2110-1-8-6

Office of the High Commissioner for South Africa, Johannesburg,

Oct:21::1901

My dear old Nan,

I had your letter and Bob Howie's and one from mother by this mail, of which I was very glad. Thank mother very much for her kind letter. Tell her that I am very well & cheerful, save for occasional fits of homesickness - chiefly when the English mail comes in. I do hope the Mhor's [annotated: Alastair] health is not giving trouble. It will be an awful job if he has to join me out here - I might get him a job as an extra-unpaid-A.D.C. I hope Father will not think of Port Elizabeth. Reports from the coast-towns say that the martial law regime is a fearful nuisance for civilians. But I think he ought to take a sea-voyage - say to Madeira, if he wants a holiday.

It would do him a world of good. The voyage out made me feel 10 years younger - and one needs all one's youth in this country.

On Thursday last we settled down in our house. In many ways it is a great success. It is cool & fresh & clear, right out in the country, and the servants are all that could be desired. Our housekeeper is an admirable cook and makes wonderful dishes out of the very small supply of fresh meat we are able to get. The butler is a grave English servant, and our niggers - this is my report as Inspector-General of Natives - are fairly tractable.[superscript: They understand loud Scots better than English so may be collateral relatives of J. Edgar.] We have turned our attention to agriculture and have got most of our vegetables sown. I am looking after the flower-garden, & putting in English flowers. It is funny to be pulling up for weeds white geraniums & wonderful little pink gentians. We have a great wood at our door, miles long, & full of grassy rides. Walking there in the

evening, it is the most aromatic place I have ever been, with the smell of wattle-flower, & eucalyptus & pine trees. It is full of buck & hares & a few pheasants. On Saturday afternoon Basil Blackwood's dogs started a hare & pursued it into the wood. Only two have returned and Basil laments the loss of 5, which he thinks have gone over to the Boers. We dig our garden ourselves for exercise, & it would amuse you to see scions of the aristocracy like Basil, & Brooke & Algy Wyndham digging in their shirt sleeves as if we were in England. Out here little fragments of civilisation are very dear, for, though the wild life is fine, the half-civilised life of colonial hotels is abominable. We are going to have H.E. [His Excellency] to dinner soon. Our horses have not arrived yet, so we walk in in the mornings, a long hot dusty business. Our 24 hens have begun to lay eggs already. Out here every fowl, each to her ability, crows, and they do it all night. I have been bitten twice by mosquitoes. Also ants are a trial when you are dressing. Tell Mother that we are

very careful and have all our water boiled. Our chief drink is barley-water, which our housekeeper makes to perfection. As far as I can gather at present it will be an economical life, & I think I shall save a lot of money.

Last Thursday I dined with [Georges] Rouliot, the chief partner of Ecksteins. I must say I like the millionaires here, they are so clever, & on the whole such decent fellows. He gave us a capital dinner, & then gave me the most tremendous beating at billiards I ever got. Yesterday we had a memorial service for President McKinley. A man Grey of Pretoria, a Presbyterian, preached. Then the American Consul made a speech, & H.E. laughed, & to my lasting disgrace so did I. I had to put on a frock coat & a top hat.

We are having a great dinner here on the King's Birthday. I can't work out what clothes I shall have to wear. Tullibardine got up a Scots concert the other night, but the performers were mostly Jews, though they sang very well. I hear the Marchioness is coming up, & I shall hear Scots songs sung by a Scots voice again. I suppose I shall go to the Scots dinner on St Andrews'. Dalhousie has gone off on trek again. Young Murray

[note in top corner] There is a rather nice paragraph about me in the King of Sept. 26!

came down to tea last night with Sir Godfrey Lagden. He is very cut up about his brother. A Johny Digby, son of Sir Kenelm Digby, came to dinner on Saturday as a soldier up on a night's leave. When he started to go, we couldn't find the horse, and finally after a long hunt we got it in the wood. I hung on to the bridle & the bridle snapped, - so we had to tie up the thing with rope, & send the devoted young man off into the darkness. I haven't heard if he ever reached the Town.

All last week I was doing dispatches. H.E. has developed a habit of not coming down to the office some days, & telephoning me to come up. So I set out riding in flannel bags & arrive very sore & hot to talk serious business. He goes to Natal on Thursday, & I am not sure whether I shall go or be left to work here.