| Description | Addressed from Hagley Hall in Stourbridge, this note from Lord and Lady Cobham expresses their regret at being unable to accept an invitation they had received from Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury for her English-Speaking Union party at Winds Point, Malvern on Friday 1st September 1939. The note adds that 'the Misses Lyttelton' would also be unable to attend.
Despite the Cobhams being unable to attend the E. S. U. party, Taylor Cadbury's family journal dated Wednesday 6th September 1939 records that between sixty and seventy people had 'turned up', including 'the Vanbrughs, and Yvonne Arnaud'. Professor Alladyce Nicoll of London and Yale Universities had given a talk at the party about 'the past and present, but mainly the future of the Drama.' The party celebrated dramatic and theatrical performance, Taylor Cadbury remarking that 'a number of the Festival Company were present'.
On the reverse of Lord and Lady Cobham's letter is the first page of the draft typescript of a letter written by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury to Carl Heath. Scott suggests that Taylor Cadbury decided to write to Heath in 1940 because of her concerns about the thought of the modern Society of Friends which she saw as 'vague and unanchored'. Heath was working with a committee of Friends to produce a statement on Faith and Order in the Society.
The typescript of the letter is heavily annotated with highlighted sections and pencil notes. In the letter Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury expresses her concern that Quakers were 'so inclined to pride themselves on the nebulousness of their faith.' She continues emphasising the importance of identifying a foundation for faith, warning 'there is a danger of our becoming something like the balloons that are at present swaying backwards and forwards round every big city' which would 'roam the skies, a danger to themselves and to others' if 'not attached to a foundation on the earth'.
Please note that additional pencil annotations added by Taylor Cadbury to this typescript have been included in the quotations above. |