Thursday Spean Bridge (5 August 1898) Dearest Mother, I had not time to write to you this afternoon as I was in Fort William with Papa till nearly post time. Everything seems to be settling down - we have found four ....... in Fort W. and there appear to be no difficulties to deal with. We have also found a room for Lisa at the signal man's, after hunting all the village over in the rain! 5/ a week - I don't think that includes breakfast and I'll hire a bath for her at Fort W. I hope you won't knock yourself up. It must be tiring for you though you say it isn't. It must be terribly sad at Sloane St. I do hope it won't last very long. We shall be awfully glad when you rejoin your family. If only we have nice weather for your arrival. It is cold and rains a great deal. Still one doesn't seem to mind much. The house is very comfy. Love to Aunt Bessie and Sophie. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude Blarour Saturday (6 August 1898) My dearest Mother. Thank you so much for your letter and for the packet of books which the children think quite delightful. I expected to have had a telegram before now, but as none has come I suppose it is still dragging on. It sounds too sad, it must be so terrible for you to watch and I'm afraid you will feel afterwards what a strain it has been upon you. I wonder what Sophie and Auntie Bessie are going to do - I hope they will go away somewhere where they will be very peaceful and have a long holiday. Elsa and I started early this morning - it wasn't raining for a wonder and went into Fort William by the long road, tell Papa. It is very lovely, but up and down all the time. It rained a good deal, several heavy showers, but we had waterproofs and cloaks with us. In Fort William we met Amy and Moll who had come in by train and we all bicycled home together, getting in at 2. Amy lunched at her inn, in order to rest afterwards, but she is coming to tea and dinner. She is such a dear. I don't know whether Papa told you that there were difficulties at Lisa's lodging about her bath; anyway they are all settled and I've arranged to give the women a pound a week for baths room, breakfast, fires. It doesn't seem unreasonable. We're so glad you have refused the invitation of Mrs V! Goodbye dearest Mother. We shall be delighted when you come. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude. 31 August 1898 Red Barns, Coatham, Redcar Dearest Mother, You heard of all our adventures and disasters! The latter now, however, appear insignificant as I have recovered my bag. It arrived this evening to my immense joy and relief. I got home at 12 today, jumped into some clothes and went off to the Sadler presentation function which was rather amusing. Miss Carter appeared in what was evidently her bridesmaid dress and white satin shoes, rather dirty. She is not well suited in a large white chiffon hat and feathers! Mrs Sadler looked handsome and was much overcome, poor dear. The good Sadler made a very nice speech in which he spoke of the pleasure of coming to know in Mr Bramley "what is be 'in the hartest!" It's windy and stormy this evening, but the garden looks delightful and my room a paradise! Tell Moll that the Gran Tully of that ilk has enjoyed uninterrupted good health during her absence and is skin and en beaute. We expect Hugo tonight. Ever your very affectionate daughter. Gertrude 2 September 1898 Red Barns Coatham, Redcar Dearest Mother, What I think of Violet Hunt's postcard I could not in a ladylike manner convey to you. We will never never have her to stay will we? I thought the sentence about Grandmamma the most outrageous thing I had read for some time. I prefer your other correspondent, poor lady! I wish she hadn't so many chagrins! I've been to Middlesbrough today, seen Mrs Branner and Mrs Harkness. I could wish Mrs Branner did not recite quite so many of her own virtues. I took my bicycle meaning to ride back, but I unfortunately ran into a citizen of Middlesbrough, also on a bicycle, buckled my wheel and had to come home by train. I hope I buckled my adversary. Hugo has been playing golf and we are now going to have a game of racquets before settling down to our work. Oh how I wish I were going to have a month of this! The bliss of being really at work is past words. Herbert Pease stands for Darlington, I see in the evening papers. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude. (The good W.H. has sent me Wilfred Blunt's poems - isn't it kind of him.) 6 September 1898 Red Barns Coatham Redcar Dearest Mother, I have returned Rupert and the Marriage M. to the Grosvenor and La bonne Souffrance to Haas. The John Charles Bell children arrive at 2 and the Boulbys are coming to tea, so I don't expect I should have time to write to you this afternoon. The piano is at this moment walking into the house! I hear its fairy tread. Mrs C. can have me and evidently wants me to go, so my visit is fixed for the 10th. As for work, it's almost hopeless, there are so many things to be done here and at Clarence. One can't help constantly thinking of the poor Carlisles. What a wicked malevolent Providence rules over the world, if Providence there be. One rises up on useless rebellion against the needless pointless sorrow that people have to suffer. I have carelessly torn up Mrs C's pathetic note, but I send it all the same. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude 8 September 1898 Red Barns Coatham Redcar. Dearest Mother. You will see by the enclosed list that there are various sums owing to Mary for carriage. Also Mrs P wants money for her railway fare. Hugo says 30/ will do her. It is again baking today. I am going to spend an 'appy afternoon in Middlesbrough. I hope you were not too tired by your mountain expedition. .... and Jack left this morning. 5 o'clock. I've done something I hope you will approve of. I saw a consumptive girl in Middlesbrough who looks dreadfully ill and whom I should very much like to get away for a bit. They won't take her at the Convalescent House, so I've arranged to board her with Mrs Stead for a fortnight at 15/ a week. I hope you won't mind. There is another woman I'm going to send to the C. House. I don't mind doing the things you understand, and I'ld far rather do them than that you should, only it does take a lot of time. I'm coming I'm coming said the darning needle. You may expect me with Papa on Wednesday. Thank you so much for your letter. I send you some carnations for the gardens birthday present. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude. 15 September 1898 Red Barns Coatham Redcar. Dearest Mother, Here is the list. The Figaros were, I thought, sent to you every evening. There are two, however, today. I can't tell you how long the N.Gs** are going to stay - into next week, any way. They appear to be enjoying themselves. Maurice is playing golf with Horace and Mr G today - Caroline and I are going out bicycling. It is delightful knowing them and thanks to that old sun's spots the weather is still hot and delicious. Some grapes came from the Ramsays - I have written to them. I do hope you are having this weather. I long to hear Mr Chirol's plans. **[Norman Grosvenors??]** Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude Saturday Red Barns, Coatham, Redcar (24 Sep 1898)Dearest Mother, The enclosed will amuse you. As Maurice says, it's a great thing to feel that there is a really strong man to put it all through! I'm going to Rounton over Sunday. When I found I was to be quite alone here I wrote and proposed myself, having finished a great batch of Arabic and Persian for Mr Ross. Poor Mr Grosvenor, who was very seedy when he left, has developed pleurisy at Wortley and taken to his bed! I'm delighted you and Moll are coming home on Thursday. Hugo has taken the 1000 miler away and there are not enough tickets in it to bring you both from Berwick, so will you get another. Ever your affectionate daughter, Gertrude It will suit very well to have the Lascelles' in Nov. Thursday 24 Red Barns Coatham, Redcar (November 1898) Dearest Mother, Hurray! Of course they like it! but it's most satisfactory to know. What fun you must have had. I long to hear the views of Mrs C. I have been at the Infirmary all the afternoon. I've got another engagement - to lecture at the High School. I've been arranging about my m. Lantern slides. Finally I decide to buy 30 - I saw the list - many of them are the same as my photographs. It saves trouble and is also much cheaper. I had an interesting conversation with Abbey yesterday. He has got a brother who has left off gardening in order to write garden books. Abbey doesn't approve. "I know where it'll catch him, Miss Bell" said he "I told him so plainly. Well I'll soon make you understand - it's the proof writer. That's where it'll catch him!" This mysterious person is apparently to correct the brother's English. I suggested he should find someone who would share profits with him. Abbey thought perhaps it might catch him less that way. Maurice has gone to the Pike Peases for 2 nights to try a new horse. I wonder whether you will have had time to write today. Your affectionate daughter, Gertrude Monday 95 Sloane Street SW (13 December 1898) Dearest Mother, Thank you awfully for the muff! it is so elegant! anyone, but the mink who grew it (what is a mink?) would think it was sable. I spent the morning helping Aunt Bessie to arrange the stage at the Parish Hall. Then I went to the concert. He is a great man! the Beethoven Rondo was what I thought he played best, but it was all delightful. I sat by Mr Ritchie who said it had become a habit to go to Do...... concerts with our family. I saw Mr Schuster as I came out and asked him about Baireuth lodgings. He was in a wild excitement over D. I went to tea with Caroline, but Bertie Grosvenor came in so I left. I'm going to lunch with her tomorrow. General Talbot is to succeed Sir F. Grenfell as Commander in Chief in Egypt - isn't it interesting. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude. I can't think why Mr de R [Rutzen] hasn't answered my letter - I'll write again to him. Wednesday (16 December 1898) Dearest Mother, Hugo and I began our evening very pleasantly with an hour at Sue's: Mr Somers Coxe, Miss Jerningham and Sue were playing trios with Pepys Cockrell and Lady Agatha Thynne for audience. Hugo was a great success and talked very charmingly and with vast good sense, bless him! He then went onto his ball and I to the Russells, where there were all the ordinary people and I was well amused - Stracheys, Tyrrells, Knowleses, Grenfells, Arthur Stanley who is such a dear, Malets, Sligos, and so on. This morning I went and saw Tiny who is shortly going to have a baby and is very uncomfortable, poor dear. Evelyn Grant Duff is staying with her. He looks centuries old. He is going to be a year at the F.O. This afternoon I bought Xmas presents, which is a tiring occupation. Hugo is looking rather white I think, but is in very good spirits. I expect he will be worn out tonight after his ball and a long day. I return Mrs R.'s letter which you may want. Burn the others. Do you think Papa would like a Dictionary of Quotations for a Xmas present? It seems to me we are always wanting one. I hope you are amused! Ever your affectionate daughter. Gertrude. (undated December 1898 or January 1899) Dearest Mother, I can go with you Tuesday for Carrie will have me on Thursday. I could not telegraph as her letter did not come till the afternoon. I went to Morris's and chose papers - I hope you will like them, I do very much - The willow bough is for my sitting room and the apple for my bedroom. I have always wanted a blue and white paper for my bedroom. They are both cheap. We go to Jane tonight and to supper at the Savoy afterwards which will be very merry. It's so amusing supping at the Savoy. I hope you got the books and that you wanted them. The Jokai is very extraordinary. I don't feel to be able to judge books in which the young ladies of the house sit in the bedrooms of their gentlemen friends while they shave! What a business painting and papering will be! I hope the strike holds firm and that Papa will be able to come to Paris. I see they have sent soldiers from York. What an amusing debate last night on the payment of members - did you read it. I'm just going to see Caroline. Your very affectionate daughter, Gertrude Tuesday Red Barns Coatham Redcar (1898) Dearest Father, I was much surprised to have your letter from Tyndrum, however the expedition seems to have been a success - but put not your trust in Scotch railways! Mr Chirol arrived safely and Hugo also came back yesterday to my great satisfaction. We had a most pleasant evening. Today Caroline and I had thought of going to Rounton, but she was not very well so I sent a telegram to say we were not coming. Mr G.[*] played golf with Mr Gervais and I played a short round with Mr Chirol, who is as bad as ever. He has gone out by himself this afternoon. It's quite warm again, windy and fine. Toby has found a little sheltered place to lie in the garden and she sits there all day, to the extreme detriment of the flowers. The N.G.s*go tomorrow. Please thank Mother for her various letters. I am purveying stewed fruit and pears for Domnul. I'm awfully sorry about Cesar Birotteau. I can't find it anywhere and yet I know I have an impression of having seen it. No Figaro! has anything happened? I did send on the letter to Haas and Nutt with the enclosure. I have arranged with a young man called Denison Ross, who once read Persian with me, that I should send him all my difficulties in Persian and Arabic during the winter - sort of correspondence lessons. I think it will seen prove a most useful plan. Ever your very affectionate daughter. Gertrude I'm so sorry about Elsa's foot- I hope it's all right. *[Norman Grosvenors??]* Lyceum, Friday 95 Sloane Street S.W. (1898 probably July) Dearest Mother, I haven't had a second of time today, so I have brought some paper to write to you here. I had a very nice evening at Wimbledon. Pinkie welcomed me and was presently joined by Hester who is the proud possessor of a brand new bicycle - we proceeded to try it up and down the road accompanied by a small (and yellow) member of the reigning house of Siam on another bicycle! We adjourned to the Lawrence's and bicycled on their lawn. You realize Mrs L's figure? She told me with pride that she was just going to leave and asked me what I advised her to wear. I should really have advised a domino and a mask but I didn't like to say so. By this time Mr and Mrs Ritchie had returned and we went in to dress for dinner. Afterwards we looked through the books and I chose a lot of delightful ones which are to be sent to Bell Brothers-I told Mr Ritchie not to pay the carriage. He presented me with a fascinating work as a birthday present - Boswell's Letters - you can't think how entertaining they are; Mrs Ritchie is not going north but she is coming to stay in October. She seems very well, I travelled up with Mr Ritchie this morning - he is so delighted about this new appointment. They are all be........ Hugo didn't come till nearly 11. We went off to Lords and had a very successful day. We lunched with the Yates Thompsons - very pleasant. Mrs Reginald Smith was there - she is going to the Tyrol. I gave her our address and invited her to come and see us. I like all those people. We had tea with Billy and Florence - the Guards have a drag - and subsequent[??] strawberries with the Cockrells. I met the Wards and congratulated them on Arnold's play. They looked much delighted. Enclosed is the name of the picture books I want. They cost 10/ each (I fancy). If you like only to give me one, I think I should like Florence. We are being thrilled by this play. Your affectionate daughter, Gertrude Thursday 17 SS City of Rio (1898?) Dearest Mother. I want to write you a line just to thank you for your letters and all your news. The last thing you told me was that you were going to London and I was very glad to hear it - it's absolutely necessary to open the windows of one's mind from time to time, it gets so frightfully stuffy at Redcar. I feel as if I shall have renewed my mental atmosphere enough to last for years by the time I get back! My great desire now is to see the States; M and I would much like to go there some time. This is being great fun. We are extremely merry and enjoy life immensely; we even rather like the sea when we don't have too much of it uninterruptedly. One mades friends with such funny people; there is a lot of amusement to be got out of one's fellow traveller even when he is hardly any different to ordinary as Sue would say. Maurice is extremely popular and everybody on the ship is very kind to us. We have struck up a friendship with the Captain who is a delightful person. Our two Englishmen are very nice, but I'm afraid they will leave us at Honolulu. It's such a comfort to be so good a sailor; I expect we shall have a pretty good tossing before we leave Japan. This ship rolls at every ripple. Everyone says Hugo was looking better when he went back to Oxford; I was so glad to have his note, I will write to him again from Japan. Goodbye, dearest Mother. I hope you are well and taking care of yourself. Don't go to Clarence too often! I wonder if any of you are going away at Easter - Papa ought to take a holiday I should think. We have so often longed for him to share our adventures. Ever your very affectionate daughter. Gertrude I can't telegraph to you from Honolulu because there's no cable! It does seem odd. 11 September Sunday (1898) Newbiggin Hall, Westmoreland Hall, Westmoreland. Dearest Mother. I am so glad you like the paperknife. I think it is rather a dear. I arrived yesterday and was most wrmly welcomed. The Ilbert girls are the only other guests - I like them, especially Olive who is so pretty and, I think, so attractive. We all went for a picnic yesterday with some dull neighbours. Mrs C[*] and I had a long talk. They are much pleased about Dayrell's engagement. The girls sounds charming and the photographs of her are delightful. I believe they are to be married next month in Spain. Dayrell is going to become a Catholic, so that there are no religious difficulties. I'm not sure his people like this much, however. Oliver is much the same as ever; rather improved on the whole. Mr C[*] is entirely absorbed by his new electric light. As a matter of fact the house is really darker than it was before, because Mr C. is so terrified lest he should run through his store of electricity untimely of an evening, that every light is at once turned off the moment you have finished reading by it! It's very nice in the bedrooms where, removed from the eye of your host, you can burn it as long as you like! I travelled with Lady Milbank and Miss M. from Darlington to Barnard Castle. What an old dear she is! in fact I like all those long women so much. Lady Dale was seeing them off. Victor Cavendish was also in the train. We discussed the Lascelles plans. I think as you say, it would be a pity to leave Spean Bridge before the end of the month as it would certainly cut Papa's holiday short. And if you don't mind being there, there is really no object in not letting him take as long a holiday as he will. At the same time, I wish things had turned out so that you had been at home when the N.G.s came. They would have been more amused. Please thank Elsa for her long and most interesting letter. I am glad the Ben Nevis expedition was such a success. It is warm and wet here today. The Ilberts leave tomorrow. Ever your affectionate daughter.Gertrude.*[Crackanthorpe?]* 14 February 1898 City of Rio de Janeiro My dearest Elsa, I must write my budget to you that I may begin by telling you how delighted we were with your letter and all your gossip. You told us exactly what we wanted to know and you can't think what a joy it was to hear about all your doings in detail. Continuez, Mademoiselle! I AM glad Moll went to the ball; and what terrible agitations about the confirmation. You must have had a stirring time. Moll was a dear to write me such a long letter; the photograph of Tokyo is one of the (many) pleasures of my exiled existence. Now I'm going on about San Francisco. I must tell you San Francisco is not finished; the streets are the oddest jumble, first a stone building 25 stories high, then a wooden lean to then another great elaborate place, and so on. Moreover the roads except for the tram lines, are either a sea of mud or a wilderness of ill laid cobble stones. Directly you get outside the town you find yourself in great tracts of sand overgrown with green scrub, or among little round wooded hills from the top of which you look down upon rolling tracts of country stretching away to the hills on one side and on the beach with its line of breakers on the other. To the right of you is the bay, a constant delight to look upon, studded with islands, filled with ships, its exquisite shores retreating furnter and further away from the Golden Gates until it looks almost like the sea itself except for the vaguest line of land in the far distance. On Thursday morning we breakfasted at 10. (We had the most luxurious rooms with bath rooms and dressing rooms and all your heart could desire. The hotel is enormous, the largest in the world they say, and the food excellent. There was a great deal of local colour about our first meal, it consisted, among other things, of terrapin and canvas backed duck.) I then went out shopping while Maurice repaired to the Bohemian Club of which Mr Moore had made him a temporary member - a most interesting place, for everyone who has passed through San F. has been a member of it, including Stevenson whose portrait is hanging up in it. The whole place is full of memories of Stevenson; as we passed Monterey in the ship one remembered the "little Louis" playing on its sands to whom the Child's Garden is dedicated and the Farallone Islands lying a few miles from the Golden Gates sounded strangely familiar until I remembered that it was the good ship Farallone that they recalled to me. Towards one we took a car and went out over the sand to Cliff House where we lunched. Unfortunately the mist came down over the sea - the view, which is lovely, was hidden from us. We could just see the seals moving about on the Seal Rocks, but no more. Seals seem to me to be the animals least adapted by nature for walking about on rocks; it must be so scrapy for their poor tummies. They were barking very lound so perhaps they were finding it uncomfortable. There is the most enormous swimming bath out there theat you can possibly imagine, with trapezes and chutes and rings and dives. I longed to swim there, but I had not time. After lunch we took a car back to the town and then by travelling up and down and exhibiting great skill in finding the right cars we finally landed ourselves at the old Spanish Mission Church. It lies inland from the town, at the foot of two little round hills, half built over, half wooded, in a slummy street, washed up in a back water far away from the life of the place and yet it was the very beginning of it all! I have got photographs of it - a tiny narrow whitewashed front of little columns made of adobe and wood, inside long and narrow and dark with a carved and gilded altar screen made by the good fathers themselves. It was built by Indian converts who lie buried in the little graveyard outside their graves marked by plain wooden crosses. We had great difficulty in getting in. We rang at the priest's door and were told by his maid that he never allowed visitors in except on Sunday; we insisted further, upon which she said well, the sacristan was in the school next door. We walked in and found him tidying up and finally after much persuasion he opened the church and the graveyard for us. As we came out to our horror there was the holy father! The sacristan made us frantic signs, we escaped unobserved and hid behind a paling where the sacristan presently joined us and received a well earned half dollar. When we returned to our inn, we found Mr Tevis and his son waiting for us. He is the dearest old man. He came to San F. 48 years ago when it was a heap of sand and is full of interesting tales of adventure. He said it was he who had advised Lisa's brother to go to Klondike, that there was no risk, that was how HE had laid the foundations of his fortune and it was the right way for a young man to begin. We made many plans with him and parted at dinner time. We dined with the Moores and went to the play with them, after which we came in to a little supper and so to bed. All the shops in San F. are full of advertisements of Klondike outfits, jars and tents and provisions and boots and cooking stoves - I went in and examined a whole outfit, tent and all. Friday, alas, was foggy. We had planned an expedition, but it was not the weather for it. Mr Tevis came and sat with us while we breakfasted. We then went out and did one or two commissions; then, on the advice of the photographer with whom we made great friends over our films, we went out to see the military reservation overlooking the bay, out towards the Golden Gates. We took Mr Huschard with us as we found him hanging about the hotel looking very lonely. If only I could recite to you some of his priceless conversation. He told us how much he had enjoyed the ocean ride from New York to Panama; when we passed a large stucco and wood building he would remark "That looks like it were a sociable home". Everything was HOME instead of house. He described to us how the American army was "located in such and such a locality" which seemed to me to show a certain poverty of imagination in the choice of words. It was an interesting morning; after we left the car we walked some two miles, through the barracks, through forests of great bushy cypresses and groves of mimosa all in full flower. The violets, roses, fuchsias in the soldier's gardens were too lovely. We saw the forts and the cannons- I don't know why they allowed us in; once we were turned out and we got home very hungry to lunch. We went to Mr Tevis's house to tea, meeting him half way up. There we found the good Mrs Tevis and a charming little granddaughter. We came back just in time to dress and go out to dine at the University Club with Mr Hugh Tevis - the best dinner I have ever eaten and extremely merry. He too, seems to have done every sort of thing and lived in every kind of place; he was extremely agreeable. I came away with an enormous bouquet of California violets. We all three went to a music hall and came back to our hotel for cold drinks. We parted the best of friends with a warm invitation to come and stay on the Tevises Ranch which we will certainly do some day. On Saturday Maurice took our luggage down to the ship. I went at 11 to see Mr Tevis at his office which is in an enormous building close to the hotel. He took me all over - it is a marvellous place. "This building" he said "is made with as much delicacy and precision as the inside of a watch" And so it was. We then went out to an immense provision store, built and run by himself, where I bought some tea and was shown all round - given strange fruits to eat. Besides this he owns two ranches, one 500 miles square, a copper mine, a gold mine, iron works, and probably many other things - these were all I happened to hear of. He is a hale and hearty old man, has never had a day's illness and takes all these things in his stride quite as a matter of course. It is a wonderful country. I am overcome by the vitality, energy and enterprise of it all. We were dreadfully sorry to leave, but we will come back. I took many photographs of the bay and the Golden Gates and the Farallone Islands as we passed them. We are very comfortably lodged in cabins to ourselves and the ship is a much better one than the City of Para. There are two charming English boys on board, Mr Mainwaring and Mr de Rutzen and we have made the acquaintance of an American husband and wife from Chicago, Mr and Mrs Shore, she very pretty, he rather a bounder, covered with diamonds. She amuses us - she began by telling us (it was most needful) that her husband was quite English and looked just like an Englishman! The stories they tell us of their exploits are past words. I must just repeat to you this one, as related by Mrs Shore. The scene is Cairo. "My husband had been having a quarrel with a man and whenever he has been quarreling he goes out and gets a little boosy (sic!), so he was standing at the bar and chucking sovereigns at the barkeeper's head and there came in an English fellow, and asked for a drink. "Are you going to drink alone?" said Mr Shore. "Yes I am" he said. "No you're not" said Mr Shore and he just took a bottle of wine, put the young fellow's head under his arm and poured it right down his throat. A friend of ours came in and told me; I laughed why, I thought I should have died!" Isn't that a pleasing anecdote! Mr Shore can't imagine why M. won't play poker with him, but M. always replies that he thinks poker is such an expensive game to learn. Everyone plays chess on this ship; we have great games. There is a dear little Dutchman, with whom I often play; he was in Johannisburg[sic] at the time of the raid and tells most interesting stories about it. All our stewards are Chinese; I like them so much. They look charming when they put on their evening dress at dinner time; it consists of a long light blue cotton gown turned up with white, spotlessly clean. Have got some charming photographs of the steerage passengers - I do hope they will come out. 17 February. The days go past very quickly, though we don't do much. I read books about Japan all morning and play chess in the afternoon and sometimes after dinner too. The evening usually ends with cakes and drinks about 9 o'clock - Maurice and I, the Shores, Mr de Rutzen and Mr Mainwaring- at which athe topics of conversation are many and various. M. is much amused by Mrs Shore. I found him yesterday discussing with her at what period love turns into friendship, so I discreetly left them - till it had! I like her too. she is ill today; most of the passengers are, except us. I don't believe I shall ever be seasick again. It was pretty rough yesterday - worse today with a good deal of sea over. Today awave broke all over the poop deck where everyone was sitting. I escaped with wet feet, but some people were soaked. It's not as warm as I expected. The Trades have been blowing very strong, but after all one wears a cotton skirt and sits out on deck without a wrap, so there is not much to complain of. We ought to reach Honolulu the day after tomorrow early in the morning and we spend the whole day there. We mean to hire bicycles and have a great day. Most of our passengers are going to stop there till the next steamer, but we have decided not to. The volcano is not active and 10 days is a little long to spend there. I think we shall want every moment in Japan, in fact I shall be rather surprised if we get away in a month's time. But we will telegraph you any change of plans. You won't hear from me by letter till the middle of April, I will post my ship letter directly we reach Yokohama. We are awfully tempted to stay another 10 days in California, the extreme dearness of life there was the main reason we didn't; besides we though we should be more likely to go back there than to Japan. I often long for you - you would be amused with it all. I am enjoying myself immensely. M. is an excellent travelling companion and so sensible. 18 February. We pass Molukai tonight I'm told. It seems horrible to think of all that suffereing so close. We shall reach Honolulu at daybreak. I hope it will be fine for our one day there. It has rained most of today. I believe this letter will be at Honolulu for 10 days at least - the mail went out today! Just like Provvy that is. Ever, dearest, your affectionate sister. Gertrude 8 March 1898 Tokyo Dearest Mother, Where, where shall I begin! If I were to tell you all the delicious things we have seen and done during the last 3 days, I should write a letter as long as from here to Redcar. However, concerning what follows, as you say in Arabic: When we woke up on Saturday morning we found ourselves lying in Yokohama harbour, a grey day, bitter cold, and the roofs all white with what I tried to believe were plum blossoms, but turned out to be snow! After breakfast Mr Scott, M and I, Mr Mainwaring and Mr de Rutzen jumped into a sampan and were rowed ashore by two little blue clad gentlemen muffled up to the eyes. Then came our first Japanese experienc, a rickshaw. You get into a little perambulator, a blue man in a mushroom hat picks up the shafts and trots off with you at about 6 miles an hour - it's too amusing! His name is written on his hat in English and his address (I imagine) in large white Japanese letters on his blue cotton bak. We went to the post office and then to the hotel, which is very comfortable. My room looked out over the bay and there was a bright fire in it. Having established ourselves we got into rickshaws and drove to various parts of the town, shopping and making arrangements for having things cleaned, photographs developed etc. Everything is marvellous cheap. Your (human) horse and carriage is 2/ for the whole day; 12 photographs developed and printed 2/6 and so forth. Yokohama consists of a European settlement, partly down by the bay and partly up on a hill called the Bluff, and a wide spreading Jap town of 2 storied wooden houses, all shops. After lunch we took the train and in an hour found ourselves in Tokyo. The line runs along the bay through a screen landscape, dotted over with houses, pines, rice fields, bamboos and plums in full flower in spite of the sprinkle of snow. The little people trot along on their high wooden pattens, the clank of which is like dropping water, but almost deafening in a crowded railway station - the sound of Japan just as some curious aromatic musky thing is its smell. We got into rickshaws and drove about leaving our letters of introduction. Tokyo is enormous, the area of London; you start out gaily for a place and find it is 6 miles away. It's all full of gardens and open spaces and cryptomeria groves shading temples. After we had done our business we went to a big bazaar, streets and streets of little stores, roofed over, selling every sort of thing. We passed through real Jap streets to get to it - the joy of all those little shops! The people were everywhere sitting bundled up in their wadded clothes over a pan of charcoal. I exchanged confidences with my horse about the weather - in Japanese! says I: "It is cold"; then seeing that he was mopping his brow with a sky blue cotton handkerchief I remarked, "Isn't it hot?" He took off his Quangle wangle hat and tucked it under the seat, saying "It is very hot, honourable young lady esquire" and a lot more to which I had to reply Wakarimasen, I don't understand, whereupon the conversation ended, as all conversations do end in Japan with peals of laughter. We got back to Yokohama at 5 o'clock. After dinner Mr Walford came to see us and presently carried M off to the club and I went to bed very tired and slept till 10 when a blue gnome came in and lighted my fire. I breakfasted and went out in a rickshaw. When I came in M. was up and we took a little stroll up the Bluff. It was a delicious sunny day, cold but heavenly and the bay all glittering in the sun. I then went off to my shirt maker who lives in a tiny matted shop in the Japanese quarter; he saluted me a quatre pattes and I ordered 4 linen skirts, to ride in and they cost 1 pound the four! When I came in I found a Chinese tailor waiting for me; he had on a pigtail and a blue cap with a little red button on top, a long blue wadded robe to below his knees, a bright yellow robe below that, white leggings and black shoes with thick with felt soles! I ordered a silk gown and two cotton ones for my next journey in the tropics - the sum total is 5 pounds. After lunch Mr Walford called for us, we drove off in rickshaws with two men pulling each of us, along a Japanese street, and up the Bluff right into the country. There we got out and walked in and out among little villages and pine trees and delicious places and so back to Mr Walfords's house where we had tea. He turned out drawers full of embroideries for us, quantitites of ivories and a pile of exquisite kimonos for me to try on and I came away with a handfull of strips of Chinese embroideries to decorate my skirt withal. We had a very merry dinner; Mr Mainwaring, Mr de Rutzen and Mr Walford (I need not say). After dinner in came Mr Adam and told us long tales of his newspaper office and his Jap printers - extraordinary funny. Monday morning was delicously bright and fine. M and I and Mr Mainwaring (Mr de Rutzen had gone to Tokyo) took bicycles - went for miles through the Jap town. We got off and walked, examining all the shops and the people sitting on their white mats with a tiny plum tree flowering in a pot beside them and a group of babies playing on the step. It seems to be a law in Japan that no woman over 6 should appear in public without a baby on her back. We got into the street of theatres which was a most amusing place. The theatres were all decorated with flowers and long streamers of different colours and people were hanging round the box offices - the play begins at 7 am and lasts till 7 pm! Presently on a hill above us we saw the tall gateways of a Shinto temple, so leaving our bicycls with arickshaw man, we climbed up flights of stairs between plum trees in full flowers till we reached the little bare temple. And there a christening was going on and we sat and watched a white robed priest performing the ceremony until the mother and grandmother bowed themselves away with the tiny bundled up baby, and then we wandered round behind the temple and suddenly between the trees we caught sight of a great snowy cone far away. It was Fuji - our first vision of the sacred mountain. The next thing we came to was a delicious house with matted floors and sliding paper walls. A bowing personage presented himself of whom I asked whether there was honourable tea. He said there was and would we be honourably seated. Off with ourselves and in we went, sat down on the mats with our stockin ged toes against a box of charcoal and drank green tea in little thin cups, after which we paid him 6d and said Sayonara to which he replied Please come again. Then back to the hotel to lunch. After lunch we came to Tokyo where we found Mr de Rutzen waiting for us at our inn. We jumped into rickshaws and flew off to a Buddhist temple of Shiba, one of the wonders of Japan, gateway after gateway of carved and lacquered wood, court after court, cloistered with lacquer pillars, planted with pines and here and there an exquisite plum or almond, and in the middle of each a gem of a temple glowing with gold lacquer. St Mark's is the only place approaching these in colour. They are dedicated each to a deadshogun and behind each is a little court containing the plain stone and bronze tomb of the great man and a grove of cryptomeria backs it all. We dined at the Legation. If you could have seen M and me starting out to dinner under a full moon drawn along by a trotting blue gnome! Sir Ernest is a delightful creature; besides us there was a dull English couple, travellers, and a secretary of sorts, rather nice, which his name is Gubbins. We had an amusing dinner and Sir E. showed us lots of beautiful things. This morning at 10.30 appeared Mr Mainwaring and Mr de Rutzen for theday. We took rickshaws with two men each, very swell, and went along long way to the tombs of more Shoguns, exquisitely lovely, then to a tea house where we we lunched at the Japanese, sitting cross legged on mats. We fired off phrases out of Murray upon our waiting maid and she brought us first weak tea, then an hors d'oeuvre of pickled vegetables in a tiny bowl, then four bowls of boiled rice and broiled fish, quite good, then more tea and saki which is a sort of sour wine. We eat with chop sticks, not very tidily and all the geishas peeped in at the windows and laughed. The room was quite bare except for a kakemono hanging up in a recess and a vase under it. Next we went to the temple of the Goddess of Mercy at Asakusa, a popular shrine surrounded by streets of booths and peepshows of every sot. We visited them extensively, wax works, wild beast which you fed with little bits of meat on a long stick, tanks of fish which you fed with a rod and line, dwarf gardens and countless more things. Then to the play where we arrived about 3 and stayed till past 5. We had the stage box; you are by way of sitting on the floor which Mr Mainwaring and I did; the other two sat on chair so as to see over our heads. Between the acts they brought us tea and things. Of course we did not know at all what it was about, but the acting was wonderful and the stage managing extremely good. The women were men, but most attractive and graceful. There was a charming scene between two of them in which one told the other a sad tale and they both wept, the whole theatre following suit. You never heard such a sniffing, everyone was in tears, men and women. We got in at 6 and Mr M and Mr de R went back to Yokohama. There is a furious wind tonight and the dust!!! Wednesday 9. Many happy returns to Elsa - I wish she had been here to spend the day with us. Our two little friends arrived at 10, we got into rickshaws and drove for miles till we came to some lovely Shogun tombs where a Buddhist priest showed us round. Bright sunshine was lying in all the peaceful courts and the colour of everything was divine. When we had done our sightseeing very exhaustively we went to the big bazaar I told you of and shopped all sorts of little nothings hich was most amusing. After lunch we went miles in the other direction to a plum garden where we sat and had tea under white plum trees. Then to a wonderful Japanese garden, a typical garden with everything in miniature so that you get a whole landscape into a few square yards and then to the famous curio street which we pottered down looking into all the shops. A most successful day. Thursday 10. Bitter cold again. M and I did a little sightseeing and lunched at the Belgian Legation with Baroness d'Anethan. She is a sister of the Haggards. She and her husband were alone, it was very pleasant; they were most friendly. After lunch we came back to Yokohama - it felt quite like coming home. M and I dined with Mr Walford and went to a concert. An Englishman called Plummer was of the party which was quite merry. The concert was rather feeble. Friday 11. It snowed a little in the early morning but cleared up and became quite nice and snowy. Mr Walford sent me down his pony to try; M wasn't very fit he had caught a chill, so I took Mr Mainwaring with me and we had a delicious ride out into the country. After lunch he and I sallied forth with our cameras and took snap shots in the streets. Mr Adam dined with us. Saturday 12. We have had a delightful day. Mr Mainwaring, Mr de R, M and I started off at 9 o'clock riding, picked up Mr Walford and came down to this most charming place Kamamara, about 20 miles from Yokohama. The ride was lovely, in and out over endless little hills and valleys, through villages white with plum trees, past shrines and temples and woods and rice fields. The roads were all soft paths through the fields so that we could go any pace we liked all the way. We got here at 12 and found our luggage which had been brought down by the men would had come to fethch our ponies. After lunch we started out in rickshaws and spent the afternoon dawdling in and out of beautiful temples. I can't tell you how wonderful they are and the extraordinary sense of peace about them all. The plum trees lift white branches over the shrines and camellias drop their scarlet flowers upon all the paths. This place was once a great capital; it was washed away by a tidal wave in the 18th century, but there remains one masterpiece of the old time, a colossal Bronze Buddha. His temple was carried out to sea; and he sits all alone in a beautiful garden with bronze lotus plants in front of him and he is the most solemn and impressive thing in Japan -the only GREAT thing that we have seen yet. The village is delicious; endless little shops and bamboo houses with their paper screens drawn back so that you see the shining floors and the white matting and the branch of plum in a blue and white pot; and then long long avenues of cryptomerias - great gates leading up to terrace after terrace of temple. Mr Plummer appeared at tea time, he is also here over Sunday. We are the only people in the hotel. We had a merry evening and went early to bed. Sunday 13 Alas! today it streamed with rain and blew a hurricane so we determined to return to Yokohama. It was not easy! there was such a gale that our rickshaws could scarcely get along, we missed our train in consequence and after waiting for half an hour at the station, during which time we amused ourselves by playing Up Jenkins on the waiting room table, we found that the next train went indeed to Yokohama, but wouldn't put down passengers there! These are the pleasures of travel in Japan! We all went back to the inn and lunched, after which we succeeded in taking a train that would have us and were back at 3. There was deep snow all along the line. M dined out with Mr Adam and I dined here with the good old English couple we met at the Legation, Mr and Mrs Windeler. I felt extremely shivery, but they plied me with brandy and hot baths. I went to bed extremely warm and am all right this morning. Monday 14. Bright and fine, snow melted, we all feel cheerful. Now as to our plans. We think of staying here till towards the end of April because as we are here we might as well see Japan under other conditions than snow. Next month all the cherry blossoms will be out and the country is avision. We propose vaguely going up country to Myanoshita, under Fuji on Thursday - returning here Monday 21st, Nikko 25th, 31st we two Mr M and Mr de R will make a little 10 days expedition into real Japan taking a guide. Back to Tokyo in time for the Emperor's Garden Party if possible. April 14th to Kyoto, leave there about the 22nd. We haven't yet found out about steamers, but we are going to do that and then telegraph to you. I'm sure you will agree that it seems wise to prolong our visit - we shall probably never be here again! We shall not be home till quite the end of June but that doesn't really matter. It's such luck having these two charming boys to travel about with, M spends all his odd moments with them and is never bored which is a great relief to my mind. Not that M is not the most delightful and amenable travelling companion, but under these circumstances I never feel any responsibility about him because I always know he is quite happy. Today Mr M and I have had a charming time. We went up to Tokyo in the morning and photographed in the Shibu temples. After lunch we came back by train, got out half way at a little roadside station and went to a great Shinto temple where we were shown round by a dear old sort of a sacristan who took us all over the temple and the monastic buildings and schools and in and out of delightful Japanese gardens where we photographed to our heart's content. Finally our priest (he talked French of a kind not known in Paris) took us in to his house and gave us tea and cakes made of chalk and sugar and when we went away presented us with some little wood carvings. we got back to Yokohama at 5 o'clock. M. has been spending an idle day he has not been very fit lately but he is getting better. You may think it odd that I should go touring round with stray young men, but I think it too far away to matter. I feel like Sue - I have made a lot of brothers! Mr M is a great dear and loves pottering round and taking photographs and poking into shops and besides he is young enough to be my grandson! So please don't be shocked. We will call at the Post Office Hong Kong for letters. We shall have letters forwarded from the Legation tomorrow afternoon, but not in time to answer them by this mail. I was so relieved to get your telegram- I always think something awful may have happened. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude 18 March 1898 Yokohama. Dearest Mother, I am just going to send you a telegram about our plans which have at last shaped themselves. I don't expect I shall be in England till the middle of June and I do hope you won't think me a pig about not coming back sooner for London, but up to now the weather has been so cold we could make no real expeditions and it does seem a pity to see nothing of this country now we are here. I had a large mail yesterday, to my joy. Thank you so much, all of you, Moll and Papa and Hugo; if I don't answer each separately it is because I really haven't much time and most of my energies are taken up, so that I make one family letter do for all. I hope by the bye, that you carefull Bowdlerize my letters before you send them round! I am sure there must be many things in them that are only meant for my immediate family. I am very sorry Grandmamma has not been quite well; I wish I could bring her back a cure for rheumatism from Japan. Well, now as to our doings: We had a most successful day on Tuesday; it was bright and fine, we breakfasted at 7.30 and flew off an hour by train to Kamakura where Mr M and I photographed in all the temples. Buddha looked magnificent in the sun and there is a charming garden in the temple of the goddess of Mercy, Kwannon, where we took pictures. While we were photographing Buddha, M and Mr de R went to the inn and got a large basket of cold lunch for us with which we all drove on to Enoshima, the Japanese Mont Saint Michel. The road was lovely, sheltered, warm, past shrines and villages all embowered in magnificent single red camellias; presently we came out onto the coast again and said a little peninsular sticking out into the exquisite bay, with a long wooden bridge connecting it with the land. We left our rickshaws and walked over the long bridge and under a temple gate, this sort of thing ......... Torii they are called, up the shingle street of the village. The whole island is dedicated to the sea goddess, Bentai, her shrines cover most of the top of it and the cave where lived the monstrous dragon that was killed, is a sort of crypt to it all. Our kuromaya (rickshaw man) led us us to a tea house on the top of the island where we were soon established on a matted floor with our own food and the tea house tea and a box of charcoal in front of us to keep our stockinged toes warm. The screens, house walls that is, were all thrown back and we could see a delicious miniature garden at our feet and away and away miles over Kamakura Bay and the mountains behind. After tiffin, when we had photographed our younger sister (i.e. chamber maid, Nei San is the Jap word) we played our respects to Bentai and were taken all through the Dragon Cave and shown numbers of shrines there. As we came back a gentleman offered to dive for shell fish; we agreed and in a moment the whole population of Enoshima appeared to me to be standing naked on the rocks! Next moment they were in the sea (and the best place it was for them) but unfortunately they soon reappeared with nasty smelly fish and seaweed. We fled. We then returned to Kamakura, had tea in a tea house and got back to Yokohama at 5.30. I spent the evening talking to the Wind...... who are old dears. Wednesday 16. M Mr de R and I had a long ride in the morning all round and about in the country behind Yokohams, and rode Mr Walford's pony which is a charming little beast. After lunch we three and Mr Mainwaring went to the other end of Yokohama, through endless poky little streets to a famous porcelain man, Makudzu. We were shown into an exquisitely clean matted house in each room of which there were some 20 beautiful pieces of china. The maker of them sold to us. I bought two little pieces, and we were then served with tea in the most wonderful cups which he had also made. It was rainy so we then returned home. Thursday 17. The first really fine hot day we have had - alas, it was delusive! We all went in the morning to another famous man, Goto by name, and cloisonnee[?] is what he is famous for. He also lived at the end of nowhere. He showed us all over his factory and we saw the pots in all stages and the men working on them - quite a tiny place, but each man an artist in his way. It was extremely interesting. Mr Walford came to lunch after which he and I did a little shopping, most satisfactory. I ordered half a dozen of the most exquisite cotton kimonos to give to all my cousins - they cost 5/ each. We were all rather slack because of the sudden hot weather. Mr Plummer dined with us. I went to bed very early. Friday 18. Grey and rainy and chill. Whether from the sudden changes of weather or what, I don't know, but I woke up feeling rather ill and got worse and worse all day. Nevertheless M and I went up to Tokyo and lunched with Captain Brinkley. He gave us the most elaborate lunch-which was dust and ashes to me! - in alovely room, sort of semi Japanese, too exquisite. Mrs Brinkley is completely Japanese, talks no English and sits at the end of the table in her grey kimono, with a little intelligent air of interest, however, which makes one feel that she is in some way taking part in the conversation. There was a daughter, a bouncing handsome girl of 15 or so, with an English body and a Japanese face, not, I think the daughter of this wife. Captain Brinkley has had several Japanese wives - I don't know what he does with the old ones, we'll hope they die! He was extremely kind, told us to come to him if there was anything we wanted, talked politics most interestingly and covered his dining room with lovely prints and pictures for us to see. They were bought some 25 years ago when those things, which are now unprocurable, cost a few cents. When we got back to Yokohama we held a great and satisfactory counsel of war with a guide. M and I dined with Mr Walford; Mr Plummer and a man called Potts were there. It was a merry evening-it I had not felt so ill! Saturday 19. Still ver2y bad, so we decided to put off our departure to Miyanoshita for a day. Mr Mainwaring and Mr de R went off alone. I kept my sofa andsent for a doctor. It was grey and cold, so we didn't lose much. Mr Plummer and Mr Walford paid me visits in the afternoon and brought me books and papers and M got me little toys to amuse me. Sunday 20. Better. We left Yokohama at 11.30 and reached our journey's end at 1 - a lovely line, all along the coast. Then we took a tram and went on for another hour through delicious country. The only drawback was that we had left a packet of excellent chicken sandwiches in the hall of the hotel and we had nothing to eat! You can't possibly eat the things the Japs sell you in stations; they give you a charming little box, you open it and find it contains horrible mixtures of seaweed and raw fish - quite uneatable at the best of time. We managed to get two little buns, sweet and tasting of mush[?], not very nice, and thetea is always good. At the end of our train journey we found Mr M and Mr de R waiting for us, with tea in a tea house close at hand and flaming accounts of Miyanoshita - a most welcome sight they were. We got into Kuromas with 3 men each who ran along with us up the steepest valley for 4 miles at the top of which was Miyanoshita, the hotel looking all down the valley and away away right across Kamakura Bay, and on the other sides, steep beautiful bare mountains with here and there a grey thatched village nestling down among bamboos. Our rooms were ready, fires lighted and all our woes forgotten. Monday 21. Fine weather with a little soft cloud hanging over the tops of the hills. We took 4 ponies and started off directly after breakfast with 4 coolies following us to see we didn't make off with the ponies (shaggy little brutes, but good 'un to go - this applies to the men too!) and another gentleman with our tiffin slung at either end of a long bamboo pole which he carried over his shoulder. Mr M had a very bad toothache, and presently decided to go back to Yokohama at once and have it seen to, so we 3 went on alone, rather saddened. We went up and up and to an extraordinary wild valley full of burning sulphur and springs of boiling water bubbling up. We got off and walked all about it. Then we rode down to a village at the foot of the hill, Myagino, and alighted at a tea house, where we spread out our tiffin in a sort of summer house by the edge of a stream, where we sat very contentedly with boxes of hot charcoal at our feet. We came home by a road along the bottom of the valley through lovely little villages and got in at 2 since when I have been resting as I am anything but well still. The notices in English are so funny, waiting room is house of cessation and at the bottom of the hill we were informed that our luggage would be carefully and politely carried up to Miyanoshita. Tuesday 22. We have had a charming day. M Mr de R and I were off on our ponies at 10.30 followed by the usual train of coolies and lunch carriers- you pay them 7d and they run after you the whole day. We rode over a bare wild pass, from which we had wonderful views and down bridle paths to a place called Hakone at the end of an exquisite lake. There we lunched at a tea house overlooking the lake. We then rode a couple of hours down the old high road between Tokyo and Kyoto, first between groves of bamboo and then through a long long avenue of cryptomerias; the valley magnificent, the road as steep as you please, paved with boulders, a regular breakneck staircase, and every now and then a great view of the sea below us. We got down to the place where the train stops, Yamoto, caught Mr Mainwaring who had just arrived from Yokohama, and all rode up together getting in at 4. From which you see that I am better. It was so delightful to get a batch of letters from you the other day (I've said all this beore I see!) I feel too far away to answer them! I'm glad the world likes Hafiz - did Literature ever review me? I am very much obliged to Papa for paying my bills, but I think they might all have waited till I returned. He's a dear anyhow; tell him I shan't want any more money when I come home, I am buying my presents with Grandpapa's 20 pounds. I feel rather homesick sometimes. It will be agreeable to see you all again. But this is a wonderful time. I have no energy to write to anyone but you. Love to all. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude.