Uncle Dottery’s Christmas
by T F Powys
Published in December ’20
Theodore Francis Powys (1875-1953) lived in Chaldon Herring from 1904 to 1940. He was the pioneer of what became something of an artists’ colony, being joined in the village at different times by his equally literary brothers, Llewellyn and John Cowper, the writer, David Garnett, and Elizabeth Muntz, the sculptor. Sylvia Townsend Warner first met Valentine Ackland at his house. T F Powys himself wrote several novels, Mr Weston’s Good Wine being probably the best-known, and many short stories, of which this is one.
Mr Dottery is the Rector of the fictitious Dorset village of Tadnol. As a confirmed bachelor, he keeps women at a distance as far as possible, especially if they disturb his hobby of research in historical documents. So one December morning, he is appalled to receive a letter from his sister about her daughter, Barbara, who has formed a liaison with a most unsuitable young man, Sydney Napper. Her solution is to send Barbara to stay at Tadnol Rectory until after Christmas. He puts his dreadful dilemma before his housekeeper, Mrs Taste…
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