| Description | Elizabeth thanks her parents for their letters and a newspaper which her father had sent to her. Elizabeth remarks on her mother Mary's headaches and notes how uncomfortable the beds were at school. She tells her parents about a forthcoming exam writing that the school's principal Miss Trinks had told the girls to dress smartly as 'all the grandees of the town' would be attending the exam. Elizabeth remarks that many of the girls would be wearing 'very pretty' dresses, and adds that her and her sister Margaret would be wearing their 'blue silks'.
As members of the Religious Society of Friends, the Taylor family had strict Quaker ethics and frowned upon elaborate dress. Elizabeth's letter reflects that she struggled under these rigid constraints, particularly when social occasions were planned at the school which required decorative clothing. Elizabeth writes that the school's principal, Miss Meyer was having a birthday party the following Thursday, asking her parents 'please what are we to wear'. She writes 'we can't wear our silks', remarking that one of the dances involved the girls dressing in white and complaining that she and Margaret had nothing suitable to wear.
Elizabeth writes that the girls had 'writing lessons' twice and sometimes three times a week at Saxe-Meiningen. She adds that their governess was 'fearfully particular' about them. Elizabeth feared that her piano playing would be judged 'shockingly bad' as the teachers were 'so particular' about technicalities and Elizabeth's mistakes infuriated her schoolmistress. She notes that many of the girls in the school at Saxe-Meiningen were the daughters of officers in the military services and concludes her letter by telling her parents that she was to play a pipe at Miss Meyer's birthday party. |