| Description | Elizabeth thanks her parents for the letter they had sent to her the previous Friday and remarks on her parents' plans to visit her and Margaret in Saxe-Meiningen. Elizabeth complains that Margaret (Pearlie) never had her letter home written on time, causing Elizabeth an inconvenient delay.
Elizabeth and her sister had asked the school's principal Miss Trinks if they could borrow English books from the library in the town of Saxe-Meiningen. Miss Trinks had consented and Elizabeth tells her parents that she had borrowed 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens and had read it in less than a day.
The school holidays had recently begun in Germany. Elizabeth notes that the girls had been allowed to stay in bed for as long as they liked on Saturday, with none of the girls getting up until at least half past ten. Elizabeth and some of the other girls had gone to the river to bathe in 'a concealed place'. The river was deep and the girls had experienced difficulties owing to the strong current. Elizabeth writes that the brother of a clergyman in Saxe-Meiningen (who Elizabeth notes was aged 70 and sufferred from asthma) had also been swimming in the river. The girls had stayed afloat using a board which Elizabeth writes she had accidentally pushed out into the river. She describes how the clergyman's brother had pulled the board back in, adding that she had been overcome by laughter at the incident.
Elizabeth asks her parents if they had found 'a heap of stones' when they had cleared out the room she shared back at home in Peckham with Margaret. She notes that the stones were 'relics of different places', adding that she hoped her parents had saved them for her. Elizabeth also sends her regards to her family and writes that she wished to attend the wedding of her aunt Caroline Cash. She adds that she hoped her family had enjoyed their visit to her Uncle Tom in Croydon who had been unwell.
Elizabeth concludes her letter remarking that the girls were enjoying 'Vanilla ice' in the hot weather.
This letter is dated 'Sunday 28th 1872' According to C. R. Cheyney's 'Handbook of Dates', the 28th fell on a Sunday in both April and July during 1872. Considering the references to hot weather, ice cream, bathing and holidays, the letter would appear to be from July. The Easter holidays would have been in March/early April as Easter Sunday fell on the 31st March in 1872. |