June 2, 2019

Finest Hour 183, First Quarter 2019

Page 05

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For more about Churchill’s animals, see pages 11 and 50.

Coming in Finest Hour 184: Churchill’s Monarchs

10 August 1954

CHARTWELL—My Darling, Here I stay in bed most of the time and only go out to feed the fish. Gabriel [Clementine’s Siamese cat] gets on very well with everyone except his yellow rival. He is very friendly to me and Rufus [the poodle] and most attractive.

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One gets no consolation at this moment from the animal world. All the Chartwell rabbits are dead [from myxomatosis] and now the poor foxes have nothing to eat, so they attack the little pigs and of course have eaten the few pheasants. It is said they will perish and migrate and that then there will be no one to cope with the beetles and rats.

On the other side the Swans are well, and the Zoo came down yesterday to clip their wings so that they cannot fly away if they dislike what is going on around them. Christopher [Soames] and I have jointly invested nearly £1,000 in 8 Swedish “Land race” pigs: out of which he expects to make a fortune. They live at Bardogs and have remarkable figures.

Their hams are much admired and there are only about 1,200 of them in our Pig population of 5 millions. The Boar is said to be worth 5 or 6 Hundred £s, and in two years we hope to make a fortune.

My darling one I brood much about things, and all my moods are not equally gay….My beloved darling come back soon refreshed and revived, and if possible bring the Sun with you as well as your lovely smile—W[inston]