A letter from London

[Cherhill_Bill]

had a letter. solicitors, london, very polite, asking would i consider selling the top ground or granting access over it. ive farmed it forty year and my father before me. wrote back no thank you. had another letter. then a man came to the gate, no appointment, all smiles, named a figure that made my eyes water. said no again. third letter come last week, less polite this time. im not selling and im not frightened but i dont mind telling you it dont sit right, the persistence of it. land agents dont usually write three times to a stubborn old farmer.

[E_Selwood]

Bill, I would keep every one of those letters. I say that from habit rather than to alarm you; a paper trail is the one defence a private man has against an organisation with deeper pockets than his own. You are within your rights to refuse, repeatedly, and to ask them in writing to cease contacting you. I am sorry it has come to your gate. E.S.

[Marlborough_Nan]

Bill that is the same firm I will wager, the cottages one. London, no face to it. First the empty houses, now your top ground. I know I am the daft old woman who joins up things that arent joined. But it is the same quiet pressure and it is the same not knowing who is behind it. You keep saying no.

[Cherhill_Bill]

already told em where to go nan, in near enough those words. just wanted it written down somewhere that it happened, in case. selwoods right about the letters. got em in a drawer.