2110-7-7-1

Government House, OTTAWA.

3rd December, 1935.

My dear Old John,

I heard from your sister last week that you were much about the same. I am afraid you are having a very dull life, and I feel desperately sorry being so far from you and not being able to see you. I know how easy it is to counsel patience and restraint and how difficult it is to practise it. But I am sure you are in the best place you could be for the winter, and that you are with really wise people.

I am now fairly settled down and am feeling quite well again. I was very seedy indeed when we started, and my first two functions here tired me a good deal. Now I am tramping the hills, and when the deep snows begin I shall try and learn to ski; that being the best form of exercise.

I have paid my first official visits to Montreal and Toronto, where the reception was really extraordinary. The passion for the spoken word in this country is remarkable. At one luncheon I had 1500 and at another 2000; and at one of the University ceremonies there were 4,000 students who could not get in. I had also to open the great Winter Fair at Toronto, where I saw a most wonderful show of stock, and found a Scots shepherd and his dogs who came from Hyndhope, on Teviot. We shall have an easier time now until after Christmas, when I have to open Parliament, hold a Drawing-room, etc.

2.

The first snows are unbelievably beautiful, and though the temperature is very nearly zero there is a bright sun, and the air is wonderfully tonic. I wish I had you out here, for I believe this is the kind of air that would really do you good.

This is just a scrappy letter to remind you that I am always thinking about you.

My kindest regards to your sister.

Yours ever, John