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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