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37, TEDWORTH SQUARE, CHELSEA, S.W.3.
Feb. 1st 1935.
Dear Mr Buchan,
I have no doubt you are tired of people writing to thank you for your Oliver Cromwell, but please bear with one more such reader - one who has been deeply moved by your clear & sympathetic understanding of the reality of his spiritual life, hidden under the strange Old Testament language, & the theological atmosphere of the time. I feel you have brought him much nearer to us than Carlyle ever did.
May I in return for the pleasure you have given me tell you of a little incident which happened to me some thirty years ago when my husband (who was Presbyterian chaplain at Oxford) & I were visiting the Waldentian Valleys in the spring. We were visiting a hamlet at the extreme end of one of the Valleys, which seemed to cower
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under the steep mountain slopes going up seemingly into the very sky.
The usual spring floods had begun with the melting of the snows. Worse than usual they were & the pastor's wife took me with her on some errands of mercy to families in distress. Finally she led me round the outside of the village along the top of a not very high but broad dyke, which stretched across the valley & in normal years protected the village from the floods. As we walked, I in front, she said to me, "It may interest you to know the name of this dyke. C'est la Digue Cromwell. (we were speaking in French) I still remember the thrill that went through me as I turned round & asked her why. "Because Cromwell built it. He heard of our distress in this village of Bobbio, & over & above what England sent to the Valleys at that time, he sent money out of his own pocket to have this dyke built." I can assure you
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I felt a proud woman, & forgave him his dislike of the Scots. The tradition in the valleys is that he sent one if not two ships round to Genoa, & threatened to bombard it, unless they stopped the massacres at once. If it is true, it was a fine use to put the navy to.
My niece Christine Orr paid me a flying visit not long ago. Her father had been ill, & frightened them all, over Christmas, but he is quite right now.
With many apologies for troubling you. I remain
Yrs sincerely
Meta Matheson.
