| Description | This letter is undated, however, it contains many references to the housekeeper in Saxe-Meiningen who is referred to in another letter dated May 1871, indicating that the letter was written after this date.
Elizabeth's letter contains many references to family life back home in England, such as health and holidays. Elizabeth thanks her parents for their letter and parcel which had arrived safely commenting on the jacket, music, cake and sweets which they had sent to her. She remarks how nice it was to eat English cake and refers to the paintbox which they had sent to her sister Margaret (Pearlie) which she could 'scarcely take her eyes off'. Elizabeth adds that she had been playing on a merry-go-round with her school friends.
Elizabeth goes on to write in detail about how all the girls at the school detested their housekeeper, who was responsible for inspecting their rooms to ensure they were kept in good order. Elizabeth writes 'it is not tidyness, now, but everything!', remarking that the housekeeper had been acting, 'as though she was the chief of everyone here' and describing her as a 'tell tale'. Elizabeth tells her parents about an incident when the housekeeper had reminded the girls that once their lamps went out at night they were not allowed to get out of their beds. Elizabeth had decided to disobey this order in protest against the housekeeper's treatment of the girls. She writes that she had waited until she had heard the housekeeper coming and had 'jumped out of bed & made a great scamparing, as though rushing across the floor & jumped into bed with a terrific screech'. Following this, Elizabeth writes that she had been reprimanded for being 'very bad' by the Housekeeper. |