Grandpoods went to Florida for the winter and took a shooting moor in Scotland each summer, mostly for the sake of his sons-in-law, the place he reallv loved was Battle Abbey in Sussex. There he lived like a country squire surrounded by his family, cousins, and friends, and it was from there that he gave in marriage his two youngest daughters my mother and Aunt Glad.

I think 40 Belgrave Square in London must have been home to Grandmoods, and Battle Abbey to Grandpoods. The attractive village of Battle in Sussex consists of a broad main street leading up to the Abbey gates. The gates are flanked by two large towers with an archway between them and a high stone wall on either side. One could walk along to the top of the wall, getting a bird's-eye view of the village and the churchyard. Some steps led down to the circular rose garden and to a terraced garden sloping to the woods and farmland.

Aunt Glad, living there until she was married, found Battle a dull place, a countrified society, a rather poor hunt, and not much to do except go for long walks. My brothers and I found it enchanting. I can still remember the wonderful damp smell of the laurels and rhododendron bushes where we used to hide. I have always loved those shiny, dark-leaved plants and trees which we treasure in America, but are so common in England.