Susan in NC’s Reviews > The Old Bank House > Status Update

Garden party at Old Bank House was a bit of a slog, I notice Thirkell often uses these scenes for info dumps on county families!

“ The mothers of grown-up children in these days of wrath mostly find, to their own great surprise, that they are not as selfish as they thought they were and that a treat, a pleasure for their young is the only real form of pleasure for themselves. This may partly be because most of them are too tired to enjoy greatly such treats as come their way and find it less fatiguing to enjoy them vicariously…”

“ Her husband said these things were sent to try us, to which his wife replied that Things was exactly the word she would use and she only wished somebody or something would try Them, for she did not think it fair that all the trying should be on Their side and all the triedness on the part of the great, patient English nation.”

“ In a kind of happy embarrassment, or embarrassed happiness, he went off to the old stables where no horses lived now, nor any brougham nor wagonette nor open carriage, though a faint smell of oats and leather still hung about the stalls and loose-boxes and harness-room making a nostalgic atmosphere of a life that was dead.”