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[Page] 115
[continued from page 114]

The garden is getting into a sad state
of apparent neglect. and I am gradually
ceasing to cultivate rare plants in my
alpine-house as I have no one to look after
them when I am from home. A full-time
gardener is now quite beyond my means
wages have risen so high. As it is I pay
2/- an hour for a jobbing man! My
collection of Stage Auriculas with mealy
leaves have been given to the Botanical
Gardens as I had dermatitis all the time
I cultivated them. As I have been absolutely
free of it since they left there is no doubt that
they were the source of the trouble.

19th Sept. 1943,
This has been one of the worst early autumns
we have had for years! Crops cut a month
ago are still standing in stooks on the
stubbles and there has been an abnormal
fall of rain throughout the country with
only occasional fine days.
As on the last two years, largely in order to
give Catherine and her sister a good holiday
to visit their aged mother in Inverness, I went
South for a month, First I visited my old cousin
Kate Wilson Todd at Halnaby some eight miles
from Darlington, staying there some four days.

Thereafter going to So. [South] Nutfield to visit Mabel
Butler, for a couple of days. Lastly I proceeded
to Maiden Newton, Dorset, to pay a long visit to
the Mowbrays and enjoy the society of Cecil
and little Christian before they eventually
left for Ethiopia, to join Sandy, a journey,
which now has the approval of the Foreign Office.
Thus far I was lucky in my travelling ex:
:periences, being lucky in obtaining the
help of occasional porters to carry my heavy
suit case, and not having to wait long in a
queue for taxis. My heavy luggage I sent
in advance for the modest sum of 1/2d plus
insurance, and found it at Maiden Newton
station awaiting my arrival. My visit to
Chilfrome Cottage was as usual, a happy one.
To one who has to live alone and is socially
inclined, it is a delightful privilege to be
received into the family of one’s son’s in-laws.
as if one, in fact, belonged to it. The wet
weather, unfortunately aggravated my rheu:
:matism and kept the grassy meadows on
which I would fair have wandered, in a
soaking condition. However, the evil
was not really serious for I soon recovered
when I got home. I broke the journey in
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