Under the Sun (5 page)

Read Under the Sun Online

Authors: Bruce Chatwin

The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 6 November [1949] Dear Mummy and Daddy,
I hope you are all well. Yesturday the fireworks were absoutly wizard. There were 130 rockets, 14 cathrine weels, 4 christal fountains and a lot more. Have you heard, about the Poenix firework company. Sombody put gun-powder in some false fireworks, and there was a terrific explosion at Okengates, and all the panes of the windows in the district came out, and a girl of 17 was wounded. We had a lot, so we tied them up in a parcel and threw them in the boating pond. Half term reports are coming next time. On Wednesday, we had a match against Abberly Hall. We won 2 – 1. We had a Remberance Service to day in chapel.
Bruce
 
Whether Chatwin was always so buoyant at Old Hall School as his letters home suggest is thrown into doubt by a short story he wrote towards the end of his life which paints a less than ‘wizard' picture of Bonfire Night and of school life in general.
On a wall in Chapel, a brass plaque commemorated a boy who had died at Old Hall School on 9 September 1923, aged ten. Hugh says: ‘In my time, no matron ever refuted the oft-repeated boys' tale that Tommy Woodhouse died of constipation – the result of a silly, rule-breaking dare.' This became the genesis for Chatwin's virtually last finished piece of creative writing. ‘The Seventh Day' features a nervous, skinny, religious boy – clearly based on Chatwin – eight years old, with thick fair hair, who hates going back to boarding school, so much so that he makes himself sick. He is teased by other boys about his constipation (‘He wished they'd stop laughing whenever he had hard times on the pot. The lavatories had no doors.'). He is teased about his father's car (‘It was not a car but a grey Ford van. It had windows cut in the back and Spitfire seats to sit on. Sometimes the van smelled of pigswill.'). He is teased for his perceived self-sufficiency. ‘He hated school because no one would leave him alone. Because he was so skinny he hated being tickled by the headmaster. He hated the boy who stole his marbles and he hated the boy who pinned him on his bed and rubbed his chest with his hairbrush. At night, after lights out, the others whispered their plans for the future. They would have wives and children. He hid under the bed sheet and saw himself as the last man left on earth after the Bomb went off. He saw himself in white cloth walking over a charred landscape . . .'
The boy also hates Guy Fawkes Night. ‘The Guys had pumpkins cut into faces. One Guy was Mr Attlee with a scarecrow hat and a witch's broom. Mr Attlee had Hitler's moustache. He hated the masters for working up the boys. He went off into the dark and cried for Mrs Attlee.'
This last experience probably followed the defeat of Clement Attlee's Labour Government by Winston Churchill's Conservatives in October 1951. To it, Chatwin attributed the fact that ‘never, even in my capitalist phase, was I able to vote Conservative'.
Hugh says: ‘There were two sides to Bruce's early life. There was his ability to relate to adults and their world, and to reflect back the joy they expressed in their hope for his generation of War Babies; and then there was the private business of being a small boy who had not been brought up with other children, who found himself confined in a very strict, highly disciplined, seminary-like institution. Old Hall could be a frightening place.'
 
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | [1949]
 
Dear Mummy and Daddy,
I hope you are all well. The Rocket-a-Copter is going most beautifully. It goes about 100 feet high. It got caught in a mulberry tree. One of the boys climbed up and got it down. All the wings have broken but I have mended it again. I am making another model village for Hugh . . . At the end of term I am doing a play called Fat King Melon
8
. I am going to be a Highwayman,
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 29 January [1950]
 
Dear Mummy & Daddy,
I am in bed with flu. My temperature has been 103 but is now normal. I have nearly finished The Georgian Mansion. It is a bit dull but very nice. We had a film Arthur Askey in ‘I Thank Thee'. It was extremely funny. I have been doing a terrific wooden jig-saw puzzle of the ‘Queen Mary.' It has 400 pieces. I am sorry my writing is not very good.
With
Love
From
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 4 February [1950]
 
Dear Mummy and daddy,
I hope you are both well . . . I have completely recovered from my flu. Thank you very much for sending me the
Meccano Magizine
and the
Chilrens Newspaper
. Please don't send me any comics when I am ill they bore me. A boy's magazine such as
Boy's Own
would be much more appreciated.
Your affectionate son,
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire [autumn 1950]
 
Dear Mummy & Daddy,
Boss hopes to put on a
Midsummer Night's Dream
at the end of term and he has asked me to play the part of Billy Bottom. We had a Will Hay film on Tuesday called ‘Boys will be boys.' We have not played soccer yet because of the rain. Please could you send me a tube of balsa cement, two + ⅛th of an inch square strips of balsa wood. And a piece of balsa wood 3˝ x ½˝ x 2ʹ because we are making a model of Mevagissy Harbour.
9
Love
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 3 October 1950
 
Dear Mummy & daddy,
I hope you are all well . . . We have had snow here. It is thawing but it is extremely hot . . . I came 10th in maths exam with 38 marks. I came 4th in Scripture with 52 marks. In History I came 3rd with 54 marks. The play is getting on all right now. We are going to watch a
Midsummer Dream
which is on television today. Mr Fee Smith has hired a large 15˝ screen set. We had a nice service in chapel to-day as it is Advent Sunday. My model speedboat is completed, so please could you send some blue and silver dope and two paint brushes. You will get it at the Model Aerodrome. On Monday I had the wacking
10
, for refusing to give a chit in which was not true. I was beating the master (Mr Poole) in an argument. He knew he was losing so he said ‘Well, it's too late now I have reported you to Mr Fee Smith, and he told me to write you out a chit, he told me.'
with love
from
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 10 December 1950
 
Dear Mummy & Daddy,
I have just discovered that my bird-books are worth £10 for the set, and will soon be very valuable.
11
I have decided that I would prefer a lightweight sports bycicle than an ordinary bycicle with a 3 speed gear. The trunks have come up and the play is going on quite well now. Boss has put a lot of his imagination in it. I think that if acted propaly it will be very nice.
12
I came second in the term order. I didn't want to be first because it is to much of a fag. Thank you very much for sending me the Globe-Theatre Micro-model. I have made a lot of Christmas decorations for the holidays. Our dormitory is festooned with them.
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 4 March [1951]
 
Dear Mummy and daddy,
I hope you are all well. I have got a lovely little smoothing plane, it is only 3 ins long, and the blade is ⅞ of an inch thick. Please could you send me an Anorma Post Office. Please get the money out off my savings. Mr Whitton gave a lecture on archaeolagy, it was very interesting. Conjouring has taken itself in the school and I am very interested in it. I am making some tricks myself. I have made some more things for you and Hugh.
With love from Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 18 March [1951]
 
Dear Mummy & Daddy,
I hope you are all well . . . We had the Gym Competition on Tuesday.
I boxed in the ring on Monday against a tough.
13
I won 5-3. I am in the final for the Junior Cup. I have got a very good chance.
With love from Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 15 July [1951]
 
Dear Mummy and Daddy,
I hope you are all well. There was a match yesturday against Yarlet Hall. It was a draw. We were 125 for two. They were 4 for nine. It will soon be the end of term . . . How are the little black pigs
14
getting on? I was awfully embarrassed yesturday, some weomen, and one man, sat on our bench, while we were watching the match. I had to entertain them.
With love from
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 30 September [1951]
 
Dear Mummy and daddy,
I hope you are all well. I am afraid that I have not got much to say as I only came on Thursday. Have you enjoyed your holiday at Marlborough. Please will you plant the bulbs I bought. The romundculus are those tentacle looking things and the iascas the little bulbs. Are the gold fish all right? The new matron staff is most peculiar, especially Miss Griffiths who we have nicknamed ‘The Grifon'. She is most peculier and waddles about like a duck.
With love
From
Bruce
 
 
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 7 October [1951]
 
Dear Mummy and Daddy,
On Friday night the fireworks were very nice. There were very big cathrine weels. I had a lovely firwork to hold called a flying star. On Tuesday we had a lovely film called the Overlanders. It was about driving cattale over Australia. They went from the Northern Territory to Queenslands. They came to a deep river were there were two big crocodiles. When the cart was going over one of the crocidiles woke up and splashed into the water. It came up to the cart when one of the men took a shot at it and killed it and then they got to a city they took the catle through. Then one of the men fell of his horse and broke his arm and some catle trod on him and he broke his leg, so they took him to hospidle for three days and for six days they went with out water. They found some water at a windmill pump but the horses only had a little drink when it stoped. They rested them and there was a fire. The cattle rushed untll they smelt water, the men rushed to see what it was but it was a bog. They tried to get them back but the horses got poisoned and they ran very fast, but they fell over, and they died. They went back to the cart. One day when they were lying on a rock some wild horses came and they made a wire fence and they traped them and they broke them in so they had some more horses. They went up a mountain when they were nerby at the top a tree blocked up the way and a man climbed up but he was to late. Two of the cattle fell of. Then the man when he got to the top fastened the rope to the horse and pulled the tree out but the horse very nerly sliped but he cut the rope and they got down
With love from Bruce
To Hugh Chatwin
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 21 October [1951]
 
Dear Hugh,
I have got a Dinky Toy for you I will give it to you on visiting day
From Bruce
To Charles and Margharita Chatwin
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 17 February [1952]
 
Dear Mummy and Daddy,
I hope you are both well . . . I am going in for a competition in which you can choose your own prizes. We had a jolly good film last night called ‘Riders in the Forest' it was about a New Forest Pony. I am most certainly in the mood for writing letters. I am shooting up the form. I came 5th in Maths this fortnight.
With love from Bruce
To Margharita Chatwin
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | [May 1952]
 
Dear Mummy
Hugh is settling down well. Unfortunately he is in form I and has been placed miles too low. He has begun music and he wants his old music book. He has lost his mack and does not care the slightest bit. I have swaped a lot of stamps.
15
As soon as he got there he made friends with Cant. I have had a food rash but it is nearly gone.
Bruce
To Charles and Margharita Chatwin
The Old Hall School | Wellington | Shropshire | 25 May [1952]
 
Dear Mummy and daddy,
I hope you are both well, Hugh has had a spell of being good. He has had no blacks for a fortnight now. If he gets on well I have promised him a clockwork submarine, which dives and surfaces again . . .
16
Unfortunately Hugh dislikes Cant and Reynolds and has taken to a boy called Taylor III who has invited him to stay with him, and his cousin, Williams, who lives 2 miles away from Taylor III, has invited me to go to stay with him.
With
Love
From
Bruce
 
In the summer of 1953 Chatwin passed his Common Entrance Exam and was accepted by Marlborough College in Wiltshire. On 22 July Fee-Smith wrote to his parents: ‘Thank you so much for the cheque for Bruce's contribution towards a garden seat, his name and date of leaving will be inscribed on it. I shall miss him next term – such a nice boy & such good company.'

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