CHAPTER THIRTEEN .sx Combe Florey 1971-1973 .sx Another reason for the move to Combe Florey was that my mother had been living alone there since her husband's sudden death in April 1966 , and although she never complained of loneliness , and was visited quite often by her children , one had the impression that it was quite a burden for a single woman who had allowed herself to be convinced that she was very poor to keep up a huge house with four acres of garden , a further thirty acres of woods , parkland and ornamental water .sx It was an over-cautious lawyer who had persuaded her that she was poor , ladling out small amounts of money when she asked for them while he spent several years examining the unfamiliar ramifications of a literary estate .sx In fact , she was very rich , but she took joyfully to the disciplines of poverty , selling much of the family furniture ( and all her husband's books ) for a song to Texas University ( where , I have been told , they are still to be found in packing cases , or distributed through the offices of the Humanities Center) .sx In the last years of Evelyn Waugh's life , he discovered that owing to some change in the law he could no longer offset her enormous losses on the farm against his writing income for the purpose of taxation .sx The farm had to be closed down .sx She threw herself into market gardening , a change made easier by the devotion of a Combe Florey villager called Walter Coggan - for some reason she never learned his name , and always called him Mr Coggins - who , employed as a part-time gardener , came to talk to her while she laboured in the garden .sx Evelyn Waugh always referred to him as " my rival , Mr Coggins " , and was being only partly humorous .sx She actually preferred the gardener's company to that of anyone else .sx His slightly implausible deference , the embarrassingly apparent sub-text of all advice , the extreme ordinariness of every opinion he advanced , appealed to her deepest sense of social propriety .sx This was the most natural and acceptable form of human relationship .sx " They do say , madam , that if you see a crow with a broken wing , that means 'twill be a good year for raspberries , " he would say in his fine Somerset voice , and she would lap it up .sx In the week my father died , Coggins disappeared .sx My mother got it into her head that I had murdered him ( Coggins ) and put his corpse in the boot of my car before driving back to Chilton Foliat .sx I do not know why she should have reached this conclusion , but suppose it must have been the product of stress .sx In fact he had been out on a blind , something which is well known among Somerset farming folk .sx But by the time we moved down to Combe Florey in October 1971 , Walter Coggan , too , had died , in the way that elderly men have always tended to do .sx The clergyman , at his funeral , said :sx " We have memories of Walter which time can never alter .sx " .sx Obviously , he was most missed by his widow and family , but I think it was the loss of Coggins which reconciled my mother to the idea that the little Waughs , as my father used to call us , should move into the main part of the house , and she would move into a more or less disused wing , equipped with its own kitchen and other appointments .sx We sold Chilton Foliat rather well to an amiable businessman who has lived in it ever since .sx The money enabled Teresa to buy Combe Florey from my mother with enough left over to redecorate the main house .sx It also enabled my mother to refurbish the wing according to her particular requirements , with vast stone sinks which never let the water out and stank .sx But it was a happy enough arrangement while it lasted .sx **** .sx Being a more intensely private person than Evelyn Waugh - who , despite all his protestations to the contrary , was in large part a public figure - Laura Waugh was also , in her own way , more remarkable .sx As Laura Herbert , she grew up in three households - Pixton in Somerset , a large house in Bruton Street and Portofino - all crowded with guests from every corner of the earth .sx This gave her a pronounced distaste for social life .sx My father had met her first at Portofino , when she was seventeen .sx A year later , he was in love with her , but his suit did not seem well starred .sx Laura's family was Catholic .sx Evelyn , who had become a Catholic in 1930 after the failure of his first marriage , seemed in no position to declare himself a suitor while his annulment was held up , apparently sine die , by the Westminster and Vatican bureaucracy .sx A further complication was that by unhappy coincidence his first wife , Evelyn Gardner , was a niece of Aubrey Herbert and Laura's first cousin .sx Feeling in the family was strongly against the match .sx Although Evelyn Waugh was already a successful novelist , and would have been a catch for most teenage brides of the period , the Herberts were not a family to be intimidated by smartness of that sort .sx Evelyn was thirteen years older than his bride , had already been married to one member of the family and , worst of all , came from a background which was distinctly middle class .sx Although , as I have explained , the Waughs came from many generations of professional men - publishers , doctors , clergymen - the gulf between them and the carefree traditions of the aristocracy was as great as if he had been a fishmonger's assistant .sx Even worse than this , he had already been adopted as a guest , friend , boon companion and private buffoon by families which were even richer and grander than the Herberts .sx This situation was not improved by the noticeable lack of sympathy between himself and 'the boy Auberon' .sx Although Evelyn's affection for the English upper classes and everything they stood for was never in doubt - this was held to be vulgar in itself - their antipathy for each other could easily be explained by the traditional jealousy between privilege and achievement .sx Although the Herberts were clever and moved in a brilliant circle , Evelyn Waugh was cleverer and noticed too many things to be a comfortable member of any circle .sx Under the circumstances , for Laura Herbert to encourage his courtship was an act of most uncharacteristic rebelliousness .sx She , too , was always displeased by the Brideshead aspect , hating any form of ostentation or grandeur .sx " Your dear mother , " Evelyn Waugh would say to his children , " is the kindest and most hospitable of women , but she has no sense of style .sx " .sx Laura's awareness of her social superiority may well have helped to sustain her through a marriage which was not without its trials , nor without its reminders of her husband's success in other fields .sx Many women ( and men ) feel depressed and diminished by their spouse's success .sx Laura Waugh felt no such qualms , being happy enough to be left at home with her cows and children , regarding the whole circus with a profound contempt .sx What she found attractive in him , I suspect , was his humour .sx Laura Waugh , for all her apparent shyness and avoidance of company , was a born satirist .sx Behind a veil of good manners , she mocked everybody and everything .sx The strength necessary to support such an attitude came , ultimately , not from any sense of social superiority but from her Catholicism , which grew more devout , and at the same time more sceptical , with age .sx Her husband was moody and given to fits of acute depression which left her largely to her own devices .sx Shunning ordinary human contact , she sought refuge in cows and rejoiced in the company of farming folk .sx At other times , she retreated into her own private meditations whose direction was not easily to be distinguished from simple misanthropy .sx She killed time with cross-words , word games and jigsaws .sx She was at ease with her children and their friends , and with her own family and , of course , with Coggins , but with practically nobody else .sx She was also haunted by the spectacle of her mother , my once all-powerful grandmother , whom she had to nurse through a last year of distressing debility .sx Many thought that she was too self-effacing and let her husband get away with too much , but it suited her as much as it suited him that he should take his meals in the library if he chose , or go away for long periods , seeking warmer climates in the winter , or carousing with smart friends in London .sx She saw herself primarily as a farmer , her five or six cows the pride and joy of her life .sx Some interpreted her decision to publish Evelyn Waugh's diaries - they first appeared in a shortened , more lurid serialization in the Observer - as an act of revenge , but it was more the product of absent-mindedness .sx She intended to read the series before publication , but eventually got round to reading only a small part .sx She hoped that publication of the fuller version , in book form , might undo some of the damage , but never lived to see it .sx She was not convinced by my arguments , that the diaries were thoroughly enjoyable and interesting and worth publishing .sx Like many of the upper class , she had a hatred for publicity , but also a passion for selling things .sx Any crooked timber merchant who came to the door could persuade her to sell him an avenue of mature oak trees at pounds15 a tree .sx On this occasion - offered a large sum for her husband's Diaries - it got the better of her once again , but she was protected from severe criticism by meeting only her family , most of whom were quite pleased by it all .sx It was the only controversial thing she ever did , apart from marrying Evelyn Waugh thirty-six years earlier .sx Her politics , in so far as she concerned herself with politics , were those of the populist right .sx She mistrusted do-goodism , while being profoundly convinced that the working classes were justified in any demands they cared to make .sx As a woman who had lived all her life in large country mansions , she felt a distinct sympathy for the rumbles of the indigenous urban proletariat against Commonwealth immigration .sx " All I mind about these people , " she explained once , looking out of the window at her acres of parkland , " is that they come over here and take our jobs .sx " She , who had never had a job in her life , felt instinctive sympathy for those who wanted one , perhaps .sx This may seem a slightly sour picture but I am not sure that her life - in the twenty years of her youth , the twenty-nine years of her marriage , or the seven years of her widowhood - was a particularly happy one .sx When she decided she was poor , she took to an indescribably nasty sherry-type beverage from Cyprus .sx Only she and one of her sisters were able to drink it .sx I think it may have contained some toxic substance as it destroyed her sense of balance , while Gabriel , her sister , was similarly affected .sx During Lent , when she restricted herself to one glass a day , she found a receptacle which others might have identified as an exceptionally large flower vase .sx But it saw her through .sx **** .sx The house at Combe Florey had not prospered under her single occupation of it .sx She put it on the market , and then decided she did not want to sell it , but rather than withdraw it , which would have involved paying a house agent , she decided to adopt a policy of discouraging would-be purchasers .sx Broken windows were never mended .sx She left buckets in the middle of the floor to suggest that the ceilings leaked , and never took them away .sx My father had left some extravagantly opulent carpets , woven at Wilton on his instructions from original designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition .sx When her beloved spaniel , Credit , made a mess on one of them in the six years after his death , my mother would leave it there , let it solidify , fossilize , before moving it .sx Later , she forgot about them .sx