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[Page] 111
[continued from page 110]

standards of living. Christian a very attract:
:tive, bright little girl of 2 years 5 months, was
the delight of the household at Chilfrome Cottage
but though she produced many sounds of
her own, she refused to use human speech!
I returned by Stockbridge, breaking my journey at
North Houghton Manor, to visit my sister Mabel
Maxsted. When there we had ten alertes and heard
guns & an occasional bomb exploding in the
distance. It must be an uncomfortable
place to reside at for there are numerous
aerodromes in the vicinity and it is near
enough to Portsmouth to be affected by the
numerous raids on that port.
Travelling is not comfortable at present
on the side lines as trains are very crowded,
mostly by soldiers burdened with equipment,
but everyone is pleasant and, as far as I
observed, helpful. My train took me to London
Bridge, whence I had to take a taxi to King’s Cross.
As I got into my taxi & had just sat down a
tough old soldier bundled in his pack & followed
without so much as ‘by your leave’! It appeared
that he was going North to Durham on leave
and that the taximen refused to take such as
he. Though mannerless he was a decent

creature, & offered to pay his share of the taxi fare, and
when I refused; to act as porter and take my luggage to
the train. He had been 15 years in the gunners.

Ormsacre
Since the autumn travelling has become more difficult &
trains are fewer; restaurant cars have been taken off;
and journeys by civilians by pleasure are not ap:
:proved. War time privations and
restrictions hem us in on every side but the
people accept them and do their best as they
understand the need for them – all, perhaps,
except the egg rationing scheme, which I have
not heard anyone approve. Two eggs each a
month, and these often are of doubtful antiquity
benefit no one. Milk is rationed to
2 pints a week for adults, but here we
suffer from difficulty of delivery and our
meagre allowance seldom, if ever, comes
in time for a late breakfast. Shop keepers
in town no longer send delivery vans out
here, except in one or two cases and that once a
week. Every day Catherine has to walk
the mile into the village to do her shopping
and get supplies. Meat is very strictly
rationed and on several occasions there
has been no meat at all in Edinburgh.
Oranges are released from time to time in
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  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Jane F Jamieson