My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyhock and seltzer habit which was shared by an incongruous couple, Oscar Wilde andPrince Bismarck. I follow the classic world in believing that an occasional feast doesgood rather than harm, or as a French doctor put it: 'II faut quelque fois etonnerl'estomac'.There was no tendency to excess in the Heathcote family; they were spare, tall peoplewho earned their health. They were by nature much more respectable than theMosleys, who always rather shocked them. They were more respectable in the sensethat the middle class used to be more respectable than the aristocracy; not that anyclass difference existed between them, for they were two neighbouring countryfamilies with exactly the same background, which at that time used to be called thelanded interest. Their attitude to life was different; not different in the sense ofCavalier and Roundhead, for the Heathcotes could not be described as Puritans, butthey had not the almost complete freedom from inhibitions which was a characteristicmany Mosleys shared both with much of the aristocracy and much of the workingclass. Lord Randolph Churchill, during his Tory democracy days, claimed: 'thearistocracy and the working class are united in the indissoluble bonds of a commonimmorality'.The Heathcotes were a strongly united family, with a vital gaiety in each other'scompany. My mother had an elder sister who married a Life Guard, Sir Lionel Darrell,two younger brothers and a much younger sister, who was only twelve years olderthan I was and whom I loved as a favourite companion in sport and in a wide varietyof young happiness; she married a Lees-Milne, who handled a salmon rod almost aswell as his nephew was to manage the National Trust. Also cherished with affectionwas the wife of my Uncle Jack, the daughter of Lord Hill; she looked better on a horsethan almost any woman I ever saw. There was plenty of health, life and affection inthat circle. They all lived in houses near to each other; a closely knit community withits own attitude, vernacular and jokes, but with no tendency to be severed by thefamily from the wider life of the neighbourhood; they were very friendly people. Theold couple were the centre, and were both remarkable. Justinian Heathcote, mygrandfather, had been M.P. for the Stoke-on-Trent area, where on land long owned bythe family some coal and steel interests had been developed.They were Staffordshire people, who in my childhood had only recently migrated toneighbouring Shropshire because coal-mine land subsidence had affected their oldhome at Apedale near Stoke-on-Trent. They maintained close contact with theirStaffordshire interests which were not far away. It is through this grandfather that Ihave my modicum of Scotch blood; his grandmother was a Lady Elizabeth Lindsay.She apparently claimed descent from the family of Robert the Bruce; hence perhapsmy disposition always to try again even without example from a spider. The Irishblood came through my father's mother, who was the daughter of Sir Thomas White,sometime Mayor of Cork. Thus I can claim to be British as well as English, andthrough Saxon and Norman blood also European; the island freeze-up is really quite arecent invention.The Heathcote grandfather was an imposing figure of commanding stature anddemeanour, with a square-cut patriarchal beard of snowy white. He was kindly andaffectionate and used to enthral my boyhood with tales of parliamentary life, itsdramatic incidents and personalities. He was not a performer but a shrewd observer of18 of 424