Denham Hall Legacy
I have some terrible news for my gentle readers. I don’t quite know how to relate this but Miss Pringle the assistant headmistress is about to resign. It appears her mother is quite sickly and is unable to cope on her own and needs 24 hours of personal care and attention. Yes, Miss Pringle, who has been with the school like forever, almost as long as Miss Sefton, well at least 40 years.
Now it was King George the Second our founder that gave Denham Hall it's Charter way back in the 18th century’. There were already special places of learning for the sons of nobility and wealthy merchants when George realized there were no equivalent places for genteel young English ladies of similar refinement and social standing.
Well to be honest I do not know if it was George’s original idea or not. Alternatively it may have been because of pressure from his good Lady wife Caroline to do something about it quick smart or there may have been serious threats of on-going consequences, even very personal repercussions, if you know what I mean, if he didn’t. Mind you this is all conjecture. We will never really know.
It is going to be interesting to see who applies for this prestigious position. Miss Frenzi the sports teacher is a likely contender. Mr Crisis? Well, I don’t think he would even apply. Who is going to attend to the running of the college if he is suddenly called home to Epsilon Bootis or Zeta Reticuli two or wherever it is he calls home.
I do not think the music teacher Miss Franklin, or Lu Lu as she is affectionately known, will apply as she has only been with the college a comparatively short time so they may have to advertise outside of the college. Anyway enough of this speculation.
As it was close to the weekend and many of the girls would be home for the weekend a collection for flowers or whatever was not going to commence until Monday. I felt a terrible sadness pervading the college, especially among the boarders. I admit Miss Pringle was a hard taskmistress and she did have her moments of tension with Tamsin, as did all the teachers, but with Miss Pringle the next day it was usually forgotten. She will be sorely missed, that’s Miss Pringle not Tamsin.
At Inveraray Castle, mother was also very saddened to hear of the news of Miss Pringle’s resignation she thought very highly of her. We must not dwell too much on these sad events but look on the bright side and wish Miss Pringle’s mother a speedy recovery.
At the dinner table I asked mother what had happened to the castle manageress lady’s hand as it was heavily bandaged and no-one had made mention of it. The story goes she was in the castle teashop showing a busload of Japanese tourists just how tame Reynard the fox cub was and on offering this creature a slice of ham leftover from a ham sandwich it bit her.
Nothing serious you must understand. Reynard was taken to the saloon where there was much scolding, accompanied by lots of wagging of forefingers by Lady Rowena accusing Reynard the fox cub of being a naughty boy. That is the second time the castle manageress lady has been told by the castle teashop people he was untrustworthy and not to take her eyes off him. I am sure she will listen in future.
Tamsin again had been invited to my home for the weekend. Her home is only a half-hour up the road at the Loch Awe presbytery and her parents had also been invited for dinner this evening as well as Mrs Dalrymple and the Carter-Browns.
Tonight there were not enough guests to establish a game of bridge even though in desperate times I get roped in to make up the numbers, but not this evening, so Tamsin and I were about to retire to the saloon and leave our parents and their guests to enjoy a social evening. It will not be chopsticks on the piano this evening as I am teaching Tamsin to play the piano properly. Her mother is also sending her to lessons and surprisingly she is a quick learner.
As we were about to leave for the saloon mother asked “Well you pair, in just over a year you will both be leaving college. Have you thought about what you are going to do when you leave Denham Hall?”
I replied “I would probably become father’s secretary. ”
Mother asked “What if he has retired by then?’’
I said “Well he will still be writing emails, letters and things won’t he? And he will need someone to answer the phone so he will need a private secretary to attend to all his papers and stuff”.
Mother said “you could always earn some extra pocket money by offering to play the church organ when Mrs King is sick or on holiday, or play at dances, weddings and parties. Well at least it will keep you busy until you get married”.
I replied nonplussed “mother I am not planning to get married”.
She ignored my reply and turned to Tamsin.
“And you Tamsin?”
I butted in answering for her “She said she is going to join the SAS or become a container ships captain”.
Annoyed Tamsin answered “that’s not true Bridgette”. Turning to mother she said “I never said that. She just made that up”. I chose not to make comment.
The four week Christmas break was coming up shortly so no doubt Tamsin and I will be seeing a lot of each other. I will ask if father if Mr Crisis can stay with us over Christmas as his home is a million miles away. Father will not be going anywhere over the Christmas period and there is only part-time skeleton staff left at the Hall over the Christmas period. All boarders are expected to return home.
It is Monday and I am back at college. Gentle readers as I mentioned earlier there was some really bad news I had to tell you about but alternatively there is also good news. Miss Pringle’s mother died over the weekend that is the bad news. The good news is Miss Pringle will be officially withdrawing her resignation after taking a month bereavement leave. Denham Hall breathes again; I will ring mother and tell her the good news later.
Miss Frenzi meanwhile is filling the temporary vacancy of assistant headmistress. Miss Green the maths teacher from the day students 4B class has moved up and is filling in Miss Frenzi’s position. This is just to keep you all up to date. The withdrawal of Miss Pringle’s resignation was a huge relief for Miss Sefton, as you can imagine.
It is the Christmas holidays that are now the main topic of conversation in Boadicea dorm.
Whoopy doo!!! ……4 WEEKS HOLIDAY
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