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Feb. 6. [1929?]
The Wayside Stanway Colchester
Dear Colonel Buchan
I must try to explain this enclosure as briefly as I can! It is terrible to be a bore!
I have a distant cousin, an old lady between 70 & 80 who lives in Italy & is almost crazily interested in antiquarian matters. Her name is Miss Caroline Bradstreet, & I may say she is our one aristocratic relation!
In her Xmas letter to me she said she was reading with great enjoyment Buchan's "Montrose", & in my reply to interest her I said I knew John Buchan, & had done so since he was a boy of 17 or 18 before he went to Oxford, but was more by way of readinghis romances than his solid historical works. Well now I receive this letter in which the old lady tells me the fate of "the beautiful little box" in which, I presume, Montrose's heart was kept, & seems to wish me to let you know! The lady who has it is Mrs Hedworth Williamson, Corsham, Wilts. - Miss Bradstreet seems to be genuinely thrilled, & I only trust the information has some interest for you, or she wd. be disappointed! The aged live in a little world of their own. She has some wonderful Stuart relics with her
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in her home in Florence. For the moment she is at San Remo.
If you were so good natured as to write her a line rather than to me I am sure it would please her immensely. I know you must be continually overwhelmed with correspondence. But I thought that perhaps I should pass Miss Bradstreet's information on. Her home address is in a Florentine Villa & is c/o J. Goldsmith Procter Esq La Massa Candoli Florence but she is at the Hotel Beau Sejour San Remo "till the cold is over"!
With kindest regards to Mrs Buchan, & your clever daughter
Yours very sincerely
Agnes Tannahill
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Hôtel Beau Sejour San Remo Italia
Feb: 3.
Dear Cousin Agnes
More about the hero. The Campbell-Johnstons of Carnsalloch to whom his heart was sent, as I wrote to you, are old & intimate friends of mine. I had heard the story from them, but as the memory was hazy, I wrote to the daughter for particulars, & this what she says. "The beautiful little box in which the heart was kept is in my possession, the heart unluckily lost. It was given to my gt: gd:parents
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by Queen Marie Antoinette when they visited her in prison, it was given to her, but by whom I do not know". This is what my friend Charlotte C-Johnston tells me - she is now Mrs Hedworth Williamson Corsham Wilts.
Mr Buchan may like to communicate with her as he says in his book that the box containing the heart "disappeared" & may perhaps turn up in some french antiquarian shop. Thrilling isn't it. I had a most delightful visit of a month
