Teachers World Letters, Jan 1930 - July 1934

[Courtenay]

Interesting, Anita. Perhaps at the time, Enid wasn't sure that Jackie and Maggie could definitely look after themselves for an extended period, or that they would be safe doing so. Or maybe the friend who came over to look after Bobs wasn't as keen on looking after a jackdaw and a magpie! I can imagine the noise the two of them made during their journey would be something incredible.

[Moonraker]

I couldn't understand why the birds had to be sent away, but the dog was left in the house. As for the poor tortoise being left to fend for itself.......

Doesn't that underline that Enid could be quite selfish at times? She wanted a holiday and a holiday she would have. Someone else would have to deal with the pets. No being tied down to being restricted to looking after pets for her!

[Courtenay]

I don't know that this makes Enid "selfish" necessarily (although of course she was at times, like probably most of us! ). Having grown up in a household with a dog, two cats, and also goldfish and cage birds at different times, I'm very familiar with the difficulty of going away even for a day, let alone a longer period, when there are animals to be looked after. But it never stopped our family from having regular holidays, nor did we ever feel we were neglecting our pets. Usually my grandmother (who lived next door) would come over each day to feed them. I don't think we ever needed to arrange for a live-in pet carer, as Enid did for Bobs; it just wasn't necessary.

Eventually we started putting the dog, and his successor, in the boarding kennels, which made things easier for Gran. Our current dog is now my parents' only pet, and she is always very happy and well behaved at the kennels (she's been going there since she was a puppy and the owners love her), so Mum and Dad never feel guilty about going away when they want or need to, even for several weeks at a time. I wouldn't call them selfish for that.

As far as I can see, Enid made adequate provision for all her pets during her trip. I've never had a tortoise, but I would imagine that, living in a safe garden with a sheltered place to sleep, one could take care of itself very adequately. I just looked online for info about pet tortoises, and the types commonly kept as pets are largely herbivorous (with the occasional snail or slug), so Enid was right about Thomas taking care of her lettuces!

[sixret]

We had 2 tortoises. The easiest pet to take care of!

The most difficult pet to take care of is rabbits. They love to dig and wander around but don't know to come back!

[Katharine]

I couldn't understand why the birds had to be sent away, but the dog was left in the house. As for the poor tortoise being left to fend for itself.......

Doesn't that underline that Enid could be quite selfish at times? She wanted a holiday and a holiday she would have. Someone else would have to deal with the pets. No being tied down to being restricted to looking after pets for her!

Not sure if you are pulling my leg on this or not? I wouldn't say Enid was being selfish, I don't think there is anything wrong with going on holiday, providing proper arrangements have been made for pets. I was just thinking of how much looking after my parents' tortoise needed. It couldn't be left in it's pen by itself, so it would come to us for the week. I'd have to bring it indoors every night so it didn't get chilled, I had to keep it in my old guinea pigs cage which had a wire bottom, and a lid, as it could dig or climb it's way out of other types of enclosures. My parent's didn't have a massive garden full of enough lettuces to feed a tortoise for a week, so food had to be cut up regularly during the day and fed to him. So in my experience they are a lot of work, and not an animal that could fend for itself. Maybe Enid's circumstances were different.

[Tony Summerfield]

I have added the next two letters from 1927 which talk about the holiday in Scotland, but no places are mentioned so I'm afraid that nobody is going to be able to find out where she was!

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... &perid=338" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It will be back to Elfin Cottage and Bobs when I next load from 1927.

[Poppy]

Thanks for that, Tony. A lovely letter from Enid, there. I was a little disappointed that she didn't go into further details about her holiday and some of the locations she visited, but nevertheless, she supplied in great detail, a delightful description of the animals she encountered, and the wildlife she saw. The fox cubs sound gorgeous and as do the bunnies! I love seeing the young animals when they're only small. We saw about three baby stoats the other day, all playing together! A delightful scene. The red deer sound lovely too. Se saw a lot of deer last year, and they were so amusing to watch, on their long, clumsy legs! Enid was lucky to see them so close.

[John Pickup]

Yes, another lovely letter. What a shame Enid didn't mention any place names to help us find her holiday location. There again, her letter was primarily for children who would be much more interested in the wildlife than the places she visited.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A lovely letter from Enid, there. I was a little disappointed that she didn't go into further details about her holiday and some of the locations she visited, but nevertheless, she supplied in great detail, a delightful description of the animals she encountered, and the wildlife she saw.

I feel the same - that the letters (you can see the next one by clicking on the arrow at the top right of the first letter) are delightful yet slightly disappointing. Enid Blyton's writing is wonderfully whimsical as she shares with us her experience of the rugged Scottish countryside, the wildlife and the moonlight. Her description of the moon as a galleon reminds me of Alfred Noyes' poem 'The Highwayman' - "The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas" - although Enid's moon is a serene galleon. But as an account of her holiday, the letters tell us very little. Maybe Enid became poetic and fanciful in order to shut out the grim reality - according to Barbara Stoney, the holiday was blighted by heavy rain and by the car breaking down repeatedly. Enid Blyton wrote in far more detail about her cruise on the Stella Polaris in 1930 (see Journal 47, Spring 2012).

[Kate Mary]

Interesting pair of letters about the holiday in Scotland, as Anita says they are short on information, but as stories for children they are delightful and charming. Enid was using a pair of field-glasses on her holiday but she gets a new pair for her birthday in 1930.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... &perid=714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another nice photo of Patabang, I didn't spot Bobs' leg until he pointed it out.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the latest 1930 letter, Tony - and for the link, Kate Mary.

Some of Enid's comments about her pets surprise me. Isn't twenty-five goldfish rather a lot for the small round pond? They can grow quite big. And then there's the remark that Thomas the tortoise "must have got drowned in the flood, for I haven't seen him for ages" - but she has got a new tortoise and called him Thomas too.

[Kate Mary]

There was certainly a 'more relaxed' attitude to animal welfare back then. People were no more deliberately cruel than they are today, but attitudes were different. Even when I was a child in the early 1960s I can remember unwanted kittens and puppies being drowned in a bucket of water which was considered acceptable, nowadays the police and RSPCA would be round. It is a similar argument to the idea that Enid was racist, she wasn't, she just held the opinions of her time

[Poppy]

Thanks for the link, Kate. I enjoyed reading about Enid's presents. I also thought twenty-five goldfish were a lot for a small pond, Anita, but perhaps not all of them will have survived? And the twenty-four pond snails, too! We have a goldfish (who is 12 years old - he is more silver than gold!) and he is really big! And he must be about 4.5"! I was also surprised how casually Enid told her readers about the old Thomas the tortoise. She usually seemed more emotional about her animal-friends. But perhaps she was more upset at the time. Bobs letter told us more about Thomas and he sounded like a very amusing pet!

[Moonraker]

Yes, I well remember the drowning of kittens. Enid din't seem at all upset about the demise of the tortoise. It was just a case of, "I've got another one." I liked the story of her meeting with the gnome. Thanks for putting these up, Tony. I see the following one stars:

Enid Blyton's Letter to the Children (p 47)
Dear Boys and Girls, Here I am home again at Elfin Cottage at last! I love holidays, but I...

"But I" what, I wonder?! Probably, "but I always love to get home again!" Let us hope that Tony can put this one off to round off the story!

[Courtenay]

What a fascinating pair of letters from Enid in Scotland! I wonder if she really did see a young boy in the moonlight and then embroidered on the incident to turn him into a gnome, or if she just made up the story to thrill her young readers. But as always, I love her beautiful and poetic descriptions of the scenery and the creatures and the things she saw and did, especially her climbing up to find the top of the waterfall!

Enid doesn't seem to have been nearly as emotionally attached to Thomas the tortoise as she was to her other animals - as we found out in the earlier letter, she left him to look after himself while she was away, rather than arranging for him to be cared for somehow. It's almost as if she saw him as a wild creature rather than a pet, although I assume tortoises aren't native to Britain! Perhaps pet tortoises, in turn, don't form as much of an attachment to their humans as dogs and cats and even birds can, and so Enid may not have had the same sense of relationship to him as she did to her other pets.

I love the photo of Patabang - what a gorgeous young cat! And yes, Bobs did have a nice leg (what we can see of it, at least).