Edward VIII [Edward Prince of Wales]

Autograph letter signed ('David') to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward, in bold pencil, in full "Fredie darling darling my precious beloved one, just got back more dead than alive from a 6hr tour of visits on tenants, farms, tin mines and God knows what!! But I started my sordid day at 6 a.m. when I had to step out of the train at Newton Abbot and look happy and pleased with a 'loyal reception'!! God! But it was some strain sweetheart and the same thing happened at another little town called Ashburton which I passed thro. in car on my way to Prince town where I arrived about 8.00, 2 hours later had to attend a fearful service in the church the installing of the new vicar or whatever is called by the Bishop of Exeter and I had to present the man as patron of the living by leading him up to the altar!! God, you would have laughed to have seen your little boy darling who was naturally in the completest 'stupe' at 10am and who walked about like a dazed man quite oblivious of being in church and what he had to do and in fact of everything as usual except his little Madonna. However, the new vicar seems quite a nice little man and has 4 years service as an army chaplain and has got an M.C. He'd dining with me here to-night!! The Bishop of Exeter in Ld. W. Cecil Salisbury's brother who looks quite mad and is anyway revolting with a scraggy beard; so that besides nearly slapping my sides I was almost sick. So I'm feeling more down and out than ever this evening my angel and I'm so lonely and bored and fed up and depressed and I've got a ghastly day to face to-morrow with about a 1/2dozen speeches to let off at Truro, Budmin etc. and I've got to leave at 8.00a.m. which means that I miss the London post (9.30 a.m.) which might be kind and bring me happiness in the form of a little letter from my most precious lovely darling little girl!! Christ! What i think of life beloved and my prospects for the future as so much worse tho. it's a shame my going on like this which will only make you loathe my letters as they are all the same nowadays and so deadly dull!! But you did tell me to give you details of my trip didn't you sweetheart and of course I've nothing else to tell you except that I love you more and more madly every minute of my life. 11 p.m. I'm finishing this letter after a very sordid little dinner party tho. it might have been worse, but not much worse: Sidney Greville, Claude Peacock (the Duchy Secretary) and Rev. Cook (the new vicar) who really is very nice considering he's a parson and besides having the M.C. he was wounded in Mesopotamia!! But enough about parsons beloved one or you'll think I've got the religious mania or something your little boy is now in the midst of working up his speeches for to-morrow and they've got to be so technical! Fredie darling darling please forgive my grousing to you again but this life of mine is a sordid one and no mistake and it's never going to improve and it's millions of times more sordid when I'm separated from the only human being that really matters anything to me in this world, you my sweetheart, my little Madonna. I just can't tell you what a terrible mood of depression and despondency I'm in and how much I'm loving you , thinking of you and only living for our next meeting!! Oh! When oh! when will that be? Sat. Sun. or Mon? I fear the latter tho. you know it's merely a foul existence for me till then angel! I'm consoling myself by looking at all your photos and by smelling the last 'F.Ward' I've stolen; I've brought them all with me in a special wooden dispatch box I got to carry them about in and so my deep down happiness is coming to the service for the moment and I'm feeling a little better. Alas this letter can't go till mid morrow evening which is my first real chance of hearing from you; what a joyous thought. I must stop now darling as I'm so dead and sleepy and have still another speech to do in bed: I'll write again to-morrow night if I'm still alive and so hope to be able to answer a letter from my very own precious little darling beloved little Fredie Wedie to whom her devoted and adoring petit amoureuse her very own David sends all all his immense love, as well as millions and millions of baisers and blessings, four pages, folding marks, 8vo, Duchy Hotel, Princetown, 10 June 1919; with original mailing envelope with black wax seal.