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[Lady Tweedsmuir to Queen Mary]

21st July, 1936.

Madam,

We are now settled down at Quebec, where we are enjoying
a very varying type of weather. The days begin with brilliant sunshine
and usually end with a thunderstorm. I think that Your Majesty
would much appreciate the charm of the Citadel. The walls are
as much as six feet thick. The rooms are barrel-vaulted, and the
passages long and narrow. One side of the house looks out on to a
terrace built four hundred feet above the river, while the other
forms one side of the barrack square. This bristles with the guns
of a past age and is shaded by some very charming willow trees.
Your Majesty will be amused to hear that there is still a trail of
mauve all over the house, left over from the days of Lady Willingdon!

I have visited several convents, and conversed with a
great many nuns. The Ursulines have put all their treasure together
into an exhibition. They are anxious to raise money for one of
their nuns to go on a mission to Japan. This exhibition is designed
to attract the American tourists. The collection consists
mainly of small objects and books placed behind a very heavy grille,
and I should think the ordinary tourist would find it very difficult
to see much of the objects arranged inside. I am told, however,
that the Americans get great pleasure from looking through
the grille. As the wife of His Majesty's representative I was