Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Christmas Invitation: An Australian at an English Manor House



From "Why Can't the English?" by Lesley Rowlands, Sydney, 1959.

"I had been invited for Christmas to one of my addresses. Every Australian I knew in England had left Australia with a notebook full of addresses"

(The Lady of the Manor, in the car, on the way to the Manor; Christmas Eve):


"I'm sure you're wondering who we all are, so if you'd just be good enough to reach over to the back seat and take the parcel there which is under the rug, I'll tell you." This I did. The parcel contained peas and a small enamel basin. 'I knew you wouldn't think it funny if I asked you to shell them. Colonials are so practical.' I set to work shelling, thinking that we Colonials (I had begun to look upon myself as one at last) were not practical at all, since it had never occurred to me to shell peas on a long car trip, though now that I was actually doing it, it seemed a very natural and wise thing to do."

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