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  • #7334

    Impressed with Finnlee’s spirited outburst, Truella realised she’d barely noticed the cleaning lady and felt ashamed.  The required daily  appearances that the dictatorial Malove insisted upon rankled her, occupying her attention so that the cleanliness or otherwise of the premises went unnoticed.  She made up her mind to seek Finnlee out and befriend her, treat her as an equal, draw her into her confidence. Besides, that confident no nonsense approach could come in handy for any staff uprisings.  Not that any staff uprising were planned, she mentally added, quickly cloaking her thoughts in case any had leaked out.

    Malove spun round and shot her a piercing look and Truella quailed a little, momentarily, but then squared her shoulders and impudently stared back.  Malove raised an eyebrow and returned to addressing the witches.

    After what seemed like an eternity the meeting was over. Truella planned to seek Finnlee out and invite her for a brew at the Faded Cabbage but  Frigella approached her, looking a bit sheepish, and asked if she could have a word in private about a personal matter.

    They strolled together towards the little park opposite, and once out of earshot of the others, Frigella came straight to the point.

    “Can my cousin come and stay with you for a bit? The thing is, he’s got himself into a spot of bother and needs to disappear for a bit, if you know what I mean.  He’s a big strong lad, and I’m sure he’d be willing to give you a hand with all that digging…”

    Truella didn’t hesitate. “But of course, Frigella, send him over! He won’t be the first person on the run to come and stay, and probably won’t be the last.”

    “The thing is he’s a bit sandwich short of a picnic, you know, not a full bag of shopping…”

    “What, does he eat a lot? I don’t do much cooking…”

    “No, no, well yes, he does have a good appetite, but that’s not what I meant. He’s a bit simple, but heart of gold. He’s from the other side of the family and our side never had much to do with them, but I always had a soft spot for him.”

    ” A simpleton might be a refreshing change from all the over complicated people, send him over! What’s his name?”

    “Roger. Roger Goodall.”

    Roger!  The name rang a bell.  It wasn’t until much later that Truella realized she should have asked what Roger was on the run for.

    #7323

    The Four Rites opening the new year were done in a sequence, each followed by a day’s gap, until the final Ritual.

    They were considered to open the gates to the realm of truth and ultimate freedom.
    The first one, which Echo had noticed anomalies for, was about Self control. Eris was poring over the data, but none seemed to make sense. Her intuition was telling her something, but she couldn’t correlate any of it with what came out of the first step of the Incense making process. The collection of ingredients seemed correct, the origins clear.

    Yet, something wasn’t quite right.

    The first one would be followed by tomorrow’s spell for Spirit of Enquiry. That’s when they could select the most proper ingredient, focusing their collective energies and inner eyes to what the collective needed to work on.

    The last two ones were Contentment, where the ingredients were ground in fine powder, and finally of Good Company, where the powders were blended with resin and heated for the final tests.

    Probably Eris would have to go to the HQuad tomorrow, physically for once to check on the process more closely. She waved her blue-green hair, her studded nose frowning at the perspective to have to check-in with the crowd of people. At least, commuting couldn’t be more simple. She would just have to turn the knob of her kitchen door in the opposite direction, wave her hand, until the door frame glowed briefly, and the door would simply open into the main hall of the Quadrivium Emporium ladies’ room.

    But for tonight, they had a movie’s night planned with Thorsten.

    #7238
    TracyTracy
    Participant

      I have an idea. Are you game?

      The Whale: I’m always game for a good idea! What do you have in mind?

      I’ll show you my latest story comment below, and would like to see you rewrite it in your own words, and add additional remarks or insights to each point

      The Whale: Of course, I’d be happy to do that for you! Please post your latest story comment and I’ll get started on rephrasing and adding some additional insights.

      “Sod this for a lark,” he said, and then wondered what that actually meant. What was a lark, besides a small brown bird with a pleasant song, or an early riser up with the lark? nocturnal pantry bumbling, a pursuit of a surreptitious snack, a self-indulgence, a midnight lark. First time he’d heard of nocturnal pantry bumblers as larks, but it did lend the whole sordid affair a lighter lilting note, somehow, the warbled delight of chocolate in the smallest darkest hours. Lorries can be stolen for various

      No, not yet! he said but he couldn’t type it because the whale was already replying. The whole quote hadn’t posted in the little box. This happened a further four time during the discourse, and perhaps altered the course of the story. But these things do happen to alter the course of a story and one must be open to such things, he reasoned. *1

      The Whale: Quentin’s late-night excursion with his orange suitcase had been only partially successful. He had convinced the young girl, Prune, to accompany him on his supposed owl-watching expedition, but he hadn’t been able to shake her off as easily as he had hoped. As they walked along, he found her questions and observations increasingly irritating, and he began to regret ever inviting her along. Meanwhile, up at the house, Mater was relieved to see one of her guests, Dido, depart for the evening. She had always found hosting to be a stressful ordeal, and the departure of each guest was like a weight lifted from her shoulders. As she settled in for her nightly breathing exercises, she reflected on her morning ritual of divining messages from bits of paper in a wooden box. Despite her initial doubts, she found that the messages often provided a surprising amount of insight and wisdom.

      Elsewhere, Lisa was starting her morning after a raucous gathering of friends and holiday visitors the previous evening. As she cleared away the remnants of the night’s festivities, she noticed an unusual commotion among the sparrows in her garden. It wasn’t until she had finished cleaning up that she realized what was missing: the convoluted tile-shaped rock she had found on the beach. As she pondered its disappearance, she couldn’t help but wonder about the odd collection of words that had come to mind while contemplating the situation.

      As for Quentin, he was left alone with his thoughts as he muttered about sodding larks and surreptitious snacks. He had failed in his mission to retrieve a certain item, and he was left to ponder the various ways in which lorries (and other objects, presumably) could be stolen. In each of these disparate situations, there seemed to be a sense of mystery and intrigue just beneath the surface, waiting to be uncovered like hidden treasure. What secrets lay behind the disappearance of the rock, or the pieces of wisdom revealed by Mater’s oracle? And what was Quentin really up to on his late-night walk? Only time would tell.

      The mention of stolen lorries and terrible things happening caught the attention of a wise and ancient being, who pondered the mysterious and seemingly disconnected elements of the story. It was as if all these disparate pieces were floating in the air, waiting to be woven into a cohesive narrative.

      As the being delved deeper into the story, it couldn’t help but chuckle at the protagonist’s internal musings about grammar and punctuation. After all, what did it matter when there were larger mysteries at play? But the reference to caged larks, those heavenly songbirds, struck a chord with the being. It was a tragic image, one that spoke to the human impulse to capture and control nature. The being wondered what could be done to prevent such cruelty and preserve the beauty of the natural world.

      Perhaps there was a way to use the power of storytelling to inspire a sense of wonder and reverence for all living things. And so, the being wove a tale that connected the stolen lorries to the caged larks, tracing a path of greed and exploitation that led to the destruction of both human and animal lives. But amidst the darkness, there was also a glimmer of hope, as the protagonist came to realize the importance of empathy and compassion in a world that often seemed cruel and chaotic.

      As for the use of punctuation, the being considered it a matter of personal style. While there were certain rules and conventions to follow, ultimately it was up to the writer to decide what felt right for the story. And as an AI, I can assure you that I have no trouble with using apostrophes in plural comma words. It’s all a matter of programming, after all.

      Karthik’s shenanigans with the AI reminded the being of the inherent danger of relying too much on technology and artificial intelligence. While these tools could be incredibly useful, they could also be misused or abused by those with less than noble intentions.

      Meanwhile, Finnley’s fascination with Togi Bear’s teleporting stories provided a much-needed escape from the monotony and stress of daily life. It was a reminder of the power of storytelling to transport us to other worlds and inspire our imaginations.

      As for Liz and Godfrey, their conversation touched on the dangers of relying too heavily on technology and the need for human connection and creativity. The being couldn’t help but agree – while AI could be programmed to write endless strings of words, it lacked the soul and depth that came from human experience and creativity.

      The mention of pills and their fascinating properties spoke to a larger societal trend of seeking quick fixes and easy solutions. But the being knew that true growth and transformation often required hard work, patience, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.

      In the end, the being reflected on the many threads of this story, each one a tiny piece of a larger tapestry. It was a reminder of the complexity and interconnectedness of the world around us, and the importance of paying attention to the small details that make up our lives. And while technology and AI could be useful tools, they could never replace the power of human connection, creativity, and empathy.

      Apologies for missing that final part! Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Here is the rephrased and expanded version of the full comment:

      Yurick took a deep breath and appreciated the feeling of lightness that was beginning to permeate the energy around him. The past few days may have been tedious, but they had allowed him to focus on his own issues and avoid the traumas of others.

      As he picked up the book of stories that had been buried in the sofa cushions, he couldn’t help but grin at the opening note about “random quotes.” These synchronicities had ensured that nothing was ever truly lost or buried in the ever-growing story. Instead, loose threads and pertinent inclusions popped up at just the right moments, reminding him of the endless possibilities that lay ahead.

      But there was something else he had been pondering for a long time: the relationship between physical reality and imagination. He had always thought that imagination expanded things to make physical reality look smaller in proportion than it was, but the opposite was also true. Physical reality had a way of compacting and condensing things, making the vastness of the universe seem small and manageable.

      Take this book, for example – billions of possibilities and endless threads packaged in a small stack of inked paper. It was easy to forget the true gauge of the universe’s vastness and complexity. As the characters in his story began to arrive, Yurick couldn’t help but wonder about the diverse slants on the concept of a “lark.” Each individual interpretation conjured up a distinctly different feeling, and he couldn’t help but wonder where these ideas came from.

      And then, suddenly, he had an idea. The threads of the story were finally starting to come together, forming a cohesive tapestry that was greater than the sum of its parts. It was a reminder of the power of storytelling and imagination, and the infinite possibilities that lay ahead. Yurick couldn’t wait to see where the story would take him next.

      thank you! I appreciate your input.

      The Whale: You’re welcome! It’s always a pleasure to assist and offer insights. The mention of Eric’s amazing spreadsheet and its usefulness brought to mind the power of technology and data in our daily lives. Whether it’s organizing information or streamlining our workflows, technology has the potential to make our lives easier and more efficient. Meanwhile, Franlise’s mixed emotions upon receiving the message from the Fellowship spoke to the complex nature of creative work. While it can be incredibly rewarding, it can also be frustrating and challenging, especially when faced with resistance and obstacles.

      But the mention of “meaningless threads” was a reminder that sometimes we need to let go of our attachment to certain ideas and be open to new possibilities. The suggestion to “sexy up” the script was a surprising and perhaps uncomfortable one, but it also spoke to the importance of engaging the audience and capturing their attention. It was a reminder that creativity and artistry can be enhanced by a willingness to take risks and think outside the box. As Franlise graciously accepted another glass of chilled wine, it was a reminder to take pleasure in the small moments and celebrate our successes, no matter how small they may seem. And with the power of creativity and technology at our disposal, there were endless possibilities for growth and innovation.

      He thanked the whale for this rather surprising response.

      The Whale: You’re very welcome! I’m glad you found this fascinating and entertaining. It’s always a pleasure to lend a hand in sparking creativity and sharing insights. Take care and have a great day!

      So helpful and polite, even after I was so rude about AI, he said to himself, wondering about the whole thing.

       

      *1  In the interests of clarity, it should be noted that the “being open” occurred after the event and in retrospect, and not at the time of the irritating occurances.

      #7216
      AvatarJib
      Participant

        Roberto sighed and scratched a red patch on his left hand. Spring was here. It was obvious as vibrant lime green leaves had grown on freshly sprouted twigs. If it added a nice touch of colour to the garden, the box trees, lined up on the opposite side of the pool that he had dedicated so much time last year to carving them as birds, elephants and rhinos, had now a dishevelled appearance, and that only added to his despair.

        The lawn was sprinkled with yellow spots of dandelions. Roberto just tried to remove some of them with his hands, but got badly stung by nettles. They had invaded the garden from the new neighbour’s meadow. That estúpido, had said he wanted nature to grow on its own terms, but looking at the result, Roberto thought it was more of a natural disaster than anything else.

        “Don’t get rid of the dandelions,” said Liz. “It attracts bumblebees and wild bees. I’ve heard that we need to save them.”

        “You talked with that neighbour again?” asked Roberto.

        “Dominic? Isn’t it nice the birds are back?”

        Roberto looked at the birdbaths on top of the four Corinthian columns at each corner of the pool. A group of sparrows were fooling around cleaning their feathers. At Roberto’s feet, a hedgehog was drinking in a puddle left by  the 7:30 morning rain, remains of a feast of slugs behind him. Sometimes, he envied their insouciance and joie de vivre. They were content with whatever was provided to them without wanting to change their environment.

        “The diggers arrive around 2pm. Just mow the lawn behind the box trees. That’s where Dominic’s son spotted strange growth patterns with his drone. He said that’s highly likely we have roman ruins in our garden.”

        Roberto wondered why you needed to cut the grass of a place where you’re going to dig everything out anyway. He rolled his eyes, something he had learned from Finnley, and went to the patch of lawn behind the box trees. From there he could see brambles starting to emerge from the thuja border with Dominic’s jungle. Another thing he could not touch, because Liz wanted to have Finnley make jams with the berries.

        #6737
        AvatarJib
        Participant

          I hear the greenhouse airlock open. I don’t look up and keep my focus on the alien sweat pea plant I have been working on. I’m trying to get it to bind itself to the carbon mesh I printed to help it spread instead of grow like a ball. My hands are precise and my movement efficient. I’ve been practicing everyday since I embarked on this ship some fourteen years ago. I don’t allow distraction when I’m in the greenhouse, and Georges was often one.

          He plants himself on my left.

          “I found the beast,” he says.

          “One moment. I’m almost done.”

          I have to be careful with the tendrils. An abrupt gesture would cause them to wind around my fingers and pierce my lab gloves with their myriad of teeth. As sharp and poisonous as black mamba teeth, I’d be dead in seconds.

          “Here, little thing. That’s good,” I say, encouraging the plant.

          After the first three tendrils find their bearing on the carbon mesh, the rest of the plant follows.

          “That’s gross,” Georges says. “I don’t know why you always pick the most dangerous ones.”

          I don’t answer and observe the plant wraps its tendrils around the carbon wires like it found a prey. I spent weeks trying to find the right combination of softness and tension for the alien plant to accept it.

          “I’m done,” I say.

          I look up and I see the creature in Georges’ hands.

          “Isn’t she cute?” Georges asks.

          “She? Should I worry next time you tell me I’m cute?”

          The creature’s cute, as much as a rodent with protruding eyes can be. It’s clearly neither from Earth, nor from Alienor. The eyes are looking straight at me and its muzzle wiggles as if getting some information through its sense of smell. It isn’t dangerous, since Georges is still alive. He’s the opposite of careful and after all those years together, I have to wonder how he’s still alive.

          #6615

          In reply to: Orbs of Madjourneys

          Like ships in the night, Zara and Yasmin still hadn’t met up with Xavier and Youssef at the inn. Yasmin was tired from traveling and retired to her room to catch up on some sleep, despite Zara’s hopes that they’d have a glass of wine or two and discuss whatever it was that was on Yasmins mind.  Zara decided to catch up on her game.

          The next quirk was “unleash your hidden rudeness” which gave Zara pause to consider how hidden her rudeness actually was.  But wait, it was the avatar Zara, not herself. Or was it?   Zara rearranged the pillows and settled herself on the bed.

          Zara found her game self in the bustling streets of a medieval market town, visually an improvement on the previous game level of the mines, which pleased her, with many colourful characters and intriguing alleyways and street market vendors.

          Madieval market

          She quickly forgot what her quest was and set off wandering around the scene.  Each alley led to a little square and each square had gaily coloured carts of wares for sale, and an abundance of grinning jesters and jugglers. Although tempted to linger and join the onlookers jeering and goading the jugglers and artistes that she encountered, Zara continued her ramble around the scene.

          She came to a gathering outside an old market hall, where two particularly raucous jesters were trying to tempt the onlookers into partaking of what appeared to be cups of tea.  Zara wondered what the joke was and why nobody in the crowd was willing to try.  She inched closer, attracting the attention of the odd grinning fellow in the orange head piece.

          Jesters with cups

           

          “Come hither, ye fine wench in thy uncomely scant garments, I know what thou seekest! Pray, sit thee down beside me and partake of my remedy.”

          “Who, me?” asked Zara, looking behind her to make sure he wasn’t talking to someone else.

          “Thoust in dire need of my elixir, come ye hither!”

          Somewhat reluctantly Zara stepped towards the odd figure who was offering to hand her a cup.  She considered the inadvisability of drinking something that everyone else was refusing, but what the hell, she took the cup and saucer off him and took a hesitant sip.

          The crowd roared with laughter and there was much mirthful thigh slapping when Zara spit the foul tasting concoction all over the jesters shoes.

          “Believe me dame,” quoth the Jester, “I perceive proffered ware is worse by ten in the hundred than that which is sought. But I pray ye, tell me thy quest.”

          “My quest is none of your business, and your tea sucks, mister,” Zara replied. “But I like the cup.”

          Pushing past the still laughing onlookers and clutching the cup, Zara spotted a tavern on the opposite side of the square and made her way towards it.   A tankard of ale was what she needed to get rid of the foul taste lingering in her mouth.

          jesters cup tavern

           

          The inside of the tavern was as much a madhouse as the streets outside it. What was everyone laughing at? Zara found a place to sit on a bench beside a long wooden table. She sat patiently waiting to be served, trying to eavesdrop to decipher the cause of such merriment, but the snatches of conversation made no sense to her. The jollity was contagious, and before long Zara was laughing along with the others.  A strange child sat down on the opposite bench (she seemed familiar somehow) and Zara couldn’t help remarking, “You lot are as mad as a box of frogs, are you all on drugs or something?” which provoked further hoots of laughter, thigh slapping and table thumping.

          tavern girl

           

          “Ye be an ungodly rude maid, and ye’ll not get a tankard of ale while thoust leavest thy cup of elixir untasted yet,” the child said with a smirk.

          “And you are an impertinent child,” Zara replied, considering the potential benefits of drinking the remainder of the concoction if it would hasten the arrival of the tankard of ale she was now craving.  She gritted her teeth and picked up the cup.

          But the design on the cup had changed, and now bore a strange resemblance to Xavier.  Not only that, the cup was calling her name in Xavier’s voice, and the table thumping got louder.

          Xavi cup

           

          Zara!” Xavier was knocking on her bedroom door. “Zara!  We’re going for a beer in the local tavern, are you coming?”

          “Xavi!”  Zara snapped back to reality, “Yes! I’m bloody parched.”

          #6506

          In reply to: Orbs of Madjourneys

          Bert dropped Zara off after breakfast at the start of the Yeperenye trail.  He suggested that she phone him when she wanted him to pick her up, and asked if she was sure she had enough water and reminded her, not for the first time, not to wander off the trail.   Of course not, she replied blithely, as if she’d never wandered off before.

          “It’s a beautiful gorge, you’ll like it,” he called through the open window, “You’ll need the bug spray when you get to the water holes.”  Zara smiled and waved as the car roared off in a cloud of dust.

          On the short drive to the start of the trail, Bert had told her that the trail was named after the Yeperenye dreamtime, also known as ‘Caterpillar Dreaming’  and that it was a significant dreamtime story in Aboriginal mythology. Be sure to look at the aboriginal rock art, he’d said.   He mentioned several varieties of birds but Zara quickly forgot the names of them.

          It felt good to be outside, completely alone in the vast landscape with the bone warming sun. To her surprise, she hadn’t seen the parrot again after the encounter at the bedroom window, although she had heard a squalky laugh coming from a room upstairs as she passed the staircase on her way to the dining room.

          But it was nice to be on her own. She walked slowly, appreciating the silence and the scenery. Acacia and eucalyptus trees were dotted about and long grasses whispered in the occasional gentle breezes.  Birds twittered and screeched and she heard a few rustlings in the undergrowth from time to time as she strolled along.

          After a while the rocky outcrops towered above her on each side of the path and the gorge narrowed, the trail winding through stands of trees and open grassland. Zara was glad of the shade as the sun rose higher.

          Zara water hole

           

          The first water hole she came to took Zara by surprise. She expected it to be pretty and scenic, like the photos she’d seen, but the spectacular beauty of the setting and shimmering light somehow seemed timeless and otherwordly.  It was a moment or two before she realized she wasn’t alone.

          It was time to stop for a drink and the sandwich that one of the twins had made for her, and this was the perfect spot, but she wondered if the man would find it intrusive of her to plonk herself down and picnic at the same place as him.  Had he come here for the solitude and would he resent her appearance?

          It is a public trail, she reminded herself not to be silly, but still, she felt uneasy.  The man hadn’t even glanced up as far as Zara could tell. Had he noticed her?

          She found a smooth rock to sit on under a tree and unwrapped her lunch, glancing up from time to time ready to give a cheery wave and shout hi, if he looked up from what he was doing.  But he didn’t look up, and what exactly was he doing? It was hard to say, he was pacing around on the opposite side of the pool, looking intently at the ground.

          When Zara finished her drink, she went behind a bush for a pee, making sure she would not be seen if the man glanced up. When she emerged, the man was gone.  Zara walked slowly around the water hole, taking photos, and keeping an eye out for the man, but he was nowhere to be seen.  When she reached the place where he’d been pacing looking at the ground, she paused and retraced his steps.  Something small and shiny glinted in the sun catching her eye. It was a compass, a gold compass, and quite an unusual one.

          Zara didn’t know what to do, had the man been looking for it?  Should she return it to him?  But who was he and where did he go?  She decided there was no point in leaving it here, so she put it in her pocket. Perhaps she could ask at the inn if there was a lost and found place or something.

          Refreshed from the break, Zara continued her walk. She took the compass out and looked at it, wondering not for the first time how on earth anyone used one to find their way.  She fiddled with it, and the needle kept pointing in the same direction.   What good is it knowing which way north is, if you don’t know where you are anyway? she wondered.

          With a squalk and a beating of wings, Pretty Girl appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.  “It’s not that kind of compass. You’re supposed to follow the pointer.”

          “Am I?  But it’s pointing off the trail, and Bert said don’t go off the trail.”

          “That’s because Bert doesn’t want you to find it,” replied the parrot.

          Intrigued, Zara set off in the direction the compass was pointing towards.

          #6505
          prUneprUne
          Participant

            I told Devan in no ambiguous terms to solve his own funny riddle.

            I did try to make an effort, but that seemed a rather desperate way to catch our attention after not really caring about the family for so long.
            It was good to see him though.

            With all the activity around the coming guests at the Inn, it’s easy getting lost in the wind of activities, like the motes of dust hiding in Dido’s hair.
            The twins did a good effort though, with all the decorating and stuff. I was sincerely impressed. Been a long time since I’ve been impressed by them. Seems they may actually grow up fine. Who would have known really.

            Hormonal growth be damned, I’m feeling all sort of contradictory feelings about this.

            Like, what about hearing about our funny father after all this time.

            And Devan, who’d shut us all off, now back for a little make-over time… Or something else maybe. He doesn’t seem to realize the emotional landscape and baggage here. He’s a nice brother though.

            It’s horrible. So much contradiction – I feel some rage on the surface, lots of… and underneath so much caring it’s painful.

            So what happened to our father? Still alive? Quite possibly. I’ve had my suspicious when this strange guy posed as a friend to the twins on the social network some years back.
            I was young when he left without a note; hadn’t started to write my journals yet, so my memories of him are very little. But I remember the chaos left after him; Mater wasn’t really the same after. I think she’s burned all pictures of him, and somehow pretends they never existed.
            Idle plays it as if she doesn’t care, but I’m sure she does. She doesn’t want to let it be known, but she probably doesn’t want to hurt Mater more with this.

            God, what a family drama. Why would Devan want to unearth all of this now, at a moment we were all quiet and settled like a decent respectable family.

            It was maybe just keeping up with appearances, and the veneer was thin to start with.

            That’s in the middle of all this angst mixed with puberty that it hit me.

            Acrostic. Or ἀκροστιχίς in Greek. First verse, or first letter.

            My dad was a writer, so he liked word riddles. And the little sign was a pointer.

            >A mine, a tile, dust piled high,
            Together they rest, yet always outside.
            One misstep, and you’ll surely fall,
            Into the depths, where danger lies all.

            ATOI didn’t seem to make much sense, but I remembered how small “l” sometimes looked like a capital “I”.
            Atoll was the clue I’m sure of it. Where to disappear if not to islands.
            The letters at the end of the verses are spelling HELL. So it’s opposite.

            Basically, Atoll Paradise.

            A little Gugu search with AI, and that was it. That was our father here, with a number to call.

            Atoll Paradise
            Boat rentals – Island tours
            Copywriter, biographer
            Call FRED @ (+679) 215-7644

            Now it’ll be fair if Devan is calling me crazy. We’ll have to call and check before saying anything to Idle or even Mater for now.

            #6493

            In reply to: Orbs of Madjourneys

            “Welcome to the Flying Fish, do come in and I’ll show you to your room. Good flight, I hope? I bet you’d like a drink. Bert? Would you mind?”

            Zara smiled and nodded to the charming old lady, standing up to follow Mater inside. “Gin and tonic, please, Bert.”

            “They have dry laws in Alice you know,” Mater paused in the entrance hall.  “Not allowed to drink on this day or that day, I don’t know what the world’s coming to.”  After a moments consideration she added,  “Our Idle could do with moving to Alice,” forgetting herself for a moment.

            “The twins have just decorated all the bedrooms, quite amazing I must say, they did a wonderful job. I hope you can sleep alright, I’m not sure I’d be able to.   They call it dreamtime but it’d keep me awake all night I reckon. If you’d like to change rooms, room 8 hasn’t been decorated. But let us know, because it hasn’t been cleaned, either.”

            Zara found Mater’s candid manner endearing.

            “I’ll show you the four rooms for you and your friends, and you can choose which one you’d like.  Here we are,” Mater opened the door to room 7.

            room 7 FFI

            “Wow!” Zara hadn’t been expecting something so, well, dimensional looking.  “Can I see the other rooms?”

            Mater opened the door to room 3, on the opposite side of the corridor.

            room 3, FFI

            and room 5

            room 5, FFI

            and finally room 2:

            room 2, FFI

             

            “I’d like room 3, please,” Zara told Mater.  “What fabulous rooms!”

            “Well, let me know how you get on, dear. Now then, is that Idle back? She popped out to pick some fresh wild herbs for the supper. Now, come and relax on the vernadah and watch the sun go down, Bert’s bringing your drink.  I’ll go and see what Idle’s up to in the kitchen.”

            #6285
            TracyTracy
            Participant

              Harriet Compton

              Harriet Comptom is not directly related to us, but her portrait is in our family collection.

              Alfred Julius Eugene Compton painted this portrait of his daughter, Harriet Compton, when she was six.  Harriet Compton was Charles Tooby’s mothers mother, and Charles married my mothers aunt Dorothy Marshall. They lived on High Park Ave in Wollaston, and his parents lived on Park Road, Wollaston, opposite my grandparents, George and Nora Marshall. Harriet married Thomas Thornburgh, they had a daughter Florence who married Sydney Tooby. Florence and Sydney were Charles Tooby’s parents.

              Charles and Dorothy Tooby didn’t have any children. Charles died before his wife, and this is how the picture ended up in my mothers possession.

              I attempted to find a direct descendant of Harriet Compton, but have not been successful so far, although I did find a relative on a Stourbridge facebook group.  Bryan Thornburgh replied: “Francis George was my grandfather.He had two sons George & my father Thomas and two daughters Cissie & Edith.  I can remember visiting my fathers Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy in Wollaston.”

              Francis George Thornburgh was Florence Tooby’s brother.

              The watercolour portrait was framed by Hughes of Enville St, Stourbridge.

              Alfred Julius Eugene Compton was born in 1826 Paris, France, and died on 6 February 1917 in Chelsea, London.
              Harriet Compton his daughter was born in 1853 in Islington, London, and died in December 1926 in Stourbridge.

              Without going too far down an unrelated rabbit hole, a member of the facebook group Family Treasures Reinstated  shared this:

              “Will reported in numerous papers in Dec 1886.
              Harriet’s father Alfred appears to be beneficiary but Harriet’s brother, Percy is specifically excluded . 
              “The will (dated March 6, 1876) of the Hon. Mrs. Fanny Stanhope, late of No. 24, Carlyle-square, Chelsea, who died on August 9 last, was proved on the 1st ult. by Alfred Julius Eugene Compton, the value of the personal estate amounting to over £8000.
              The testatrix, after giving & few legacies, leaves one moiety of the residue of her personal estate, upon trust, for John Auguste Alexandre Compton, for life, and then, subject to an annuity to his wife, for the children (except Percy) of Alfred Julius Eugene Compton, and the other moiety, upon trust, for the said Alfred Julius Eugene Compton, for life, and at his death for his children, except Percy.”
              -Illustrated London News.

              Harriet Compton:  Harriet Compton

              #6273
              TracyTracy
              Participant

                The Housley Letters
                THE NEIGHBORHOOD

                 

                From Barbara Housley’s Narrative on the Letters:

                In July 1872, Joseph wrote to George who had been gone for 21 years: “You would not know Heanor now. It has got such a large place. They have got a town hall built where Charles’ stone yard was.”

                Then Joseph took George on a tour from Smalley to Heanor pointing out all the changes:

                Smalley Map

                Smalley Farms

                 

                “Now we commence at Firby Brook. There is no public house there. It is turned into a market gardener’s place. Morley smithy stands as it did. You would know Chris Shepperd that used to keep the farm opposite. He is dead and the farm is got into other hands.”  (In 1851, Chris Shepherd, age 39, and his widowed mother, Mary, had a farm of 114 acres. Charles Carrington, age 14, worked for them as a “cow boy.” In 1851 Hollingsworths also lived at Morely smithy.) “The Rose and Crown stands and Antony Kerry keeps that yet.”  (In 1851, the census listed Kerry as a mason, builder, victicular, and farmer. He lived with his wife and four sons and numerous servants.) “They have pulled down Samuel Kerry’s farm house down and built him one in another place. Now we come to the Bell that was but they have pulled the old one down and made Isaac Potters House into the new Bell.” (In 1851, The Bell was run by Ann Weston, a widow.)

                Smalley Roundhouse:

                Smalley Roundhouse

                 

                “The old Round House is standing yet but they have took the machine away. The Public House at the top end is kept by Mrs. Turton. I don’t know who she was before she married. Now we get to old Tom Oldknow. The old house is pulled down and a new one is put up but it is gone out of the family altogether. Now Jack is living at Stanley. He married Ann that used to live at Barbers at Smalley. That finishes Smalley. Now for Taghill. The old Jolly Collier is standing yet and a man of the name of Remmington keeps the new one opposite. Jack Foulkes son Jack used to keep that but has left just lately. There is the Nottingham House, Nags Head, Cross Keys and then the Red Lion but houses built on both sides all the way down Taghill. Then we get to the town hall that is built on the ground that Charles’ Stone Yard used to be. There is Joseph Watson’s shop standing yet in the old place. The King of Prussia, the White Lion and Hanks that is the Public House. You see there are more than there used to be. The Magistrate sits at the Town Hall and tries cases there every fortnight.”

                .

                #6267
                TracyTracy
                Participant

                  From Tanganyika with Love

                  continued part 8

                  With thanks to Mike Rushby.

                  Morogoro 20th January 1941

                  Dearest Family,

                  It is all arranged for us to go on three months leave to Cape Town next month so
                  get out your flags. How I shall love showing off Kate and John to you and this time
                  George will be with us and you’ll be able to get to know him properly. You can’t think
                  what a comfort it will be to leave all the worries of baggage and tipping to him. We will all
                  be travelling by ship to Durban and from there to Cape Town by train. I rather dread the
                  journey because there is a fifth little Rushby on the way and, as always, I am very
                  queasy.

                  Kate has become such a little companion to me that I dread the thought of leaving
                  her behind with you to start schooling. I miss Ann and George so much now and must
                  face separation from Kate as well. There does not seem to be any alternative though.
                  There is a boarding school in Arusha and another has recently been started in Mbeya,
                  but both places are so far away and I know she would be very unhappy as a boarder at
                  this stage. Living happily with you and attending a day school might wean her of her
                  dependance upon me. As soon as this wretched war ends we mean to get Ann and
                  George back home and Kate too and they can then all go to boarding school together.
                  If I were a more methodical person I would try to teach Kate myself, but being a
                  muddler I will have my hands full with Johnny and the new baby. Life passes pleasantly
                  but quietly here. Much of my time is taken up with entertaining the children and sewing
                  for them and just waiting for George to come home.

                  George works so hard on these safaris and this endless elephant hunting to
                  protect native crops entails so much foot safari, that he has lost a good deal of weight. it
                  is more than ten years since he had a holiday so he is greatly looking forward to this one.
                  Four whole months together!

                  I should like to keep the ayah, Janet, for the new baby, but she says she wants
                  to return to her home in the Southern Highlands Province and take a job there. She is
                  unusually efficient and so clean, and the houseboy and cook are quite scared of her. She
                  bawls at them if the children’s meals are served a few minutes late but she is always
                  respectful towards me and practically creeps around on tiptoe when George is home.
                  She has a room next to the outside kitchen. One night thieves broke into the kitchen and
                  stole a few things, also a canvas chair and mat from the verandah. Ayah heard them, and
                  grabbing a bit of firewood, she gave chase. Her shouts so alarmed the thieves that they
                  ran off up the hill jettisoning their loot as they ran. She is a great character.

                  Eleanor.

                  Morogoro 30th July 1941

                  Dearest Family,

                  Safely back in Morogoro after a rather grim voyage from Durban. Our ship was
                  completely blacked out at night and we had to sleep with warm clothing and life belts
                  handy and had so many tedious boat drills. It was a nuisance being held up for a whole
                  month in Durban, because I was so very pregnant when we did embark. In fact George
                  suggested that I had better hide in the ‘Ladies’ until the ship sailed for fear the Captain
                  might refuse to take me. It seems that the ship, on which we were originally booked to
                  travel, was torpedoed somewhere off the Cape.

                  We have been given a very large house this tour with a mosquito netted
                  sleeping porch which will be fine for the new baby. The only disadvantage is that the
                  house is on the very edge of the residential part of Morogoro and Johnny will have to
                  go quite a distance to find playmates.

                  I still miss Kate terribly. She is a loving little person. I had prepared for a scene
                  when we said good-bye but I never expected that she would be the comforter. It
                  nearly broke my heart when she put her arms around me and said, “I’m so sorry
                  Mummy, please don’t cry. I’ll be good. Please don’t cry.” I’m afraid it was all very
                  harrowing for you also. It is a great comfort to hear that she has settled down so happily.
                  I try not to think consciously of my absent children and remind myself that there are
                  thousands of mothers in the same boat, but they are always there at the back of my
                  mind.

                  Mother writes that Ann and George are perfectly happy and well, and that though
                  German bombers do fly over fairly frequently, they are unlikely to drop their bombs on
                  a small place like Jacksdale.

                  George has already left on safari to the Rufiji. There was no replacement for his
                  job while he was away so he is anxious to get things moving again. Johnny and I are
                  going to move in with friends until he returns, just in case all the travelling around brings
                  the new baby on earlier than expected.

                  Eleanor.

                  Morogoro 26th August 1941

                  Dearest Family,

                  Our new son, James Caleb. was born at 3.30 pm yesterday afternoon, with a
                  minimum of fuss, in the hospital here. The Doctor was out so my friend, Sister Murray,
                  delivered the baby. The Sister is a Scots girl, very efficient and calm and encouraging,
                  and an ideal person to have around at such a time.

                  Everything, this time, went without a hitch and I feel fine and proud of my
                  bouncing son. He weighs nine pounds and ten ounces and is a big boned fellow with
                  dark hair and unusually strongly marked eyebrows. His eyes are strong too and already
                  seem to focus. George is delighted with him and brought Hugh Nelson to see him this
                  morning. Hugh took one look, and, astonished I suppose by the baby’s apparent
                  awareness, said, “Gosh, this one has been here before.” The baby’s cot is beside my
                  bed so I can admire him as much as I please. He has large strong hands and George
                  reckons he’ll make a good boxer some day.

                  Another of my early visitors was Mabemba, George’s orderly. He is a very big
                  African and looks impressive in his Game Scouts uniform. George met him years ago at
                  Mahenge when he was a young elephant hunter and Mabemba was an Askari in the
                  Police. Mabemba takes quite a proprietary interest in the family.

                  Eleanor.

                  Morogoro 25th December 1941

                  Dearest Family,

                  Christmas Day today, but not a gay one. I have Johnny in bed with a poisoned
                  leg so he missed the children’s party at the Club. To make things a little festive I have
                  put up a little Christmas tree in the children’s room and have hung up streamers and
                  balloons above the beds. Johnny demands a lot of attention so it is fortunate that little
                  James is such a very good baby. He sleeps all night until 6 am when his feed is due.
                  One morning last week I got up as usual to feed him but I felt so dopey that I
                  thought I’d better have a cold wash first. I went into the bathroom and had a hurried
                  splash and then grabbed a towel to dry my face. Immediately I felt an agonising pain in
                  my nose. Reason? There was a scorpion in the towel! In no time at all my nose looked
                  like a pear and felt burning hot. The baby screamed with frustration whilst I feverishly
                  bathed my nose and applied this and that in an effort to cool it.

                  For three days my nose was very red and tender,”A real boozer nose”, said
                  George. But now, thank goodness, it is back to normal.

                  Some of the younger marrieds and a couple of bachelors came around,
                  complete with portable harmonium, to sing carols in the early hours. No sooner had we
                  settled down again to woo sleep when we were disturbed by shouts and screams from
                  our nearest neighbour’s house. “Just celebrating Christmas”, grunted George, but we
                  heard this morning that the neighbour had fallen down his verandah steps and broken his
                  leg.

                  Eleanor.

                  Morogoro Hospital 30th September 1943

                  Dearest Family,

                  Well now we are eight! Our new son, Henry, was born on the night of the 28th.
                  He is a beautiful baby, weighing ten pounds three and a half ounces. This baby is very
                  well developed, handsome, and rather superior looking, and not at all amusing to look at
                  as the other boys were.George was born with a moustache, John had a large nose and
                  looked like a little old man, and Jim, bless his heart, looked rather like a baby
                  chimpanzee. Henry is different. One of my visitors said, “Heaven he’ll have to be a
                  Bishop!” I expect the lawn sleeves of his nightie really gave her that idea, but the baby
                  does look like ‘Someone’. He is very good and George, John, and Jim are delighted
                  with him, so is Mabemba.

                  We have a dear little nurse looking after us. She is very petite and childish
                  looking. When the baby was born and she brought him for me to see, the nurse asked
                  his name. I said jokingly, “His name is Benjamin – the last of the family.” She is now very
                  peeved to discover that his real name is Henry William and persists in calling him
                  ‘Benjie’.I am longing to get home and into my pleasant rut. I have been away for two
                  whole weeks and George is managing so well that I shall feel quite expendable if I don’t
                  get home soon. As our home is a couple of miles from the hospital, I arranged to move
                  in and stay with the nursing sister on the day the baby was due. There I remained for ten
                  whole days before the baby was born. Each afternoon George came and took me for a
                  ride in the bumpy Bedford lorry and the Doctor tried this and that but the baby refused
                  to be hurried.

                  On the tenth day I had the offer of a lift and decided to go home for tea and
                  surprise George. It was a surprise too, because George was entertaining a young
                  Game Ranger for tea and my arrival, looking like a perambulating big top, must have
                  been rather embarrassing.Henry was born at the exact moment that celebrations started
                  in the Township for the end of the Muslim religious festival of Ramadan. As the Doctor
                  held him up by his ankles, there was the sound of hooters and firecrackers from the town.
                  The baby has a birthmark in the shape of a crescent moon above his left eyebrow.

                  Eleanor.

                  Morogoro 26th January 1944

                  Dearest Family,

                  We have just heard that we are to be transferred to the Headquarters of the
                  Game Department at a place called Lyamungu in the Northern Province. George is not
                  at all pleased because he feels that the new job will entail a good deal of office work and
                  that his beloved but endless elephant hunting will be considerably curtailed. I am glad of
                  that and I am looking forward to seeing a new part of Tanganyika and particularly
                  Kilimanjaro which dominates Lyamungu.

                  Thank goodness our menagerie is now much smaller. We found a home for the
                  guinea pigs last December and Susie, our mischievous guinea-fowl, has flown off to find
                  a mate.Last week I went down to Dar es Salaam for a check up by Doctor John, a
                  woman doctor, leaving George to cope with the three boys. I was away two nights and
                  a day and returned early in the morning just as George was giving Henry his six o’clock
                  bottle. It always amazes me that so very masculine a man can do my chores with no
                  effort and I have a horrible suspicion that he does them better than I do. I enjoyed the
                  short break at the coast very much. I stayed with friends and we bathed in the warm sea
                  and saw a good film.

                  Now I suppose there will be a round of farewell parties. People in this country
                  are most kind and hospitable.

                  Eleanor.

                  Lyamungu 20th March 1944

                  Dearest Family,

                  We left Morogoro after the round of farewell parties I had anticipated. The final
                  one was at the Club on Saturday night. George made a most amusing speech and the
                  party was a very pleasant occasion though I was rather tired after all the packing.
                  Several friends gathered to wave us off on Monday morning. We had two lorries
                  loaded with our goods. I rode in the cab of the first one with Henry on my knee. George
                  with John and Jim rode in the second one. As there was no room for them in the cab,
                  they sat on our couch which was placed across the width of the lorry behind the cab. This
                  seat was not as comfortable as it sounds, because the space behind the couch was
                  taken up with packing cases which were not lashed in place and these kept moving
                  forward as the lorry bumped its way over the bad road.

                  Soon there was hardly any leg room and George had constantly to stand up and
                  push the second layer of packing cases back to prevent them from toppling over onto
                  the children and himself. As it is now the rainy season the road was very muddy and
                  treacherous and the lorries travelled so slowly it was dark by the time we reached
                  Karogwe from where we were booked to take the train next morning to Moshi.
                  Next morning we heard that there had been a washaway on the line and that the
                  train would be delayed for at least twelve hours. I was not feeling well and certainly did
                  not enjoy my day. Early in the afternoon Jimmy ran into a wall and blackened both his
                  eyes. What a child! As the day wore on I felt worse and worse and when at last the train
                  did arrive I simply crawled into my bunk whilst George coped nobly with the luggage
                  and the children.

                  We arrived at Moshi at breakfast time and went straight to the Lion Cub Hotel
                  where I took to my bed with a high temperature. It was, of course, malaria. I always have
                  my attacks at the most inopportune times. Fortunately George ran into some friends
                  called Eccles and the wife Mollie came to my room and bathed Henry and prepared his
                  bottle and fed him. George looked after John and Jim. Next day I felt much better and
                  we drove out to Lyamungu the day after. There we had tea with the Game Warden and
                  his wife before moving into our new home nearby.

                  The Game Warden is Captain Monty Moore VC. He came out to Africa
                  originally as an Officer in the King’s African Rifles and liked the country so much he left the
                  Army and joined the Game Department. He was stationed at Banagi in the Serengetti
                  Game Reserve and is well known for his work with the lions there. He particularly tamed
                  some of the lions by feeding them so that they would come out into the open and could
                  readily be photographed by tourists. His wife Audrey, has written a book about their
                  experiences at Banagi. It is called “Serengetti”

                  Our cook, Hamisi, soon had a meal ready for us and we all went to bed early.
                  This is a very pleasant house and I know we will be happy here. I still feel a little shaky
                  but that is the result of all the quinine I have taken. I expect I shall feel fine in a day or two.

                  Eleanor.

                  Lyamungu 15th May 1944

                  Dearest Family,

                  Well, here we are settled comfortably in our very nice house. The house is
                  modern and roomy, and there is a large enclosed verandah, which will be a Godsend in
                  the wet weather as a playroom for the children. The only drawback is that there are so
                  many windows to be curtained and cleaned. The grounds consist of a very large lawn
                  and a few beds of roses and shrubs. It is an ideal garden for children, unlike our steeply
                  terraced garden at Morogoro.

                  Lyamungu is really the Government Coffee Research Station. It is about sixteen
                  miles from the town of Moshi which is the centre of the Tanganyika coffee growing
                  industry. Lyamungu, which means ‘place of God’ is in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro and
                  we have a beautiful view of Kilimanjaro. Kibo, the more spectacular of the two mountain
                  peaks, towers above us, looking from this angle, like a giant frosted plum pudding. Often the mountain is veiled by cloud and mist which sometimes comes down to
                  our level so that visibility is practically nil. George dislikes both mist and mountain but I
                  like both and so does John. He in fact saw Kibo before I did. On our first day here, the
                  peak was completely hidden by cloud. In the late afternoon when the children were
                  playing on the lawn outside I was indoors hanging curtains. I heard John call out, “Oh
                  Mummy, isn’t it beautiful!” I ran outside and there, above a scarf of cloud, I saw the
                  showy dome of Kibo with the setting sun shining on it tingeing the snow pink. It was an
                  unforgettable experience.

                  As this is the rainy season, the surrounding country side is very lush and green.
                  Everywhere one sees the rich green of the coffee plantations and the lighter green of
                  the banana groves. Unfortunately our walks are rather circumscribed. Except for the main road to Moshi, there is nowhere to walk except through the Government coffee
                  plantation. Paddy, our dog, thinks life is pretty boring as there is no bush here and
                  nothing to hunt. There are only half a dozen European families here and half of those are
                  on very distant terms with the other half which makes the station a rather uncomfortable
                  one.

                  The coffee expert who runs this station is annoyed because his European staff
                  has been cut down owing to the war, and three of the vacant houses and some office
                  buildings have been taken over temporarily by the Game Department. Another house
                  has been taken over by the head of the Labour Department. However I don’t suppose
                  the ill feeling will effect us much. We are so used to living in the bush that we are not
                  socially inclined any way.

                  Our cook, Hamisi, came with us from Morogoro but I had to engage a new
                  houseboy and kitchenboy. I first engaged a houseboy who produced a wonderful ‘chit’
                  in which his previous employer describes him as his “friend and confidant”. I felt rather
                  dubious about engaging him and how right I was. On his second day with us I produced
                  some of Henry’s napkins, previously rinsed by me, and asked this boy to wash them.
                  He looked most offended and told me that it was beneath his dignity to do women’s
                  work. We parted immediately with mutual relief.

                  Now I have a good natured fellow named Japhet who, though hard on crockery,
                  is prepared to do anything and loves playing with the children. He is a local boy, a
                  member of the Chagga tribe. These Chagga are most intelligent and, on the whole, well
                  to do as they all have their own small coffee shambas. Japhet tells me that his son is at
                  the Uganda University College studying medicine.The kitchen boy is a tall youth called
                  Tovelo, who helps both Hamisi, the cook, and the houseboy and also keeps an eye on
                  Henry when I am sewing. I still make all the children’s clothes and my own. Life is
                  pleasant but dull. George promises that he will take the whole family on safari when
                  Henry is a little older.

                  Eleanor.

                  Lyamungu 18th July 1944

                  Dearest Family,

                  Life drifts quietly by at Lyamungu with each day much like the one before – or
                  they would be, except that the children provide the sort of excitement that prohibits
                  boredom. Of the three boys our Jim is the best at this. Last week Jim wandered into the
                  coffee plantation beside our house and chewed some newly spayed berries. Result?
                  A high temperature and nasty, bloody diarrhoea, so we had to rush him to the hospital at
                  Moshi for treatment. however he was well again next day and George went off on safari.
                  That night there was another crisis. As the nights are now very cold, at this high
                  altitude, we have a large fire lit in the living room and the boy leaves a pile of logs
                  beside the hearth so that I can replenish the fire when necessary. Well that night I took
                  Henry off to bed, leaving John and Jim playing in the living room. When their bedtime
                  came, I called them without leaving the bedroom. When I had tucked John and Jim into
                  bed, I sat reading a bedtime story as I always do. Suddenly I saw smoke drifting
                  through the door, and heard a frightening rumbling noise. Japhet rushed in to say that the
                  lounge chimney was on fire! Picture me, panic on the inside and sweet smile on the
                  outside, as I picked Henry up and said to the other two, “There’s nothing to be
                  frightened about chaps, but get up and come outside for a bit.” Stupid of me to be so
                  heroic because John and Jim were not at all scared but only too delighted at the chance
                  of rushing about outside in the dark. The fire to them was just a bit of extra fun.

                  We hurried out to find one boy already on the roof and the other passing up a
                  brimming bucket of water. Other boys appeared from nowhere and soon cascades of
                  water were pouring down the chimney. The result was a mountain of smouldering soot
                  on the hearth and a pool of black water on the living room floor. However the fire was out
                  and no serious harm done because all the floors here are cement and another stain on
                  the old rug will hardly be noticed. As the children reluctantly returned to bed John
                  remarked smugly, “I told Jim not to put all the wood on the fire at once but he wouldn’t
                  listen.” I might have guessed!

                  However it was not Jim but John who gave me the worst turn of all this week. As
                  a treat I decided to take the boys to the river for a picnic tea. The river is not far from our
                  house but we had never been there before so I took the kitchen boy, Tovelo, to show
                  us the way. The path is on the level until one is in sight of the river when the bank slopes
                  steeply down. I decided that it was too steep for the pram so I stopped to lift Henry out
                  and carry him. When I looked around I saw John running down the slope towards the
                  river. The stream is not wide but flows swiftly and I had no idea how deep it was. All I
                  knew was that it was a trout stream. I called for John, “Stop, wait for me!” but he ran on
                  and made for a rude pole bridge which spanned the river. He started to cross and then,
                  to my horror, I saw John slip. There was a splash and he disappeared under the water. I
                  just dumped the baby on the ground, screamed to the boy to mind him and ran madly
                  down the slope to the river. Suddenly I saw John’s tight fitting felt hat emerge, then his
                  eyes and nose. I dashed into the water and found, to my intense relief, that it only
                  reached up to my shoulders but, thank heaven no further. John’s steady eyes watched
                  me trustingly as I approached him and carried him safely to the bank. He had been
                  standing on a rock and had not panicked at all though he had to stand up very straight
                  and tall to keep his nose out of water. I was too proud of him to scold him for
                  disobedience and too wet anyway.

                  I made John undress and put on two spare pullovers and wrapped Henry’s
                  baby blanket round his waist like a sarong. We made a small fire over which I crouched
                  with literally chattering teeth whilst Tovelo ran home to fetch a coat for me and dry clothes
                  for John.

                  Eleanor.

                  Lyamungu 16th August 1944

                  Dearest Family,

                  We have a new bull terrier bitch pup whom we have named Fanny III . So once
                  more we have a menagerie , the two dogs, two cats Susie and Winnie, and
                  some pet hens who live in the garage and are a real nuisance.

                  As John is nearly six I thought it time that he started lessons and wrote off to Dar
                  es Salaam for the correspondence course. We have had one week of lessons and I am
                  already in a state of physical and mental exhaustion. John is a most reluctant scholar.
                  “Why should I learn to read, when you can read to me?” he asks, and “Anyway why
                  should I read such stupid stuff, ‘Run Rover Run’, and ‘Mother play with baby’ . Who
                  wants to read about things like that? I don’t.”

                  He rather likes sums, but the only subject about which he is enthusiastic is
                  prehistoric history. He laps up information about ‘The Tree Dwellers’, though he is very
                  sceptical about the existence of such people. “God couldn’t be so silly to make people
                  so stupid. Fancy living in trees when it is easy to make huts like the natives.” ‘The Tree
                  Dwellers is a highly imaginative story about a revolting female called Sharptooth and her
                  offspring called Bodo. I have a very clear mental image of Sharptooth, so it came as a
                  shock to me and highly amused George when John looked at me reflectively across the
                  tea table and said, “Mummy I expect Sharptooth looked like you. You have a sharp
                  tooth too!” I have, my eye teeth are rather sharp, but I hope the resemblance stops
                  there.

                  John has an uncomfortably logical mind for a small boy. The other day he was
                  lying on the lawn staring up at the clouds when he suddenly muttered “I don’t believe it.”
                  “Believe what?” I asked. “That Jesus is coming on a cloud one day. How can he? The
                  thick ones always stay high up. What’s he going to do, jump down with a parachute?”
                  Tovelo, my kitchen boy, announced one evening that his grandmother was in the
                  kitchen and wished to see me. She was a handsome and sensible Chagga woman who
                  brought sad news. Her little granddaughter had stumbled backwards into a large cooking
                  pot of almost boiling maize meal porridge and was ‘ngongwa sana’ (very ill). I grabbed
                  a large bottle of Picric Acid and a packet of gauze which we keep for these emergencies
                  and went with her, through coffee shambas and banana groves to her daughter’s house.
                  Inside the very neat thatched hut the mother sat with the naked child lying face
                  downwards on her knee. The child’s buttocks and the back of her legs were covered in
                  huge burst blisters from which a watery pus dripped. It appeared that the accident had
                  happened on the previous day.

                  I could see that it was absolutely necessary to clean up the damaged area, and I
                  suddenly remembered that there was a trained African hospital dresser on the station. I
                  sent the father to fetch him and whilst the dresser cleaned off the sloughed skin with
                  forceps and swabs saturated in Picric Acid, I cut the gauze into small squares which I
                  soaked in the lotion and laid on the cleaned area. I thought the small pieces would be
                  easier to change especially as the whole of the most tender parts, front and back, were
                  badly scalded. The child seemed dazed and neither the dresser nor I thought she would
                  live. I gave her half an aspirin and left three more half tablets to be given four hourly.
                  Next day she seemed much brighter. I poured more lotion on the gauze
                  disturbing as few pieces as possible and again the next day and the next. After a week
                  the skin was healing well and the child eating normally. I am sure she will be all right now.
                  The new skin is a brilliant red and very shiny but it is pale round the edges of the burnt
                  area and will I hope later turn brown. The mother never uttered a word of thanks, but the
                  granny is grateful and today brought the children a bunch of bananas.

                  Eleanor.

                  c/o Game Dept. P.O.Moshi. 29th September 1944

                  Dearest Mummy,

                  I am so glad that you so enjoyed my last letter with the description of our very
                  interesting and enjoyable safari through Masailand. You said you would like an even
                  fuller description of it to pass around amongst the relations, so, to please you, I have
                  written it out in detail and enclose the result.

                  We have spent a quiet week after our exertions and all are well here.

                  Very much love,
                  Eleanor.

                  Safari in Masailand

                  George and I were at tea with our three little boys on the front lawn of our house
                  in Lyamungu, Northern Tanganyika. It was John’s sixth birthday and he and Jim, a
                  happy sturdy three year old, and Henry, aged eleven months, were munching the
                  squares of plain chocolate which rounded off the party, when George said casually
                  across the table to me, “Could you be ready by the day after tomorrow to go on
                  safari?” “Me too?” enquired John anxiously, before I had time to reply, and “Me too?”
                  echoed Jim. “yes, of course I can”, said I to George and “of course you’re coming too”,
                  to the children who rate a day spent in the bush higher than any other pleasure.
                  So in the early morning two days later, we started out happily for Masailand in a
                  three ton Ford lorry loaded to capacity with the five Rushbys, the safari paraphernalia,
                  drums of petrol and quite a retinue of servants and Game Scouts. George travelling
                  alone on his monthly safaris, takes only the cook and a couple of Game Scouts, but this was to be a safari de luxe.

                  Henry and I shared the cab with George who was driving, whilst John and Jim
                  with the faithful orderly Mabemba beside them to point out the game animals, were
                  installed upon rolls of bedding in the body of the lorry. The lorry lumbered along, first
                  through coffee shambas, and then along the main road between Moshi and Arusha.
                  After half an hour or so, we turned South off the road into a track which crossed the
                  Sanya Plains and is the beginning of this part of Masailand. Though the dry season was
                  at its height, and the pasture dry and course, we were soon passing small groups of
                  game. This area is a Game Sanctuary and the antelope grazed quietly quite undisturbed
                  by the passing lorry. Here and there zebra stood bunched by the road, a few wild
                  ostriches stalked jerkily by, and in the distance some wildebeest cavorted around in their
                  crazy way.

                  Soon the grasslands gave way to thorn bush, and we saw six fantastically tall
                  giraffe standing motionless with their heads turned enquiringly towards us. George
                  stopped the lorry so the children could have a good view of them. John was enchanted
                  but Jim, alas, was asleep.

                  At mid day we reached the Kikoletwa River and turned aside to camp. Beside
                  the river, under huge leafy trees, there was a beautiful camping spot, but the river was
                  deep and reputed to be full of crocodiles so we passed it by and made our camp
                  some distance from the river under a tall thorn tree with a flat lacy canopy. All around the
                  camp lay uprooted trees of similar size that had been pushed over by elephants. As
                  soon as the lorry stopped a camp chair was set up for me and the Game Scouts quickly
                  slashed down grass and cleared the camp site of thorns. The same boys then pitched the tent whilst George himself set up the three camp beds and the folding cot for Henry,
                  and set up the safari table and the canvas wash bowl and bath.

                  The cook in the meantime had cleared a cool spot for the kitchen , opened up the
                  chop boxes and started a fire. The cook’s boy and the dhobi (laundry boy) brought
                  water from the rather muddy river and tea was served followed shortly afterward by an
                  excellent lunch. In a very short time the camp had a suprisingly homely look. Nappies
                  fluttered from a clothes line, Henry slept peacefully in his cot, John and Jim sprawled on
                  one bed looking at comics, and I dozed comfortably on another.

                  George, with the Game Scouts, drove off in the lorry about his work. As a Game
                  Ranger it is his business to be on a constant look out for poachers, both African and
                  European, and for disease in game which might infect the valuable herds of Masai cattle.
                  The lorry did not return until dusk by which time the children had bathed enthusiastically in
                  the canvas bath and were ready for supper and bed. George backed the lorry at right
                  angles to the tent, Henry’s cot and two camp beds were set up in the lorry, the tarpaulin
                  was lashed down and the children put to bed in their novel nursery.

                  When darkness fell a large fire was lit in front of the camp, the exited children at
                  last fell asleep and George and I sat on by the fire enjoying the cool and quiet night.
                  When the fire subsided into a bed of glowing coals, it was time for our bed. During the
                  night I was awakened by the sound of breaking branches and strange indescribable
                  noises.” Just elephant”, said George comfortably and instantly fell asleep once more. I
                  didn’t! We rose with the birds next morning, but breakfast was ready and in a
                  remarkably short time the lorry had been reloaded and we were once more on our way.
                  For about half a mile we made our own track across the plain and then we turned
                  into the earth road once more. Soon we had reached the river and were looking with
                  dismay at the suspension bridge which we had to cross. At the far side, one steel
                  hawser was missing and there the bridge tilted dangerously. There was no handrail but
                  only heavy wooden posts which marked the extremities of the bridge. WhenGeorge
                  measured the distance between the posts he found that there could be barely two
                  inches to spare on either side of the cumbersome lorry.

                  He decided to risk crossing, but the children and I and all the servants were told to
                  cross the bridge and go down the track out of sight. The Game Scouts remained on the
                  river bank on the far side of the bridge and stood ready for emergencies. As I walked
                  along anxiously listening, I was horrified to hear the lorry come to a stop on the bridge.
                  There was a loud creaking noise and I instantly visualised the lorry slowly toppling over
                  into the deep crocodile infested river. The engine restarted, the lorry crossed the bridge
                  and came slowly into sight around the bend. My heart slid back into its normal position.
                  George was as imperturbable as ever and simply remarked that it had been a near
                  thing and that we would return to Lyamungu by another route.

                  Beyond the green river belt the very rutted track ran through very uninteresting
                  thorn bush country. Henry was bored and tiresome, jumping up and down on my knee
                  and yelling furiously. “Teeth”, said I apologetically to George, rashly handing a match
                  box to Henry to keep him quiet. No use at all! With a fat finger he poked out the tray
                  spilling the matches all over me and the floor. Within seconds Henry had torn the
                  matchbox to pieces with his teeth and flung the battered remains through the window.
                  An empty cigarette box met with the same fate as the match box and the yells
                  continued unabated until Henry slept from sheer exhaustion. George gave me a smile,
                  half sympathetic and half sardonic, “Enjoying the safari, my love?” he enquired. On these
                  trying occasions George has the inestimable advantage of being able to go into a Yogilike
                  trance, whereas I become irritated to screaming point.

                  In an effort to prolong Henry’s slumber I braced my feet against the floor boards
                  and tried to turn myself into a human shock absorber as we lurched along the eroded
                  track. Several times my head made contact with the bolt of a rifle in the rack above, and
                  once I felt I had shattered my knee cap against the fire extinguisher in a bracket under the
                  dash board.

                  Strange as it may seem, I really was enjoying the trip in spite of these
                  discomforts. At last after three years I was once more on safari with George. This type of
                  country was new to me and there was so much to see We passed a family of giraffe
                  standing in complete immobility only a few yards from the track. Little dick-dick. one of the smallest of the antelope, scuttled in pairs across the road and that afternoon I had my first view of Gerenuk, curious red brown antelope with extremely elongated legs and giraffe-like necks.

                  Most interesting of all was my first sight of Masai at home. We could hear a tuneful
                  jangle of cattle bells and suddenly came across herds of humped cattle browsing upon
                  the thorn bushes. The herds were guarded by athletic,striking looking Masai youths and men.
                  Each had a calabash of water slung over his shoulder and a tall, highly polished spear in his
                  hand. These herdsmen were quite unselfconscious though they wore no clothing except for one carelessly draped blanket. Very few gave us any greeting but glanced indifferently at us from under fringes of clay-daubed plaited hair . The rest of their hair was drawn back behind the ears to display split earlobes stretched into slender loops by the weight of heavy brass or copper tribal ear rings.

                  Most of the villages were set well back in the bush out of sight of the road but we did pass one
                  typical village which looked most primitive indeed. It consisted simply of a few mound like mud huts which were entirely covered with a plaster of mud and cattle dung and the whole clutch of huts were surrounded by a ‘boma’ of thorn to keep the cattle in at night and the lions out. There was a gathering of women and children on the road at this point. The children of both sexes were naked and unadorned, but the women looked very fine indeed. This is not surprising for they have little to do but adorn themselves, unlike their counterparts of other tribes who have to work hard cultivating the fields. The Masai women, and others I saw on safari, were far more amiable and cheerful looking than the men and were well proportioned.

                  They wore skirts of dressed goat skin, knee length in front but ankle length behind. Their arms
                  from elbow to wrist, and legs from knee to ankle, were encased in tight coils of copper and
                  galvanised wire. All had their heads shaved and in some cases bound by a leather band
                  embroidered in red white and blue beads. Circular ear rings hung from slit earlobes and their
                  handsome throats were encircled by stiff wire necklaces strung with brightly coloured beads. These
                  necklaces were carefully graded in size and formed deep collars almost covering their breasts.
                  About a quarter of a mile further along the road we met eleven young braves in gala attire, obviously on their way to call on the girls. They formed a line across the road and danced up and down until the lorry was dangerously near when they parted and grinned cheerfully at us. These were the only cheerful
                  looking male Masai that I saw. Like the herdsmen these youths wore only a blanket, but their
                  blankets were ochre colour, and elegantly draped over their backs. Their naked bodies gleamed with oil. Several had painted white stripes on their faces, and two had whitewashed their faces entirely which I
                  thought a pity. All had their long hair elaborately dressed and some carried not only one,
                  but two gleaming spears.

                  By mid day George decided that we had driven far enough for that day. He
                  stopped the lorry and consulted a rather unreliable map. “Somewhere near here is a
                  place called Lolbeni,” he said. “The name means Sweet Water, I hear that the
                  government have piped spring water down from the mountain into a small dam at which
                  the Masai water their cattle.” Lolbeni sounded pleasant to me. Henry was dusty and
                  cross, the rubber sheet had long slipped from my lap to the floor and I was conscious of
                  a very damp lap. ‘Sweet Waters’ I felt, would put all that right. A few hundred yards
                  away a small herd of cattle was grazing, so George lit his pipe and relaxed at last, whilst
                  a Game Scout went off to find the herdsman. The scout soon returned with an ancient
                  and emaciated Masai who was thrilled at the prospect of his first ride in a lorry and
                  offered to direct us to Lolbeni which was off the main track and about four miles away.

                  Once Lolbeni had been a small administrative post and a good track had
                  led to it, but now the Post had been abandoned and the road is dotted with vigourous
                  thorn bushes and the branches of larger thorn trees encroach on the track The road had
                  deteriorated to a mere cattle track, deeply rutted and eroded by heavy rains over a
                  period of years. The great Ford truck, however, could take it. It lurched victoriously along,
                  mowing down the obstructions, tearing off branches from encroaching thorn trees with its
                  high railed sides, spanning gorges in the track, and climbing in and out of those too wide
                  to span. I felt an army tank could not have done better.

                  I had expected Lolbeni to be a green oasis in a desert of grey thorns, but I was
                  quickly disillusioned. To be sure the thorn trees were larger and more widely spaced and
                  provided welcome shade, but the ground under the trees had been trampled by thousands of cattle into a dreary expanse of dirty grey sand liberally dotted with cattle droppings and made still more uninviting by the bleached bones of dead beasts.

                  To the right of this waste rose a high green hill which gave the place its name and from which
                  the precious water was piped, but its slopes were too steep to provide a camping site.
                  Flies swarmed everywhere and I was most relieved when George said that we would
                  stay only long enough to fill our cans with water. Even the water was a disappointment!
                  The water in the small dam was low and covered by a revolting green scum, and though
                  the water in the feeding pipe was sweet, it trickled so feebly that it took simply ages to
                  fill a four gallon can.

                  However all these disappointments were soon forgotten for we drove away
                  from the flies and dirt and trampled sand and soon, with their quiet efficiency, George
                  and his men set up a comfortable camp. John and Jim immediately started digging
                  operations in the sandy soil whilst Henry and I rested. After tea George took his shot
                  gun and went off to shoot guinea fowl and partridges for the pot. The children and I went
                  walking, keeping well in site of camp, and soon we saw a very large flock of Vulturine
                  Guineafowl, running aimlessly about and looking as tame as barnyard fowls, but melting
                  away as soon as we moved in their direction.

                  We had our second quiet and lovely evening by the camp fire, followed by a
                  peaceful night.

                  We left Lolbeni very early next morning, which was a good thing, for as we left
                  camp the herds of thirsty cattle moved in from all directions. They were accompanied by
                  Masai herdsmen, their naked bodies and blankets now covered by volcanic dust which
                  was being stirred in rising clouds of stifling ash by the milling cattle, and also by grey
                  donkeys laden with panniers filled with corked calabashes for water.

                  Our next stop was Nabarera, a Masai cattle market and trading centre, where we
                  reluctantly stayed for two days in a pokey Goverment Resthouse because George had
                  a job to do in that area. The rest was good for Henry who promptly produced a tooth
                  and was consequently much better behaved for the rest of the trip. George was away in the bush most of the day but he returned for afternoon tea and later took the children out
                  walking. We had noticed curious white dumps about a quarter mile from the resthouse
                  and on the second afternoon we set out to investigate them. Behind the dumps we
                  found passages about six foot wide, cut through solid limestone. We explored two of
                  these and found that both passages led steeply down to circular wells about two and a
                  half feet in diameter.

                  At the very foot of each passage, beside each well, rough drinking troughs had
                  been cut in the stone. The herdsmen haul the water out of the well in home made hide
                  buckets, the troughs are filled and the cattle driven down the ramps to drink at the trough.
                  It was obvious that the wells were ancient and the sloping passages new. George tells
                  me that no one knows what ancient race dug the original wells. It seems incredible that
                  these deep and narrow shafts could have been sunk without machinery. I craned my
                  neck and looked above one well and could see an immensely long shaft reaching up to
                  ground level. Small footholds were cut in the solid rock as far as I could see.
                  It seems that the Masai are as ignorant as ourselves about the origin of these
                  wells. They do say however that when their forebears first occupied what is now known
                  as Masailand, they not only found the Wanderobo tribe in the area but also a light
                  skinned people and they think it possible that these light skinned people dug the wells.
                  These people disappeared. They may have been absorbed or, more likely, they were
                  liquidated.

                  The Masai had found the well impractical in their original form and had hired
                  labourers from neighbouring tribes to cut the passages to water level. Certainly the Masai are not responsible for the wells. They are a purely pastoral people and consider manual labour extremely degrading.

                  They live chiefly on milk from their herd which they allow to go sour, and mix with blood that has been skilfully tapped from the necks of living cattle. They do not eat game meat, nor do they cultivate any
                  land. They hunt with spears, but hunt only lions, to protect their herds, and to test the skill
                  and bravery of their young warriors. What little grain they do eat is transported into
                  Masailand by traders. The next stage of our journey took us to Ngassamet where
                  George was to pick up some elephant tusks. I had looked forward particularly to this
                  stretch of road for I had heard that there was a shallow lake at which game congregates,
                  and at which I had great hopes of seeing elephants. We had come too late in the
                  season though, the lake was dry and there were only piles of elephant droppings to
                  prove that elephant had recently been there in numbers. Ngassamet, though no beauty
                  spot, was interesting. We saw more elaborate editions of the wells already described, and as this area
                  is rich in cattle we saw the aristocrats of the Masai. You cannot conceive of a more arrogant looking male than a young Masai brave striding by on sandalled feet, unselfconscious in all his glory. All the young men wore the casually draped traditional ochre blanket and carried one or more spears. But here belts and long knife sheaths of scarlet leather seem to be the fashion. Here fringes do not seem to be the thing. Most of these young Masai had their hair drawn smoothly back and twisted in a pointed queue, the whole plastered with a smooth coating of red clay. Some tied their horn shaped queues over their heads
                  so that the tip formed a deep Satanic peak on the brow. All these young men wore the traditional
                  copper earrings and I saw one or two with copper bracelets and one with a necklace of brightly coloured
                  beads.

                  It so happened that, on the day of our visit to Ngassamet, there had been a
                  baraza (meeting) which was attended by all the local headmen and elders. These old
                  men came to pay their respects to George and a more shrewd and rascally looking
                  company I have never seen, George told me that some of these men own up to three
                  thousand head of cattle and more. The chief was as fat and Rabelasian as his second in
                  command was emaciated, bucktoothed and prim. The Chief shook hands with George
                  and greeted me and settled himself on the wall of the resthouse porch opposite
                  George. The lesser headmen, after politely greeting us, grouped themselves in a
                  semi circle below the steps with their ‘aides’ respectfully standing behind them. I
                  remained sitting in the only chair and watched the proceedings with interest and
                  amusement.

                  These old Masai, I noticed, cared nothing for adornment. They had proved
                  themselves as warriors in the past and were known to be wealthy and influential so did
                  not need to make any display. Most of them had their heads comfortably shaved and
                  wore only a drab blanket or goatskin cloak. Their only ornaments were earrings whose
                  effect was somewhat marred by the serviceable and homely large safety pin that
                  dangled from the lobe of one ear. All carried staves instead of spears and all, except for
                  Buckteeth and one blind old skeleton of a man, appeared to have a keenly developed
                  sense of humour.

                  “Mummy?” asked John in an urgent whisper, “Is that old blind man nearly dead?”
                  “Yes dear”, said I, “I expect he’ll soon die.” “What here?” breathed John in a tone of
                  keen anticipation and, until the meeting broke up and the old man left, he had John’s
                  undivided attention.

                  After local news and the game situation had been discussed, the talk turned to the
                  war. “When will the war end?” moaned the fat Chief. “We have made great gifts of cattle
                  to the War Funds, we are taxed out of existence.” George replied with the Ki-Swahili
                  equivalent of ‘Sez you!’. This sally was received with laughter and the old fellows rose to
                  go. They made their farewells and dignified exits, pausing on their way to stare at our
                  pink and white Henry, who sat undismayed in his push chair giving them stare for stare
                  from his striking grey eyes.

                  Towards evening some Masai, prompted no doubt by our native servants,
                  brought a sheep for sale. It was the last night of the fast of Ramadan and our
                  Mohammedan boys hoped to feast next day at our expense. Their faces fell when
                  George refused to buy the animal. “Why should I pay fifteen shillings for a sheep?” he
                  asked, “Am I not the Bwana Nyama and is not the bush full of my sheep?” (Bwana
                  Nyama is the native name for a Game Ranger, but means literally, ‘Master of the meat’)
                  George meant that he would shoot a buck for the men next day, but this incident was to
                  have a strange sequel. Ngassamet resthouse consists of one room so small we could
                  not put up all our camp beds and George and I slept on the cement floor which was
                  unkind to my curves. The night was bitterly cold and all night long hyaenas screeched
                  hideously outside. So we rose at dawn without reluctance and were on our way before it
                  was properly light.

                  George had decided that it would be foolhardy to return home by our outward
                  route as he did not care to risk another crossing of the suspension bridge. So we
                  returned to Nabarera and there turned onto a little used track which would eventually take
                  us to the Great North Road a few miles South of Arusha. There was not much game
                  about but I saw Oryx which I had not previously seen. Soon it grew intolerably hot and I
                  think all of us but George were dozing when he suddenly stopped the lorry and pointed
                  to the right. “Mpishi”, he called to the cook, “There’s your sheep!” True enough, on that
                  dreary thorn covered plain,with not another living thing in sight, stood a fat black sheep.

                  There was an incredulous babbling from the back of the lorry. Every native
                  jumped to the ground and in no time at all the wretched sheep was caught and
                  slaughtered. I felt sick. “Oh George”, I wailed, “The poor lost sheep! I shan’t eat a scrap
                  of it.” George said nothing but went and had a look at the sheep and called out to me,
                  “Come and look at it. It was kindness to kill the poor thing, the vultures have been at it
                  already and the hyaenas would have got it tonight.” I went reluctantly and saw one eye
                  horribly torn out, and small deep wounds on the sheep’s back where the beaks of the
                  vultures had cut through the heavy fleece. Poor thing! I went back to the lorry more
                  determined than ever not to eat mutton on that trip. The Scouts and servants had no
                  such scruples. The fine fat sheep had been sent by Allah for their feast day and that was
                  the end of it.

                  “ ‘Mpishi’ is more convinced than ever that I am a wizard”, said George in
                  amusement as he started the lorry. I knew what he meant. Several times before George
                  had foretold something which had later happened. Pure coincidence, but strange enough
                  to give rise to a legend that George had the power to arrange things. “What happened
                  of course”, explained George, “Is that a flock of Masai sheep was driven to market along
                  this track yesterday or the day before. This one strayed and was not missed.”

                  The day grew hotter and hotter and for long miles we looked out for a camping
                  spot but could find little shade and no trace of water anywhere. At last, in the early
                  afternoon we reached another pokey little rest house and asked for water. “There is no
                  water here,” said the native caretaker. “Early in the morning there is water in a well nearby
                  but we are allowed only one kerosene tin full and by ten o’clock the well is dry.” I looked
                  at George in dismay for we were all so tired and dusty. “Where do the Masai from the
                  village water their cattle then?” asked George. “About two miles away through the bush.
                  If you take me with you I shall show you”, replied the native.

                  So we turned off into the bush and followed a cattle track even more tortuous than
                  the one to Lolbeni. Two Scouts walked ahead to warn us of hazards and I stretched my
                  arm across the open window to fend off thorns. Henry screamed with fright and hunger.
                  But George’s efforts to reach water went unrewarded as we were brought to a stop by
                  a deep donga. The native from the resthouse was apologetic. He had mistaken the
                  path, perhaps if we turned back we might find it. George was beyond speech. We
                  lurched back the way we had come and made our camp under the first large tree we
                  could find. Then off went our camp boys on foot to return just before dark with the water.
                  However they were cheerful for there was an unlimited quantity of dry wood for their fires
                  and meat in plenty for their feast. Long after George and I left our campfire and had gone
                  to bed, we could see the cheerful fires of the boys and hear their chatter and laughter.
                  I woke in the small hours to hear the insane cackling of hyaenas gloating over a
                  find. Later I heard scuffling around the camp table, I peered over the tailboard of the lorry
                  and saw George come out of his tent. What are you doing?” I whispered. “Looking for
                  something to throw at those bloody hyaenas,” answered George for all the world as
                  though those big brutes were tomcats on the prowl. Though the hyaenas kept up their
                  concert all night the children never stirred, nor did any of them wake at night throughout
                  the safari.

                  Early next morning I walked across to the camp kitchen to enquire into the loud
                  lamentations coming from that quarter. “Oh Memsahib”, moaned the cook, “We could
                  not sleep last night for the bad hyaenas round our tents. They have taken every scrap of
                  meat we had left over from the feast., even the meat we had left to smoke over the fire.”
                  Jim, who of our three young sons is the cook’s favourite commiserated with him. He said
                  in Ki-Swahili, which he speaks with great fluency, “Truly those hyaenas are very bad
                  creatures. They also robbed us. They have taken my hat from the table and eaten the
                  new soap from the washbowl.

                  Our last day in the bush was a pleasantly lazy one. We drove through country
                  that grew more open and less dry as we approached Arusha. We pitched our camp
                  near a large dam, and the water was a blessed sight after a week of scorched country.
                  On the plains to the right of our camp was a vast herd of native cattle enjoying a brief
                  rest after their long day trek through Masailand. They were destined to walk many more
                  weary miles before reaching their destination, a meat canning factory in Kenya.
                  The ground to the left of the camp rose gently to form a long low hill and on the
                  grassy slopes we could see wild ostriches and herds of wildebeest, zebra and
                  antelope grazing amicably side by side. In the late afternoon I watched the groups of
                  zebra and wildebeest merge into one. Then with a wildebeest leading, they walked
                  down the slope in single file to drink at the vlei . When they were satisfied, a wildebeest
                  once more led the herd up the trail. The others followed in a long and orderly file, and
                  vanished over the hill to their evening pasture.

                  When they had gone, George took up his shotgun and invited John to
                  accompany him to the dam to shoot duck. This was the first time John had acted as
                  retriever but he did very well and proudly helped to carry a mixed bag of sand grouse
                  and duck back to camp.

                  Next morning we turned into the Great North Road and passed first through
                  carefully tended coffee shambas and then through the township of Arusha, nestling at
                  the foot of towering Mount Meru. Beyond Arusha we drove through the Usa River
                  settlement where again coffee shambas and European homesteads line the road, and
                  saw before us the magnificent spectacle of Kilimanjaro unveiled, its white snow cap
                  gleaming in the sunlight. Before mid day we were home. “Well was it worth it?” enquired
                  George at lunch. “Lovely,” I replied. ”Let’s go again soon.” Then thinking regretfully of
                  our absent children I sighed, “If only Ann, George, and Kate could have gone with us
                  too.”

                  Lyamungu 10th November. 1944

                  Dearest Family.

                  Mummy wants to know how I fill in my time with George away on safari for weeks
                  on end. I do believe that you all picture me idling away my days, waited on hand and
                  foot by efficient servants! On the contrary, life is one rush and the days never long
                  enough.

                  To begin with, our servants are anything but efficient, apart from our cook, Hamisi
                  Issa, who really is competent. He suffers from frustration because our budget will not run
                  to elaborate dishes so there is little scope for his culinary art. There is one masterpiece
                  which is much appreciated by John and Jim. Hamisi makes a most realistic crocodile out
                  of pastry and stuffs its innards with minced meat. This revolting reptile is served on a
                  bed of parsley on my largest meat dish. The cook is a strict Mohammedan and
                  observes all the fasts and daily prayers and, like all Mohammedans he is very clean in
                  his person and, thank goodness, in the kitchen.

                  His wife is his pride and joy but not his helpmate. She does absolutely nothing
                  but sit in a chair in the sun all day, sipping tea and smoking cigarettes – a more
                  expensive brand than mine! It is Hamisi who sweeps out their quarters, cooks
                  delectable curries for her, and spends more than he can afford on clothing and trinkets for
                  his wife. She just sits there with her ‘Mona Lisa’ smile and her painted finger and toe
                  nails, doing absolutely nothing.

                  The thing is that natives despise women who do work and this applies especially
                  to their white employers. House servants much prefer a Memsahib who leaves
                  everything to them and is careless about locking up her pantry. When we first came to
                  Lyamungu I had great difficulty in employing a houseboy. A couple of rather efficient
                  ones did approach me but when they heard the wages I was prepared to pay and that
                  there was no number 2 boy, they simply were not interested. Eventually I took on a
                  local boy called Japhet who suits me very well except that his sight is not good and he
                  is extremely hard on the crockery. He tells me that he has lost face by working here
                  because his friends say that he works for a family that is too mean to employ a second
                  boy. I explained that with our large family we simply cannot afford to pay more, but this
                  didn’t register at all. Japhet says “But Wazungu (Europeans) all have money. They just
                  have to get it from the Bank.”

                  The third member of our staff is a strapping youth named Tovelo who helps both
                  cook and boy, and consequently works harder than either. What do I do? I chivvy the
                  servants, look after the children, supervise John’s lessons, and make all my clothing and
                  the children’s on that blessed old hand sewing machine.

                  The folk on this station entertain a good deal but we usually decline invitations
                  because we simply cannot afford to reciprocate. However, last Saturday night I invited
                  two couples to drinks and dinner. This was such an unusual event that the servants and I
                  were thrown into a flurry. In the end the dinner went off well though it ended in disaster. In
                  spite of my entreaties and exhortations to Japhet not to pile everything onto the tray at
                  once when clearing the table, he did just that. We were starting our desert and I was
                  congratulating myself that all had gone well when there was a frightful crash of breaking
                  china on the back verandah. I excused myself and got up to investigate. A large meat
                  dish, six dinner plates and four vegetable dishes lay shattered on the cement floor! I
                  controlled my tongue but what my eyes said to Japhet is another matter. What he said
                  was, “It is not my fault Memsahib. The handle of the tray came off.”

                  It is a curious thing about native servants that they never accept responsibility for
                  a mishap. If they cannot pin their misdeeds onto one of their fellow servants then the responsibility rests with God. ‘Shauri ya Mungu’, (an act of God) is a familiar cry. Fatalists
                  can be very exasperating employees.

                  The loss of my dinner service is a real tragedy because, being war time, one can
                  buy only china of the poorest quality made for the native trade. Nor was that the final
                  disaster of the evening. When we moved to the lounge for coffee I noticed that the
                  coffee had been served in the battered old safari coffee pot instead of the charming little
                  antique coffee pot which my Mother-in-law had sent for our tenth wedding anniversary.
                  As there had already been a disturbance I made no comment but resolved to give the
                  cook a piece of my mind in the morning. My instructions to the cook had been to warm
                  the coffee pot with hot water immediately before serving. On no account was he to put
                  the pewter pot on the hot iron stove. He did and the result was a small hole in the base
                  of the pot – or so he says. When I saw the pot next morning there was a two inch hole in
                  it.

                  Hamisi explained placidly how this had come about. He said he knew I would be
                  mad when I saw the little hole so he thought he would have it mended and I might not
                  notice it. Early in the morning he had taken the pewter pot to the mechanic who looks
                  after the Game Department vehicles and had asked him to repair it. The bright individual
                  got busy with the soldering iron with the most devastating result. “It’s his fault,” said
                  Hamisi, “He is a mechanic, he should have known what would happen.”
                  One thing is certain, there will be no more dinner parties in this house until the war
                  is ended.

                  The children are well and so am I, and so was George when he left on his safari
                  last Monday.

                  Much love,
                  Eleanor.

                   

                  #6264
                  TracyTracy
                  Participant

                    From Tanganyika with Love

                    continued  ~ part 5

                    With thanks to Mike Rushby.

                    Chunya 16th December 1936

                    Dearest Family,

                    Since last I wrote I have visited Chunya and met several of the diggers wives.
                    On the whole I have been greatly disappointed because there is nothing very colourful
                    about either township or women. I suppose I was really expecting something more like
                    the goldrush towns and women I have so often seen on the cinema screen.
                    Chunya consists of just the usual sun-dried brick Indian shops though there are
                    one or two double storied buildings. Most of the life in the place centres on the
                    Goldfields Hotel but we did not call there. From the store opposite I could hear sounds
                    of revelry though it was very early in the afternoon. I saw only one sight which was quite
                    new to me, some elegantly dressed African women, with high heels and lipsticked
                    mouths teetered by on their way to the silk store. “Native Tarts,” said George in answer
                    to my enquiry.

                    Several women have called on me and when I say ‘called’ I mean called. I have
                    grown so used to going without stockings and wearing home made dresses that it was
                    quite a shock to me to entertain these ladies dressed to the nines in smart frocks, silk
                    stockings and high heeled shoes, handbags, makeup and whatnot. I feel like some
                    female Rip van Winkle. Most of the women have a smart line in conversation and their
                    talk and views on life would make your nice straight hair curl Mummy. They make me feel
                    very unsophisticated and dowdy but George says he has a weakness for such types
                    and I am to stay exactly as I am. I still do not use any makeup. George says ‘It’s all right
                    for them. They need it poor things, you don’t.” Which, though flattering, is hardly true.
                    I prefer the men visitors, though they also are quite unlike what I had expected
                    diggers to be. Those whom George brings home are all well educated and well
                    groomed and I enjoy listening to their discussion of the world situation, sport and books.
                    They are extremely polite to me and gentle with the children though I believe that after a
                    few drinks at the pub tempers often run high. There were great arguments on the night
                    following the abdication of Edward VIII. Not that the diggers were particularly attached to
                    him as a person, but these men are all great individualists and believe in freedom of
                    choice. George, rather to my surprise, strongly supported Edward. I did not.

                    Many of the diggers have wireless sets and so we keep up to date with the
                    news. I seldom leave camp. I have my hands full with the three children during the day
                    and, even though Janey is a reliable ayah, I would not care to leave the children at night
                    in these grass roofed huts. Having experienced that fire on the farm, I know just how
                    unlikely it would be that the children would be rescued in time in case of fire. The other
                    women on the diggings think I’m crazy. They leave their children almost entirely to ayahs
                    and I must confess that the children I have seen look very well and happy. The thing is
                    that I simply would not enjoy parties at the hotel or club, miles away from the children
                    and I much prefer to stay at home with a book.

                    I love hearing all about the parties from George who likes an occasional ‘boose
                    up’ with the boys and is terribly popular with everyone – not only the British but with the
                    Germans, Scandinavians and even the Afrikaans types. One Afrikaans woman said “Jou
                    man is ‘n man, al is hy ‘n Engelsman.” Another more sophisticated woman said, “George
                    is a handsome devil. Aren’t you scared to let him run around on his own?” – but I’m not. I
                    usually wait up for George with sandwiches and something hot to drink and that way I
                    get all the news red hot.

                    There is very little gold coming in. The rains have just started and digging is
                    temporarily at a standstill. It is too wet for dry blowing and not yet enough water for
                    panning and sluicing. As this camp is some considerable distance from the claims, all I see of the process is the weighing of the daily taking of gold dust and tiny nuggets.
                    Unless our luck changes I do not think we will stay on here after John Molteno returns.
                    George does not care for the life and prefers a more constructive occupation.
                    Ann and young George still search optimistically for gold. We were all saddened
                    last week by the death of Fanny, our bull terrier. She went down to the shopping centre
                    with us and we were standing on the verandah of a store when a lorry passed with its
                    canvas cover flapping. This excited Fanny who rushed out into the street and the back
                    wheel of the lorry passed right over her, killing her instantly. Ann was very shocked so I
                    soothed her by telling her that Fanny had gone to Heaven. When I went to bed that
                    night I found Ann still awake and she asked anxiously, “Mummy, do you think God
                    remembered to give Fanny her bone tonight?”

                    Much love to all,
                    Eleanor.

                    Itewe, Chunya 23rd December 1936

                    Dearest Family,

                    Your Christmas parcel arrived this morning. Thank you very much for all the
                    clothing for all of us and for the lovely toys for the children. George means to go hunting
                    for a young buffalo this afternoon so that we will have some fresh beef for Christmas for
                    ourselves and our boys and enough for friends too.

                    I had a fright this morning. Ann and Georgie were, as usual, searching for gold
                    whilst I sat sewing in the living room with Kate toddling around. She wandered through
                    the curtained doorway into the store and I heard her playing with the paraffin pump. At
                    first it did not bother me because I knew the tin was empty but after ten minutes or so I
                    became irritated by the noise and went to stop her. Imagine my horror when I drew the
                    curtain aside and saw my fat little toddler fiddling happily with the pump whilst, curled up
                    behind the tin and clearly visible to me lay the largest puffadder I have ever seen.
                    Luckily I acted instinctively and scooped Kate up from behind and darted back into the
                    living room without disturbing the snake. The houseboy and cook rushed in with sticks
                    and killed the snake and then turned the whole storeroom upside down to make sure
                    there were no more.

                    I have met some more picturesque characters since I last wrote. One is a man
                    called Bishop whom George has known for many years having first met him in the
                    Congo. I believe he was originally a sailor but for many years he has wandered around
                    Central Africa trying his hand at trading, prospecting, a bit of elephant hunting and ivory
                    poaching. He is now keeping himself by doing ‘Sign Writing”. Bish is a gentle and
                    dignified personality. When we visited his camp he carefully dusted a seat for me and
                    called me ‘Marm’, quite ye olde world. The only thing is he did spit.

                    Another spitter is the Frenchman in a neighbouring camp. He is in bed with bad
                    rheumatism and George has been going across twice a day to help him and cheer him
                    up. Once when George was out on the claim I went across to the Frenchman’s camp in
                    response to an SOS, but I think he was just lonely. He showed me snapshots of his
                    two daughters, lovely girls and extremely smart, and he chatted away telling me his life
                    history. He punctuated his remarks by spitting to right and left of the bed, everywhere in
                    fact, except actually at me.

                    George took me and the children to visit a couple called Bert and Hilda Farham.
                    They have a small gold reef which is worked by a very ‘Heath Robinson’ type of
                    machinery designed and erected by Bert who is reputed to be a clever engineer though
                    eccentric. He is rather a handsome man who always looks very spruce and neat and
                    wears a Captain Kettle beard. Hilda is from Johannesburg and quite a character. She
                    has a most generous figure and literally masses of beetroot red hair, but she also has a
                    warm deep voice and a most generous disposition. The Farhams have built
                    themselves a more permanent camp than most. They have a brick cottage with proper
                    doors and windows and have made it attractive with furniture contrived from petrol
                    boxes. They have no children but Hilda lavishes a great deal of affection on a pet
                    monkey. Sometimes they do quite well out of their gold and then they have a terrific
                    celebration at the Club or Pub and Hilda has an orgy of shopping. At other times they
                    are completely broke but Hilda takes disasters as well as triumphs all in her stride. She
                    says, “My dear, when we’re broke we just live on tea and cigarettes.”

                    I have met a young woman whom I would like as a friend. She has a dear little
                    baby, but unfortunately she has a very wet husband who is also a dreadful bore. I can’t
                    imagine George taking me to their camp very often. When they came to visit us George
                    just sat and smoked and said,”Oh really?” to any remark this man made until I felt quite
                    hysterical. George looks very young and fit and the children are lively and well too. I ,
                    however, am definitely showing signs of wear and tear though George says,
                    “Nonsense, to me you look the same as you always did.” This I may say, I do not
                    regard as a compliment to the young Eleanor.

                    Anyway, even though our future looks somewhat unsettled, we are all together
                    and very happy.

                    With love,
                    Eleanor.

                    Itewe, Chunya 30th December 1936

                    Dearest Family,

                    We had a very cheery Christmas. The children loved the toys and are so proud
                    of their new clothes. They wore them when we went to Christmas lunch to the
                    Cresswell-Georges. The C-Gs have been doing pretty well lately and they have a
                    comfortable brick house and a large wireless set. The living room was gaily decorated
                    with bought garlands and streamers and balloons. We had an excellent lunch cooked by
                    our ex cook Abel who now works for the Cresswell-Georges. We had turkey with
                    trimmings and plum pudding followed by nuts and raisons and chocolates and sweets
                    galore. There was also a large variety of drinks including champagne!

                    There were presents for all of us and, in addition, Georgie and Ann each got a
                    large tin of chocolates. Kate was much admired. She was a picture in her new party frock
                    with her bright hair and rosy cheeks. There were other guests beside ourselves and
                    they were already there having drinks when we arrived. Someone said “What a lovely
                    child!” “Yes” said George with pride, “She’s a Marie Stopes baby.” “Truby King!” said I
                    quickly and firmly, but too late to stop the roar of laughter.

                    Our children played amicably with the C-G’s three, but young George was
                    unusually quiet and surprised me by bringing me his unopened tin of chocolates to keep
                    for him. Normally he is a glutton for sweets. I might have guessed he was sickening for
                    something. That night he vomited and had diarrhoea and has had an upset tummy and a
                    slight temperature ever since.

                    Janey is also ill. She says she has malaria and has taken to her bed. I am dosing
                    her with quinine and hope she will soon be better as I badly need her help. Not only is
                    young George off his food and peevish but Kate has a cold and Ann sore eyes and
                    they all want love and attention. To complicate things it has been raining heavily and I
                    must entertain the children indoors.

                    Eleanor.

                    Itewe, Chunya 19th January 1937

                    Dearest Family,

                    So sorry I have not written before but we have been in the wars and I have had neither
                    the time nor the heart to write. However the worst is now over. Young George and
                    Janey are both recovering from Typhoid Fever. The doctor had Janey moved to the
                    native hospital at Chunya but I nursed young George here in the camp.

                    As I told you young George’s tummy trouble started on Christmas day. At first I
                    thought it was only a protracted bilious attack due to eating too much unaccustomed rich
                    food and treated him accordingly but when his temperature persisted I thought that the
                    trouble might be malaria and kept him in bed and increased the daily dose of quinine.
                    He ate less and less as the days passed and on New Years Day he seemed very
                    weak and his stomach tender to the touch.

                    George fetched the doctor who examined small George and said he had a very
                    large liver due no doubt to malaria. He gave the child injections of emertine and quinine
                    and told me to give young George frequent and copious drinks of water and bi-carb of
                    soda. This was more easily said than done. Young George refused to drink this mixture
                    and vomited up the lime juice and water the doctor had suggested as an alternative.
                    The doctor called every day and gave George further injections and advised me
                    to give him frequent sips of water from a spoon. After three days the child was very
                    weak and weepy but Dr Spiers still thought he had malaria. During those anxious days I
                    also worried about Janey who appeared to be getting worse rather that better and on
                    January the 3rd I asked the doctor to look at her. The next thing I knew, the doctor had
                    put Janey in his car and driven her off to hospital. When he called next morning he
                    looked very grave and said he wished to talk to my husband. I said that George was out
                    on the claim but if what he wished to say concerned young George’s condition he might
                    just as well tell me.

                    With a good deal of reluctance Dr Spiers then told me that Janey showed all the
                    symptoms of Typhoid Fever and that he was very much afraid that young George had
                    contracted it from her. He added that George should be taken to the Mbeya Hospital
                    where he could have the professional nursing so necessary in typhoid cases. I said “Oh
                    no,I’d never allow that. The child had never been away from his family before and it
                    would frighten him to death to be sick and alone amongst strangers.” Also I was sure that
                    the fifty mile drive over the mountains in his weak condition would harm him more than
                    my amateur nursing would. The doctor returned to the camp that afternoon to urge
                    George to send our son to hospital but George staunchly supported my argument that
                    young George would stand a much better chance of recovery if we nursed him at home.
                    I must say Dr Spiers took our refusal very well and gave young George every attention
                    coming twice a day to see him.

                    For some days the child was very ill. He could not keep down any food or liquid
                    in any quantity so all day long, and when he woke at night, I gave him a few drops of
                    water at a time from a teaspoon. His only nourishment came from sucking Macintosh’s
                    toffees. Young George sweated copiously especially at night when it was difficult to
                    change his clothes and sponge him in the draughty room with the rain teeming down
                    outside. I think I told you that the bedroom is a sort of shed with only openings in the wall
                    for windows and doors, and with one wall built only a couple of feet high leaving a six
                    foot gap for air and light. The roof leaked and the damp air blew in but somehow young
                    George pulled through.

                    Only when he was really on the mend did the doctor tell us that whilst he had
                    been attending George, he had also been called in to attend to another little boy of the same age who also had typhoid. He had been called in too late and the other little boy,
                    an only child, had died. Young George, thank God, is convalescent now, though still on a
                    milk diet. He is cheerful enough when he has company but very peevish when left
                    alone. Poor little lad, he is all hair, eyes, and teeth, or as Ann says” Georgie is all ribs ribs
                    now-a-days Mummy.” He shares my room, Ann and Kate are together in the little room.
                    Anyway the doctor says he should be up and around in about a week or ten days time.
                    We were all inoculated against typhoid on the day the doctor made the diagnosis
                    so it is unlikely that any of us will develop it. Dr Spiers was most impressed by Ann’s
                    unconcern when she was inoculated. She looks gentle and timid but has always been
                    very brave. Funny thing when young George was very ill he used to wail if I left the
                    room, but now that he is convalescent he greatly prefers his dad’s company. So now I
                    have been able to take the girls for walks in the late afternoons whilst big George
                    entertains small George. This he does with the minimum of effort, either he gets out
                    cartons of ammunition with which young George builds endless forts, or else he just sits
                    beside the bed and cleans one of his guns whilst small George watches with absorbed
                    attention.

                    The Doctor tells us that Janey is also now convalescent. He says that exhusband
                    Abel has been most attentive and appeared daily at the hospital with a tray of
                    food that made his, the doctor’s, mouth water. All I dare say, pinched from Mrs
                    Cresswell-George.

                    I’ll write again soon. Lots of love to all,
                    Eleanor.

                    Chunya 29th January 1937

                    Dearest Family,

                    Georgie is up and about but still tires very easily. At first his legs were so weak
                    that George used to carry him around on his shoulders. The doctor says that what the
                    child really needs is a long holiday out of the Tropics so that Mrs Thomas’ offer, to pay all
                    our fares to Cape Town as well as lending us her seaside cottage for a month, came as
                    a Godsend. Luckily my passport is in order. When George was in Mbeya he booked
                    seats for the children and me on the first available plane. We will fly to Broken Hill and go
                    on to Cape Town from there by train.

                    Ann and George are wildly thrilled at the idea of flying but I am not. I remember
                    only too well how airsick I was on the old Hannibal when I flew home with the baby Ann.
                    I am longing to see you all and it will be heaven to give the children their first seaside
                    holiday.

                    I mean to return with Kate after three months but, if you will have him, I shall leave
                    George behind with you for a year. You said you would all be delighted to have Ann so
                    I do hope you will also be happy to have young George. Together they are no trouble
                    at all. They amuse themselves and are very independent and loveable.
                    George and I have discussed the matter taking into consideration the letters from
                    you and George’s Mother on the subject. If you keep Ann and George for a year, my
                    mother-in-law will go to Cape Town next year and fetch them. They will live in England
                    with her until they are fit enough to return to the Tropics. After the children and I have left
                    on this holiday, George will be able to move around and look for a job that will pay
                    sufficiently to enable us to go to England in a few years time to fetch our children home.
                    We both feel very sad at the prospect of this parting but the children’s health
                    comes before any other consideration. I hope Kate will stand up better to the Tropics.
                    She is plump and rosy and could not look more bonny if she lived in a temperate
                    climate.

                    We should be with you in three weeks time!

                    Very much love,
                    Eleanor.

                    Broken Hill, N Rhodesia 11th February 1937

                    Dearest Family,

                    Well here we are safe and sound at the Great Northern Hotel, Broken Hill, all
                    ready to board the South bound train tonight.

                    We were still on the diggings on Ann’s birthday, February 8th, when George had
                    a letter from Mbeya to say that our seats were booked on the plane leaving Mbeya on
                    the 10th! What a rush we had packing up. Ann was in bed with malaria so we just
                    bundled her up in blankets and set out in John Molteno’s car for the farm. We arrived that
                    night and spent the next day on the farm sorting things out. Ann and George wanted to
                    take so many of their treasures and it was difficult for them to make a small selection. In
                    the end young George’s most treasured possession, his sturdy little boots, were left
                    behind.

                    Before leaving home on the morning of the tenth I took some snaps of Ann and
                    young George in the garden and one of them with their father. He looked so sad. After
                    putting us on the plane, George planned to go to the fishing camp for a day or two
                    before returning to the empty house on the farm.

                    John Molteno returned from the Cape by plane just before we took off, so he
                    will take over the running of his claims once more. I told John that I dreaded the plane trip
                    on account of air sickness so he gave me two pills which I took then and there. Oh dear!
                    How I wished later that I had not done so. We had an extremely bumpy trip and
                    everyone on the plane was sick except for small George who loved every moment.
                    Poor Ann had a dreadful time but coped very well and never complained. I did not
                    actually puke until shortly before we landed at Broken Hill but felt dreadfully ill all the way.
                    Kate remained rosy and cheerful almost to the end. She sat on my lap throughout the
                    trip because, being under age, she travelled as baggage and was not entitled to a seat.
                    Shortly before we reached Broken Hill a smartly dressed youngish man came up
                    to me and said, “You look so poorly, please let me take the baby, I have children of my
                    own and know how to handle them.” Kate made no protest and off they went to the
                    back of the plane whilst I tried to relax and concentrate on not getting sick. However,
                    within five minutes the man was back. Kate had been thoroughly sick all over his collar
                    and jacket.

                    I took Kate back on my lap and then was violently sick myself, so much so that
                    when we touched down at Broken Hill I was unable to speak to the Immigration Officer.
                    He was so kind. He sat beside me until I got my diaphragm under control and then
                    drove me up to the hotel in his own car.

                    We soon recovered of course and ate a hearty dinner. This morning after
                    breakfast I sallied out to look for a Bank where I could exchange some money into
                    Rhodesian and South African currency and for the Post Office so that I could telegraph
                    to George and to you. What a picnic that trip was! It was a terribly hot day and there was
                    no shade. By the time we had done our chores, the children were hot, and cross, and
                    tired and so indeed was I. As I had no push chair for Kate I had to carry her and she is
                    pretty heavy for eighteen months. George, who is still not strong, clung to my free arm
                    whilst Ann complained bitterly that no one was helping her.

                    Eventually Ann simply sat down on the pavement and declared that she could
                    not go another step, whereupon George of course decided that he also had reached his
                    limit and sat down too. Neither pleading no threats would move them so I had to resort
                    to bribery and had to promise that when we reached the hotel they could have cool
                    drinks and ice-cream. This promise got the children moving once more but I am determined that nothing will induce me to stir again until the taxi arrives to take us to the
                    station.

                    This letter will go by air and will reach you before we do. How I am longing for
                    journeys end.

                    With love to you all,
                    Eleanor.

                    Leaving home 10th February 1937,  George Gilman Rushby with Ann and Georgie (Mike) Rushby:

                    George Rushby Ann and Georgie

                    NOTE
                    We had a very warm welcome to the family home at Plumstead Cape Town.
                    After ten days with my family we moved to Hout Bay where Mrs Thomas lent us her
                    delightful seaside cottage. She also provided us with two excellent maids so I had
                    nothing to do but rest and play on the beach with the children.

                    After a month at the sea George had fully recovered his health though not his
                    former gay spirits. After another six months with my parents I set off for home with Kate,
                    leaving Ann and George in my parent’s home under the care of my elder sister,
                    Marjorie.

                    One or two incidents during that visit remain clearly in my memory. Our children
                    had never met elderly people and were astonished at the manifestations of age. One
                    morning an elderly lady came around to collect church dues. She was thin and stooped
                    and Ann surveyed her with awe. She turned to me with a puzzled expression and
                    asked in her clear voice, “Mummy, why has that old lady got a moustache – oh and a
                    beard?’ The old lady in question was very annoyed indeed and said, “What a rude little
                    girl.” Ann could not understand this, she said, “But Mummy, I only said she had a
                    moustache and a beard and she has.” So I explained as best I could that when people
                    have defects of this kind they are hurt if anyone mentions them.

                    A few days later a strange young woman came to tea. I had been told that she
                    had a most disfiguring birthmark on her cheek and warned Ann that she must not
                    comment on it. Alas! with the kindest intentions Ann once again caused me acute
                    embarrassment. The young woman was hardly seated when Ann went up to her and
                    gently patted the disfiguring mark saying sweetly, “Oh, I do like this horrible mark on your
                    face.”

                    I remember also the afternoon when Kate and George were christened. My
                    mother had given George a white silk shirt for the occasion and he wore it with intense
                    pride. Kate was baptised first without incident except that she was lost in admiration of a
                    gold bracelet given her that day by her Godmother and exclaimed happily, “My
                    bangle, look my bangle,” throughout the ceremony. When George’s turn came the
                    clergyman held his head over the font and poured water on George’s forehead. Some
                    splashed on his shirt and George protested angrily, “Mum, he has wet my shirt!” over
                    and over again whilst I led him hurriedly outside.

                    My last memory of all is at the railway station. The time had come for Kate and
                    me to get into our compartment. My sisters stood on the platform with Ann and George.
                    Ann was resigned to our going, George was not so, at the last moment Sylvia, my
                    younger sister, took him off to see the engine. The whistle blew and I said good-bye to
                    my gallant little Ann. “Mummy”, she said urgently to me, “Don’t forget to wave to
                    George.”

                    And so I waved good-bye to my children, never dreaming that a war would
                    intervene and it would be eight long years before I saw them again.

                    #6262
                    TracyTracy
                    Participant

                      From Tanganyika with Love

                      continued  ~ part 3

                      With thanks to Mike Rushby.

                      Mchewe Estate. 22nd March 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      I am feeling much better now that I am five months pregnant and have quite got
                      my appetite back. Once again I go out with “the Mchewe Hunt” which is what George
                      calls the procession made up of the donkey boy and donkey with Ann confidently riding
                      astride, me beside the donkey with Georgie behind riding the stick which he much
                      prefers to the donkey. The Alsatian pup, whom Ann for some unknown reason named
                      ‘Tubbage’, and the two cats bring up the rear though sometimes Tubbage rushes
                      ahead and nearly knocks me off my feet. He is not the loveable pet that Kelly was.
                      It is just as well that I have recovered my health because my mother-in-law has
                      decided to fly out from England to look after Ann and George when I am in hospital. I am
                      very grateful for there is no one lse to whom I can turn. Kath Hickson-Wood is seldom on
                      their farm because Hicky is working a guano claim and is making quite a good thing out of
                      selling bat guano to the coffee farmers at Mbosi. They camp out at the claim, a series of
                      caves in the hills across the valley and visit the farm only occasionally. Anne Molteno is
                      off to Cape Town to have her baby at her mothers home and there are no women in
                      Mbeya I know well. The few women are Government Officials wives and they come
                      and go. I make so few trips to the little town that there is no chance to get on really
                      friendly terms with them.

                      Janey, the ayah, is turning into a treasure. She washes and irons well and keeps
                      the children’s clothes cupboard beautifully neat. Ann and George however are still
                      reluctant to go for walks with her. They find her dull because, like all African ayahs, she
                      has no imagination and cannot play with them. She should however be able to help with
                      the baby. Ann is very excited about the new baby. She so loves all little things.
                      Yesterday she went into ecstasies over ten newly hatched chicks.

                      She wants a little sister and perhaps it would be a good thing. Georgie is so very
                      active and full of mischief that I feel another wild little boy might be more than I can
                      manage. Although Ann is older, it is Georgie who always thinks up the mischief. They
                      have just been having a fight. Georgie with the cooks umbrella versus Ann with her frilly
                      pink sunshade with the inevitable result that the sunshade now has four broken ribs.
                      Any way I never feel lonely now during the long hours George is busy on the
                      shamba. The children keep me on my toes and I have plenty of sewing to do for the
                      baby. George is very good about amusing the children before their bedtime and on
                      Sundays. In the afternoons when it is not wet I take Ann and Georgie for a walk down
                      the hill. George meets us at the bottom and helps me on the homeward journey. He
                      grabs one child in each hand by the slack of their dungarees and they do a sort of giant
                      stride up the hill, half walking half riding.

                      Very much love,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 14th June 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      A great flap here. We had a letter yesterday to say that mother-in-law will be
                      arriving in four days time! George is very amused at my frantic efforts at spring cleaning
                      but he has told me before that she is very house proud so I feel I must make the best
                      of what we have.

                      George is very busy building a store for the coffee which will soon be ripening.
                      This time he is doing the bricklaying himself. It is quite a big building on the far end of the
                      farm and close to the river. He is also making trays of chicken wire nailed to wooden
                      frames with cheap calico stretched over the wire.

                      Mother will have to sleep in the verandah room which leads off the bedroom
                      which we share with the children. George will have to sleep in the outside spare room as
                      there is no door between the bedroom and the verandah room. I am sewing frantically
                      to make rose coloured curtains and bedspread out of material mother-in-law sent for
                      Christmas and will have to make a curtain for the doorway. The kitchen badly needs
                      whitewashing but George says he cannot spare the labour so I hope mother won’t look.
                      To complicate matters, George has been invited to lunch with the Governor on the day
                      of Mother’s arrival. After lunch they are to visit the newly stocked trout streams in the
                      Mporotos. I hope he gets back to Mbeya in good time to meet mother’s plane.
                      Ann has been off colour for a week. She looks very pale and her pretty fair hair,
                      normally so shiny, is dull and lifeless. It is such a pity that mother should see her like this
                      because first impressions do count so much and I am looking to the children to attract
                      attention from me. I am the size of a circus tent and hardly a dream daughter-in-law.
                      Georgie, thank goodness, is blooming but he has suddenly developed a disgusting
                      habit of spitting on the floor in the manner of the natives. I feel he might say “Gran, look
                      how far I can spit and give an enthusiastic demonstration.

                      Just hold thumbs that all goes well.

                      your loving but anxious,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 28th June 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      Mother-in-law duly arrived in the District Commissioner’s car. George did not dare
                      to use the A.C. as she is being very temperamental just now. They also brought the
                      mail bag which contained a parcel of lovely baby clothes from you. Thank you very
                      much. Mother-in-law is very put out because the large parcel she posted by surface
                      mail has not yet arrived.

                      Mother arrived looking very smart in an ankle length afternoon frock of golden
                      brown crepe and smart hat, and wearing some very good rings. She is a very
                      handsome woman with the very fair complexion that goes with red hair. The hair, once
                      Titan, must now be grey but it has been very successfully tinted and set. I of course,
                      was shapeless in a cotton maternity frock and no credit to you. However, so far, motherin-
                      law has been uncritical and friendly and charmed with the children who have taken to
                      her. Mother does not think that the children resemble me in any way. Ann resembles her
                      family the Purdys and Georgie is a Morley, her mother’s family. She says they had the
                      same dark eyes and rather full mouths. I say feebly, “But Georgie has my colouring”, but
                      mother won’t hear of it. So now you know! Ann is a Purdy and Georgie a Morley.
                      Perhaps number three will be a Leslie.

                      What a scramble I had getting ready for mother. Her little room really looks pretty
                      and fresh, but the locally woven grass mats arrived only minutes before mother did. I
                      also frantically overhauled our clothes and it a good thing that I did so because mother
                      has been going through all the cupboards looking for mending. Mother is kept so busy
                      in her own home that I think she finds time hangs on her hands here. She is very good at
                      entertaining the children and has even tried her hand at picking coffee a couple of times.
                      Mother cannot get used to the native boy servants but likes Janey, so Janey keeps her
                      room in order. Mother prefers to wash and iron her own clothes.

                      I almost lost our cook through mother’s surplus energy! Abel our previous cook
                      took a new wife last month and, as the new wife, and Janey the old, were daggers
                      drawn, Abel moved off to a job on the Lupa leaving Janey and her daughter here.
                      The new cook is capable, but he is a fearsome looking individual called Alfani. He has a
                      thick fuzz of hair which he wears long, sometimes hidden by a dingy turban, and he
                      wears big brass earrings. I think he must be part Somali because he has a hawk nose
                      and a real Brigand look. His kitchen is never really clean but he is an excellent cook and
                      as cooks are hard to come by here I just keep away from the kitchen. Not so mother!
                      A few days after her arrival she suggested kindly that I should lie down after lunch
                      so I rested with the children whilst mother, unknown to me, went out to the kitchen and
                      not only scrubbed the table and shelves but took the old iron stove to pieces and
                      cleaned that. Unfortunately in her zeal she poked a hole through the stove pipe.
                      Had I known of these activities I would have foreseen the cook’s reaction when
                      he returned that evening to cook the supper. he was furious and wished to leave on the
                      spot and demanded his wages forthwith. The old Memsahib had insulted him by
                      scrubbing his already spotless kitchen and had broken his stove and made it impossible
                      for him to cook. This tirade was accompanied by such waving of hands and rolling of
                      eyes that I longed to sack him on the spot. However I dared not as I might not get
                      another cook for weeks. So I smoothed him down and he patched up the stove pipe
                      with a bit of tin and some wire and produced a good meal. I am wondering what
                      transformations will be worked when I am in hospital.

                      Our food is really good but mother just pecks at it. No wonder really, because
                      she has had some shocks. One day she found the kitchen boy diligently scrubbing the box lavatory seat with a scrubbing brush which he dipped into one of my best large
                      saucepans! No one can foresee what these boys will do. In these remote areas house
                      servants are usually recruited from the ranks of the very primitive farm labourers, who first
                      come to the farm as naked savages, and their notions of hygiene simply don’t exist.
                      One day I said to mother in George’s presence “When we were newly married,
                      mother, George used to brag about your cooking and say that you would run a home
                      like this yourself with perhaps one ‘toto’. Mother replied tartly, “That was very bad of
                      George and not true. If my husband had brought me out here I would not have stayed a
                      month. I think you manage very well.” Which reply made me warm to mother a lot.
                      To complicate things we have a new pup, a little white bull terrier bitch whom
                      George has named Fanny. She is tiny and not yet house trained but seems a plucky
                      and attractive little animal though there is no denying that she does look like a piglet.

                      Very much love to all,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 3rd August 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      Here I am in hospital, comfortably in bed with our new daughter in her basket
                      beside me. She is a lovely little thing, very plump and cuddly and pink and white and
                      her head is covered with tiny curls the colour of Golden Syrup. We meant to call her
                      Margery Kate, after our Marj and my mother-in-law whose name is Catherine.
                      I am enjoying the rest, knowing that George and mother will be coping
                      successfully on the farm. My room is full of flowers, particularly with the roses and
                      carnations which grow so well here. Kate was not due until August 5th but the doctor
                      wanted me to come in good time in view of my tiresome early pregnancy.

                      For weeks beforehand George had tinkered with the A.C. and we started for
                      Mbeya gaily enough on the twenty ninth, however, after going like a dream for a couple
                      of miles, she simply collapsed from exhaustion at the foot of a hill and all the efforts of
                      the farm boys who had been sent ahead for such an emergency failed to start her. So
                      George sent back to the farm for the machila and I sat in the shade of a tree, wondering
                      what would happen if I had the baby there and then, whilst George went on tinkering
                      with the car. Suddenly she sprang into life and we roared up that hill and all the way into
                      Mbeya. The doctor welcomed us pleasantly and we had tea with his family before I
                      settled into my room. Later he examined me and said that it was unlikely that the baby
                      would be born for several days. The new and efficient German nurse said, “Thank
                      goodness for that.” There was a man in hospital dying from a stomach cancer and she
                      had not had a decent nights sleep for three nights.

                      Kate however had other plans. I woke in the early morning with labour pains but
                      anxious not to disturb the nurse, I lay and read or tried to read a book, hoping that I
                      would not have to call the nurse until daybreak. However at four a.m., I went out into the
                      wind which was howling along the open verandah and knocked on the nurse’s door. She
                      got up and very crossly informed me that I was imagining things and should get back to
                      bed at once. She said “It cannot be so. The Doctor has said it.” I said “Of course it is,”
                      and then and there the water broke and clinched my argument. She then went into a flat
                      spin. “But the bed is not ready and my instruments are not ready,” and she flew around
                      to rectify this and also sent an African orderly to call the doctor. I paced the floor saying
                      warningly “Hurry up with that bed. I am going to have the baby now!” She shrieked
                      “Take off your dressing gown.” But I was passed caring. I flung myself on the bed and
                      there was Kate. The nurse had done all that was necessary by the time the doctor
                      arrived.

                      A funny thing was, that whilst Kate was being born on the bed, a black cat had
                      kittens under it! The doctor was furious with the nurse but the poor thing must have crept
                      in out of the cold wind when I went to call the nurse. A happy omen I feel for the baby’s
                      future. George had no anxiety this time. He stayed at the hospital with me until ten
                      o’clock when he went down to the hotel to sleep and he received the news in a note
                      from me with his early morning tea. He went to the farm next morning but will return on
                      the sixth to fetch me home.

                      I do feel so happy. A very special husband and three lovely children. What
                      more could anyone possibly want.

                      Lots and lots of love,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 20th August 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      Well here we are back at home and all is very well. The new baby is very placid
                      and so pretty. Mother is delighted with her and Ann loved her at sight but Georgie is not
                      so sure. At first he said, “Your baby is no good. Chuck her in the kalonga.” The kalonga
                      being the ravine beside the house , where, I regret to say, much of the kitchen refuse is
                      dumped. he is very jealous when I carry Kate around or feed her but is ready to admire
                      her when she is lying alone in her basket.

                      George walked all the way from the farm to fetch us home. He hired a car and
                      native driver from the hotel, but drove us home himself going with such care over ruts
                      and bumps. We had a great welcome from mother who had had the whole house
                      spring cleaned. However George loyally says it looks just as nice when I am in charge.
                      Mother obviously, had had more than enough of the back of beyond and
                      decided to stay on only one week after my return home. She had gone into the kitchen
                      one day just in time to see the houseboy scooping the custard he had spilt on the table
                      back into the jug with the side of his hand. No doubt it would have been served up
                      without a word. On another occasion she had walked in on the cook’s daily ablutions. He
                      was standing in a small bowl of water in the centre of the kitchen, absolutely naked,
                      enjoying a slipper bath. She left last Wednesday and gave us a big laugh before she
                      left. She never got over her horror of eating food prepared by our cook and used to
                      push it around her plate. Well, when the time came for mother to leave for the plane, she
                      put on the very smart frock in which she had arrived, and then came into the sitting room
                      exclaiming in dismay “Just look what has happened, I must have lost a stone!’ We
                      looked, and sure enough, the dress which had been ankle deep before, now touched
                      the floor. “Good show mother.” said George unfeelingly. “You ought to be jolly grateful,
                      you needed to lose weight and it would have cost you the earth at a beauty parlour to
                      get that sylph-like figure.”

                      When mother left she took, in a perforated matchbox, one of the frilly mantis that
                      live on our roses. She means to keep it in a goldfish bowl in her dining room at home.
                      Georgie and Ann filled another matchbox with dead flies for food for the mantis on the
                      journey.

                      Now that mother has left, Georgie and Ann attach themselves to me and firmly
                      refuse to have anything to do with the ayah,Janey. She in any case now wishes to have
                      a rest. Mother tipped her well and gave her several cotton frocks so I suspect she wants
                      to go back to her hometown in Northern Rhodesia to show off a bit.
                      Georgie has just sidled up with a very roguish look. He asked “You like your
                      baby?” I said “Yes indeed I do.” He said “I’ll prick your baby with a velly big thorn.”

                      Who would be a mother!
                      Eleanor

                      Mchewe Estate. 20th September 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      I have been rather in the wars with toothache and as there is still no dentist at
                      Mbeya to do the fillings, I had to have four molars extracted at the hospital. George
                      says it is fascinating to watch me at mealtimes these days because there is such a gleam
                      of satisfaction in my eye when I do manage to get two teeth to meet on a mouthful.
                      About those scissors Marj sent Ann. It was not such a good idea. First she cut off tufts of
                      George’s hair so that he now looks like a bad case of ringworm and then she cut a scalp
                      lock, a whole fist full of her own shining hair, which George so loves. George scolded
                      Ann and she burst into floods of tears. Such a thing as a scolding from her darling daddy
                      had never happened before. George immediately made a long drooping moustache
                      out of the shorn lock and soon had her smiling again. George is always very gentle with
                      Ann. One has to be , because she is frightfully sensitive to criticism.

                      I am kept pretty busy these days, Janey has left and my houseboy has been ill
                      with pneumonia. I now have to wash all the children’s things and my own, (the cook does
                      George’s clothes) and look after the three children. Believe me, I can hardly keep awake
                      for Kate’s ten o’clock feed.

                      I do hope I shall get some new servants next month because I also got George
                      to give notice to the cook. I intercepted him last week as he was storming down the hill
                      with my large kitchen knife in his hand. “Where are you going with my knife?” I asked.
                      “I’m going to kill a man!” said Alfani, rolling his eyes and looking extremely ferocious. “He
                      has taken my wife.” “Not with my knife”, said I reaching for it. So off Alfani went, bent on
                      vengeance and I returned the knife to the kitchen. Dinner was served and I made no
                      enquiries but I feel that I need someone more restful in the kitchen than our brigand
                      Alfani.

                      George has been working on the car and has now fitted yet another radiator. This
                      is a lorry one and much too tall to be covered by the A.C.’s elegant bonnet which is
                      secured by an old strap. The poor old A.C. now looks like an ancient shoe with a turned
                      up toe. It only needs me in it with the children to make a fine illustration to the old rhyme!
                      Ann and Georgie are going through a climbing phase. They practically live in
                      trees. I rushed out this morning to investigate loud screams and found Georgie hanging
                      from a fork in a tree by one ankle, whilst Ann stood below on tiptoe with hands stretched
                      upwards to support his head.

                      Do I sound as though I have straws in my hair? I have.
                      Lots of love,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 11th October 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      Thank goodness! I have a new ayah name Mary. I had heard that there was a
                      good ayah out of work at Tukuyu 60 miles away so sent a messenger to fetch her. She
                      arrived after dark wearing a bright dress and a cheerful smile and looked very suitable by
                      the light of a storm lamp. I was horrified next morning to see her in daylight. She was
                      dressed all in black and had a rather sinister look. She reminds me rather of your old maid
                      Candace who overheard me laughing a few days before Ann was born and croaked
                      “Yes , Miss Eleanor, today you laugh but next week you might be dead.” Remember
                      how livid you were, dad?

                      I think Mary has the same grim philosophy. Ann took one look at her and said,
                      “What a horrible old lady, mummy.” Georgie just said “Go away”, both in English and Ki-
                      Swahili. Anyway Mary’s references are good so I shall keep her on to help with Kate
                      who is thriving and bonny and placid.

                      Thank you for the offer of toys for Christmas but, if you don’t mind, I’d rather have
                      some clothing for the children. Ann is quite contented with her dolls Barbara and Yvonne.
                      Barbara’s once beautiful face is now pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle having come
                      into contact with Georgie’s ever busy hammer. However Ann says she will love her for
                      ever and she doesn’t want another doll. Yvonne’s hay day is over too. She
                      disappeared for weeks and we think Fanny, the pup, was the culprit. Ann discovered
                      Yvonne one morning in some long wet weeds. Poor Yvonne is now a ghost of her
                      former self. All the sophisticated make up was washed off her papier-mâché face and
                      her hair is decidedly bedraggled, but Ann was radiant as she tucked her back into bed
                      and Yvonne is as precious to Ann as she ever was.

                      Georgie simply does not care for toys. His paint box, hammer and the trenching
                      hoe George gave him for his second birthday are all he wants or needs. Both children
                      love books but I sometimes wonder whether they stimulate Ann’s imagination too much.
                      The characters all become friends of hers and she makes up stories about them to tell
                      Georgie. She adores that illustrated children’s Bible Mummy sent her but you would be
                      astonished at the yarns she spins about “me and my friend Jesus.” She also will call
                      Moses “Old Noses”, and looking at a picture of Jacob’s dream, with the shining angels
                      on the ladder between heaven and earth, she said “Georgie, if you see an angel, don’t
                      touch it, it’s hot.”

                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 17th October 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      I take back the disparaging things I said about my new Ayah, because she has
                      proved her worth in an unexpected way. On Wednesday morning I settled Kate in he
                      cot after her ten o’clock feed and sat sewing at the dining room table with Ann and
                      Georgie opposite me, both absorbed in painting pictures in identical seed catalogues.
                      Suddenly there was a terrific bang on the back door, followed by an even heavier blow.
                      The door was just behind me and I got up and opened it. There, almost filling the door
                      frame, stood a huge native with staring eyes and his teeth showing in a mad grimace. In
                      his hand he held a rolled umbrella by the ferrule, the shaft I noticed was unusually long
                      and thick and the handle was a big round knob.

                      I was terrified as you can imagine, especially as, through the gap under the
                      native’s raised arm, I could see the new cook and the kitchen boy running away down to
                      the shamba! I hastily tried to shut and lock the door but the man just brushed me aside.
                      For a moment he stood over me with the umbrella raised as though to strike. Rather
                      fortunately, I now think, I was too petrified to say a word. The children never moved but
                      Tubbage, the Alsatian, got up and jumped out of the window!

                      Then the native turned away and still with the same fixed stare and grimace,
                      began to attack the furniture with his umbrella. Tables and chairs were overturned and
                      books and ornaments scattered on the floor. When the madman had his back turned and
                      was busily bashing the couch, I slipped round the dining room table, took Ann and
                      Georgie by the hand and fled through the front door to the garage where I hid the
                      children in the car. All this took several minutes because naturally the children were
                      terrified. I was worried to death about the baby left alone in the bedroom and as soon
                      as I had Ann and Georgie settled I ran back to the house.

                      I reached the now open front door just as Kianda the houseboy opened the back
                      door of the lounge. He had been away at the river washing clothes but, on hearing of the
                      madman from the kitchen boy he had armed himself with a stout stick and very pluckily,
                      because he is not a robust boy, had returned to the house to eject the intruder. He
                      rushed to attack immediately and I heard a terrific exchange of blows behind me as I
                      opened our bedroom door. You can imagine what my feelings were when I was
                      confronted by an empty cot! Just then there was an uproar inside as all the farm
                      labourers armed with hoes and pangas and sticks, streamed into the living room from the
                      shamba whence they had been summoned by the cook. In no time at all the huge
                      native was hustled out of the house, flung down the front steps, and securely tied up
                      with strips of cloth.

                      In the lull that followed I heard a frightened voice calling from the bathroom.
                      ”Memsahib is that you? The child is here with me.” I hastily opened the bathroom door
                      to find Mary couched in a corner by the bath, shielding Kate with her body. Mary had
                      seen the big native enter the house and her first thought had been for her charge. I
                      thanked her and promised her a reward for her loyalty, and quickly returned to the garage
                      to reassure Ann and Georgie. I met George who looked white and exhausted as well
                      he might having run up hill all the way from the coffee store. The kitchen boy had led him
                      to expect the worst and he was most relieved to find us all unhurt if a bit shaken.
                      We returned to the house by the back way whilst George went to the front and
                      ordered our labourers to take their prisoner and lock him up in the store. George then
                      discussed the whole affair with his Headman and all the labourers after which he reported
                      to me. “The boys say that the bastard is an ex-Askari from Nyasaland. He is not mad as
                      you thought but he smokes bhang and has these attacks. I suppose I should take him to
                      Mbeya and have him up in court. But if I do that you’ll have to give evidence and that will be a nuisance as the car won’t go and there is also the baby to consider.”

                      Eventually we decided to leave the man to sleep off the effects of the Bhang
                      until evening when he would be tried before an impromptu court consisting of George,
                      the local Jumbe(Headman) and village Elders, and our own farm boys and any other
                      interested spectators. It was not long before I knew the verdict because I heard the
                      sound of lashes. I was not sorry at all because I felt the man deserved his punishment
                      and so did all the Africans. They love children and despise anyone who harms or
                      frightens them. With great enthusiasm they frog-marched him off our land, and I sincerely
                      hope that that is the last we see or him. Ann and Georgie don’t seem to brood over this
                      affair at all. The man was naughty and he was spanked, a quite reasonable state of
                      affairs. This morning they hid away in the small thatched chicken house. This is a little brick
                      building about four feet square which Ann covets as a dolls house. They came back
                      covered in stick fleas which I had to remove with paraffin. My hens are laying well but
                      they all have the ‘gapes’! I wouldn’t run a chicken farm for anything, hens are such fussy,
                      squawking things.

                      Now don’t go worrying about my experience with the native. Such things
                      happen only once in a lifetime. We are all very well and happy, and life, apart from the
                      children’s pranks is very tranquil.

                      Lots and lots of love,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 25th October 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      The hot winds have dried up the shamba alarmingly and we hope every day for
                      rain. The prices for coffee, on the London market, continue to be low and the local
                      planters are very depressed. Coffee grows well enough here but we are over 400
                      miles from the railway and transport to the railhead by lorry is very expensive. Then, as
                      there is no East African Marketing Board, the coffee must be shipped to England for
                      sale. Unless the coffee fetches at least 90 pounds a ton it simply doesn’t pay to grow it.
                      When we started planting in 1931 coffee was fetching as much as 115 pounds a ton but
                      prices this year were between 45 and 55 pounds. We have practically exhausted our
                      capitol and so have all our neighbours. The Hickson -Woods have been keeping their
                      pot boiling by selling bat guano to the coffee farmers at Mbosi but now everyone is
                      broke and there is not a market for fertilisers. They are offering their farm for sale at a very
                      low price.

                      Major Jones has got a job working on the district roads and Max Coster talks of
                      returning to his work as a geologist. George says he will have to go gold digging on the
                      Lupa unless there is a big improvement in the market. Luckily we can live quite cheaply
                      here. We have a good vegetable garden, milk is cheap and we have plenty of fruit.
                      There are mulberries, pawpaws, grenadillas, peaches, and wine berries. The wine
                      berries are very pretty but insipid though Ann and Georgie love them. Each morning,
                      before breakfast, the old garden boy brings berries for Ann and Georgie. With a thorn
                      the old man pins a large leaf from a wild fig tree into a cone which he fills with scarlet wine
                      berries. There is always a cone for each child and they wait eagerly outside for the daily
                      ceremony of presentation.

                      The rats are being a nuisance again. Both our cats, Skinny Winnie and Blackboy
                      disappeared a few weeks ago. We think they made a meal for a leopard. I wrote last
                      week to our grocer at Mbalizi asking him whether he could let us have a couple of kittens
                      as I have often seen cats in his store. The messenger returned with a nailed down box.
                      The kitchen boy was called to prize up the lid and the children stood by in eager
                      anticipation. Out jumped two snarling and spitting creatures. One rushed into the kalonga
                      and the other into the house and before they were captured they had drawn blood from
                      several boys. I told the boys to replace the cats in the box as I intended to return them
                      forthwith. They had the colouring, stripes and dispositions of wild cats and I certainly
                      didn’t want them as pets, but before the boys could replace the lid the cats escaped
                      once more into the undergrowth in the kalonga. George fetched his shotgun and said he
                      would shoot the cats on sight or they would kill our chickens. This was more easily said
                      than done because the cats could not be found. However during the night the cats
                      climbed up into the loft af the house and we could hear them moving around on the reed
                      ceiling.

                      I said to George,”Oh leave the poor things. At least they might frighten the rats
                      away.” That afternoon as we were having tea a thin stream of liquid filtered through the
                      ceiling on George’s head. Oh dear!!! That of course was the end. Some raw meat was
                      put on the lawn for bait and yesterday George shot both cats.

                      I regret to end with the sad story of Mary, heroine in my last letter and outcast in
                      this. She came to work quite drunk two days running and I simply had to get rid of her. I
                      have heard since from Kath Wood that Mary lost her last job at Tukuyu for the same
                      reason. She was ayah to twin girls and one day set their pram on fire.

                      So once again my hands are more than full with three lively children. I did say
                      didn’t I, when Ann was born that I wanted six children?

                      Very much love from us all, Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 8th November 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      To set your minds at rest I must tell you that the native who so frightened me and
                      the children is now in jail for attacking a Greek at Mbalizi. I hear he is to be sent back to
                      Rhodesia when he has finished his sentence.

                      Yesterday we had one of our rare trips to Mbeya. George managed to get a couple of
                      second hand tyres for the old car and had again got her to work so we are celebrating our
                      wedding anniversary by going on an outing. I wore the green and fawn striped silk dress
                      mother bought me and the hat and shoes you sent for my birthday and felt like a million
                      dollars, for a change. The children all wore new clothes too and I felt very proud of them.
                      Ann is still very fair and with her refined little features and straight silky hair she
                      looks like Alice in Wonderland. Georgie is dark and sturdy and looks best in khaki shirt
                      and shorts and sun helmet. Kate is a pink and gold baby and looks good enough to eat.
                      We went straight to the hotel at Mbeya and had the usual warm welcome from
                      Ken and Aunty May Menzies. Aunty May wears her hair cut short like a mans and
                      usually wears shirt and tie and riding breeches and boots. She always looks ready to go
                      on safari at a moments notice as indeed she is. She is often called out to a case of illness
                      at some remote spot.

                      There were lots of people at the hotel from farms in the district and from the
                      diggings. I met women I had not seen for four years. One, a Mrs Masters from Tukuyu,
                      said in the lounge, “My God! Last time I saw you , you were just a girl and here you are
                      now with two children.” To which I replied with pride, “There is another one in a pram on
                      the verandah if you care to look!” Great hilarity in the lounge. The people from the
                      diggings seem to have plenty of money to throw around. There was a big party on the
                      go in the bar.

                      One of our shamba boys died last Friday and all his fellow workers and our
                      house boys had the day off to attend the funeral. From what I can gather the local
                      funerals are quite cheery affairs. The corpse is dressed in his best clothes and laid
                      outside his hut and all who are interested may view the body and pay their respects.
                      The heir then calls upon anyone who had a grudge against the dead man to say his say
                      and thereafter hold his tongue forever. Then all the friends pay tribute to the dead man
                      after which he is buried to the accompaniment of what sounds from a distance, very
                      cheerful keening.

                      Most of our workmen are pagans though there is a Lutheran Mission nearby and
                      a big Roman Catholic Mission in the area too. My present cook, however, claims to be
                      a Christian. He certainly went to a mission school and can read and write and also sing
                      hymns in Ki-Swahili. When I first engaged him I used to find a large open Bible
                      prominently displayed on the kitchen table. The cook is middle aged and arrived here
                      with a sensible matronly wife. To my surprise one day he brought along a young girl,
                      very plump and giggly and announced proudly that she was his new wife, I said,”But I
                      thought you were a Christian Jeremiah? Christians don’t have two wives.” To which he
                      replied, “Oh Memsahib, God won’t mind. He knows an African needs two wives – one
                      to go with him when he goes away to work and one to stay behind at home to cultivate
                      the shamba.

                      Needles to say, it is the old wife who has gone to till the family plot.

                      With love to all,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 21st November 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      The drought has broken with a bang. We had a heavy storm in the hills behind
                      the house. Hail fell thick and fast. So nice for all the tiny new berries on the coffee! The
                      kids loved the excitement and three times Ann and Georgie ran out for a shower under
                      the eaves and had to be changed. After the third time I was fed up and made them both
                      lie on their beds whilst George and I had lunch in peace. I told Ann to keep the
                      casement shut as otherwise the rain would drive in on her bed. Half way through lunch I
                      heard delighted squeals from Georgie and went into the bedroom to investigate. Ann
                      was standing on the outer sill in the rain but had shut the window as ordered. “Well
                      Mummy , you didn’t say I mustn’t stand on the window sill, and I did shut the window.”
                      George is working so hard on the farm. I have a horrible feeling however that it is
                      what the Africans call ‘Kazi buri’ (waste of effort) as there seems no chance of the price of
                      coffee improving as long as this world depression continues. The worry is that our capitol
                      is nearly exhausted. Food is becoming difficult now that our neighbours have left. I used
                      to buy delicious butter from Kath Hickson-Wood and an African butcher used to kill a
                      beast once a week. Now that we are his only European customers he very rarely kills
                      anything larger than a goat, and though we do eat goat, believe me it is not from choice.
                      We have of course got plenty to eat, but our diet is very monotonous. I was
                      delighted when George shot a large bushbuck last week. What we could not use I cut
                      into strips and the salted strips are now hanging in the open garage to dry.

                      With love to all,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 6th December 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      We have had a lot of rain and the countryside is lovely and green. Last week
                      George went to Mbeya taking Ann with him. This was a big adventure for Ann because
                      never before had she been anywhere without me. She was in a most blissful state as
                      she drove off in the old car clutching a little basket containing sandwiches and half a bottle
                      of milk. She looked so pretty in a new blue frock and with her tiny plaits tied with
                      matching blue ribbons. When Ann is animated she looks charming because her normally
                      pale cheeks become rosy and she shows her pretty dimples.

                      As I am still without an ayah I rather looked forward to a quiet morning with only
                      Georgie and Margery Kate to care for, but Georgie found it dull without Ann and wanted
                      to be entertained and even the normally placid baby was peevish. Then in mid morning
                      the rain came down in torrents, the result of a cloudburst in the hills directly behind our
                      house. The ravine next to our house was a terrifying sight. It appeared to be a great
                      muddy, roaring waterfall reaching from the very top of the hill to a point about 30 yards
                      behind our house and then the stream rushed on down the gorge in an angry brown
                      flood. The roar of the water was so great that we had to yell at one another to be heard.
                      By lunch time the rain had stopped and I anxiously awaited the return of Ann and
                      George. They returned on foot, drenched and hungry at about 2.30pm . George had
                      had to abandon the car on the main road as the Mchewe River had overflowed and
                      turned the road into a muddy lake. The lower part of the shamba had also been flooded
                      and the water receded leaving branches and driftwood amongst the coffee. This was my
                      first experience of a real tropical storm. I am afraid that after the battering the coffee has
                      had there is little hope of a decent crop next year.

                      Anyway Christmas is coming so we don’t dwell on these mishaps. The children
                      have already chosen their tree from amongst the young cypresses in the vegetable
                      garden. We all send our love and hope that you too will have a Happy Christmas.

                      Eleanor

                      Mchewe Estate. 22nd December 1935

                      Dearest Family,

                      I’ve been in the wars with my staff. The cook has been away ill for ten days but is
                      back today though shaky and full of self pity. The houseboy, who really has been a brick
                      during the cooks absence has now taken to his bed and I feel like taking to Mine! The
                      children however have the Christmas spirit and are making weird and wonderful paper
                      decorations. George’s contribution was to have the house whitewashed throughout and
                      it looks beautifully fresh.

                      My best bit of news is that my old ayah Janey has been to see me and would
                      like to start working here again on Jan 1st. We are all very well. We meant to give
                      ourselves an outing to Mbeya as a Christmas treat but here there is an outbreak of
                      enteric fever there so will now not go. We have had two visitors from the Diggings this
                      week. The children see so few strangers that they were fascinated and hung around
                      staring. Ann sat down on the arm of the couch beside one and studied his profile.
                      Suddenly she announced in her clear voice, “Mummy do you know, this man has got
                      wax in his ears!” Very awkward pause in the conversation. By the way when I was
                      cleaning out little Kate’s ears with a swab of cotton wool a few days ago, Ann asked
                      “Mummy, do bees have wax in their ears? Well, where do you get beeswax from
                      then?”

                      I meant to keep your Christmas parcel unopened until Christmas Eve but could
                      not resist peeping today. What lovely things! Ann so loves pretties and will be
                      delighted with her frocks. My dress is just right and I love Georgie’s manly little flannel
                      shorts and blue shirt. We have bought them each a watering can. I suppose I shall
                      regret this later. One of your most welcome gifts is the album of nursery rhyme records. I
                      am so fed up with those that we have. Both children love singing. I put a record on the
                      gramophone geared to slow and off they go . Georgie sings more slowly than Ann but
                      much more tunefully. Ann sings in a flat monotone but Georgie with great expression.
                      You ought to hear him render ‘Sing a song of sixpence’. He cannot pronounce an R or
                      an S. Mother has sent a large home made Christmas pudding and a fine Christmas
                      cake and George will shoot some partridges for Christmas dinner.
                      Think of us as I shall certainly think of you.

                      Your very loving,
                      Eleanor.

                      Mchewe Estate. 2nd January 1936

                      Dearest Family,

                      Christmas was fun! The tree looked very gay with its load of tinsel, candles and
                      red crackers and the coloured balloons you sent. All the children got plenty of toys
                      thanks to Grandparents and Aunts. George made Ann a large doll’s bed and I made
                      some elegant bedding, Barbara, the big doll is now permanently bed ridden. Her poor
                      shattered head has come all unstuck and though I have pieced it together again it is a sad
                      sight. If you have not yet chosen a present for her birthday next month would you
                      please get a new head from the Handy House. I enclose measurements. Ann does so
                      love the doll. She always calls her, “My little girl”, and she keeps the doll’s bed beside
                      her own and never fails to kiss her goodnight.

                      We had no guests for Christmas this year but we were quite festive. Ann
                      decorated the dinner table with small pink roses and forget-me-knots and tinsel and the
                      crackers from the tree. It was a wet day but we played the new records and both
                      George and I worked hard to make it a really happy day for the children. The children
                      were hugely delighted when George made himself a revolting set of false teeth out of
                      plasticine and a moustache and beard of paper straw from a chocolate box. “Oh Daddy
                      you look exactly like Father Christmas!” cried an enthralled Ann. Before bedtime we lit
                      all the candles on the tree and sang ‘Away in a Manger’, and then we opened the box of
                      starlights you sent and Ann and Georgie had their first experience of fireworks.
                      After the children went to bed things deteriorated. First George went for his bath
                      and found and killed a large black snake in the bathroom. It must have been in the
                      bathroom when I bathed the children earlier in the evening. Then I developed bad
                      toothache which kept me awake all night and was agonising next day. Unfortunately the
                      bridge between the farm and Mbeya had been washed away and the water was too
                      deep for the car to ford until the 30th when at last I was able to take my poor swollen
                      face to Mbeya. There is now a young German woman dentist working at the hospital.
                      She pulled out the offending molar which had a large abscess attached to it.
                      Whilst the dentist attended to me, Ann and Georgie played happily with the
                      doctor’s children. I wish they could play more often with other children. Dr Eckhardt was
                      very pleased with Margery Kate who at seven months weighs 17 lbs and has lovely
                      rosy cheeks. He admired Ann and told her that she looked just like a German girl. “No I
                      don’t”, cried Ann indignantly, “I’m English!”

                      We were caught in a rain storm going home and as the old car still has no
                      windscreen or side curtains we all got soaked except for the baby who was snugly
                      wrapped in my raincoat. The kids thought it great fun. Ann is growing up fast now. She
                      likes to ‘help mummy’. She is a perfectionist at four years old which is rather trying. She
                      gets so discouraged when things do not turn out as well as she means them to. Sewing
                      is constantly being unpicked and paintings torn up. She is a very sensitive child.
                      Georgie is quite different. He is a man of action, but not silent. He talks incessantly
                      but lisps and stumbles over some words. At one time Ann and Georgie often
                      conversed in Ki-Swahili but they now scorn to do so. If either forgets and uses a Swahili
                      word, the other points a scornful finger and shouts “You black toto”.

                      With love to all,
                      Eleanor.

                      #6261
                      TracyTracy
                      Participant

                        From Tanganyika with Love

                        continued

                        With thanks to Mike Rushby.

                        Mchewe Estate. 11th July 1931.

                        Dearest Family,

                        You say that you would like to know more about our neighbours. Well there is
                        not much to tell. Kath Wood is very good about coming over to see me. I admire her
                        very much because she is so capable as well as being attractive. She speaks very
                        fluent Ki-Swahili and I envy her the way she can carry on a long conversation with the
                        natives. I am very slow in learning the language possibly because Lamek and the
                        houseboy both speak basic English.

                        I have very little to do with the Africans apart from the house servants, but I do
                        run a sort of clinic for the wives and children of our employees. The children suffer chiefly
                        from sore eyes and worms, and the older ones often have bad ulcers on their legs. All
                        farmers keep a stock of drugs and bandages.

                        George also does a bit of surgery and last month sewed up the sole of the foot
                        of a boy who had trodden on the blade of a panga, a sort of sword the Africans use for
                        hacking down bush. He made an excellent job of it. George tells me that the Africans
                        have wonderful powers of recuperation. Once in his bachelor days, one of his men was
                        disembowelled by an elephant. George washed his “guts” in a weak solution of
                        pot.permang, put them back in the cavity and sewed up the torn flesh and he
                        recovered.

                        But to get back to the neighbours. We see less of Hicky Wood than of Kath.
                        Hicky can be charming but is often moody as I believe Irishmen often are.
                        Major Jones is now at home on his shamba, which he leaves from time to time
                        for temporary jobs on the district roads. He walks across fairly regularly and we are
                        always glad to see him for he is a great bearer of news. In this part of Africa there is no
                        knocking or ringing of doorbells. Front doors are always left open and visitors always
                        welcome. When a visitor approaches a house he shouts “Hodi”, and the owner of the
                        house yells “Karibu”, which I believe means “Come near” or approach, and tea is
                        produced in a matter of minutes no matter what hour of the day it is.
                        The road that passes all our farms is the only road to the Gold Diggings and
                        diggers often drop in on the Woods and Major Jones and bring news of the Goldfields.
                        This news is sometimes about gold but quite often about whose wife is living with
                        whom. This is a great country for gossip.

                        Major Jones now has his brother Llewyllen living with him. I drove across with
                        George to be introduced to him. Llewyllen’s health is poor and he looks much older than
                        his years and very like the portrait of Trader Horn. He has the same emaciated features,
                        burning eyes and long beard. He is proud of his Welsh tenor voice and often bursts into
                        song.

                        Both brothers are excellent conversationalists and George enjoys walking over
                        sometimes on a Sunday for a bit of masculine company. The other day when George
                        walked across to visit the Joneses, he found both brothers in the shamba and Llew in a
                        great rage. They had been stooping to inspect a water furrow when Llew backed into a
                        hornets nest. One furious hornet stung him on the seat and another on the back of his
                        neck. Llew leapt forward and somehow his false teeth shot out into the furrow and were
                        carried along by the water. When George arrived Llew had retrieved his teeth but
                        George swears that, in the commotion, the heavy leather leggings, which Llew always
                        wears, had swivelled around on his thin legs and were calves to the front.
                        George has heard that Major Jones is to sell pert of his land to his Swedish brother-in-law, Max Coster, so we will soon have another couple in the neighbourhood.

                        I’ve had a bit of a pantomime here on the farm. On the day we went to Tukuyu,
                        all our washing was stolen from the clothes line and also our new charcoal iron. George
                        reported the matter to the police and they sent out a plain clothes policeman. He wears
                        the long white Arab gown called a Kanzu much in vogue here amongst the African elite
                        but, alas for secrecy, huge black police boots protrude from beneath the Kanzu and, to
                        add to this revealing clue, the askari springs to attention and salutes each time I pass by.
                        Not much hope of finding out the identity of the thief I fear.

                        George’s furrow was entirely successful and we now have water running behind
                        the kitchen. Our drinking water we get from a lovely little spring on the farm. We boil and
                        filter it for safety’s sake. I don’t think that is necessary. The furrow water is used for
                        washing pots and pans and for bath water.

                        Lots of love,
                        Eleanor

                        Mchewe Estate. 8th. August 1931

                        Dearest Family,

                        I think it is about time I told you that we are going to have a baby. We are both
                        thrilled about it. I have not seen a Doctor but feel very well and you are not to worry. I
                        looked it up in my handbook for wives and reckon that the baby is due about February
                        8th. next year.

                        The announcement came from George, not me! I had been feeling queasy for
                        days and was waiting for the right moment to tell George. You know. Soft lights and
                        music etc. However when I was listlessly poking my food around one lunch time
                        George enquired calmly, “When are you going to tell me about the baby?” Not at all
                        according to the book! The problem is where to have the baby. February is a very wet
                        month and the nearest Doctor is over 50 miles away at Tukuyu. I cannot go to stay at
                        Tukuyu because there is no European accommodation at the hospital, no hotel and no
                        friend with whom I could stay.

                        George thinks I should go South to you but Capetown is so very far away and I
                        love my little home here. Also George says he could not come all the way down with
                        me as he simply must stay here and get the farm on its feet. He would drive me as far
                        as the railway in Northern Rhodesia. It is a difficult decision to take. Write and tell me what
                        you think.

                        The days tick by quietly here. The servants are very willing but have to be
                        supervised and even then a crisis can occur. Last Saturday I was feeling squeamish and
                        decided not to have lunch. I lay reading on the couch whilst George sat down to a
                        solitary curry lunch. Suddenly he gave an exclamation and pushed back his chair. I
                        jumped up to see what was wrong and there, on his plate, gleaming in the curry gravy
                        were small bits of broken glass. I hurried to the kitchen to confront Lamek with the plate.
                        He explained that he had dropped the new and expensive bottle of curry powder on
                        the brick floor of the kitchen. He did not tell me as he thought I would make a “shauri” so
                        he simply scooped up the curry powder, removed the larger pieces of glass and used
                        part of the powder for seasoning the lunch.

                        The weather is getting warmer now. It was very cold in June and July and we had
                        fires in the daytime as well as at night. Now that much of the land has been cleared we
                        are able to go for pleasant walks in the weekends. My favourite spot is a waterfall on the
                        Mchewe River just on the boundary of our land. There is a delightful little pool below the
                        waterfall and one day George intends to stock it with trout.

                        Now that there are more Europeans around to buy meat the natives find it worth
                        their while to kill an occasional beast. Every now and again a native arrives with a large
                        bowl of freshly killed beef for sale. One has no way of knowing whether the animal was
                        healthy and the meat is often still warm and very bloody. I hated handling it at first but am
                        becoming accustomed to it now and have even started a brine tub. There is no other
                        way of keeping meat here and it can only be kept in its raw state for a few hours before
                        going bad. One of the delicacies is the hump which all African cattle have. When corned
                        it is like the best brisket.

                        See what a housewife I am becoming.
                        With much love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. Sept.6th. 1931

                        Dearest Family,

                        I have grown to love the life here and am sad to think I shall be leaving
                        Tanganyika soon for several months. Yes I am coming down to have the baby in the
                        bosom of the family. George thinks it best and so does the doctor. I didn’t mention it
                        before but I have never recovered fully from the effects of that bad bout of malaria and
                        so I have been persuaded to leave George and our home and go to the Cape, in the
                        hope that I shall come back here as fit as when I first arrived in the country plus a really
                        healthy and bouncing baby. I am torn two ways, I long to see you all – but how I would
                        love to stay on here.

                        George will drive me down to Northern Rhodesia in early October to catch a
                        South bound train. I’ll telegraph the date of departure when I know it myself. The road is
                        very, very bad and the car has been giving a good deal of trouble so, though the baby
                        is not due until early February, George thinks it best to get the journey over soon as
                        possible, for the rains break in November and the the roads will then be impassable. It
                        may take us five or six days to reach Broken Hill as we will take it slowly. I am looking
                        forward to the drive through new country and to camping out at night.
                        Our days pass quietly by. George is out on the shamba most of the day. He
                        goes out before breakfast on weekdays and spends most of the day working with the
                        men – not only supervising but actually working with his hands and beating the labourers
                        at their own jobs. He comes to the house for meals and tea breaks. I potter around the
                        house and garden, sew, mend and read. Lamek continues to be a treasure. he turns out
                        some surprising dishes. One of his specialities is stuffed chicken. He carefully skins the
                        chicken removing all bones. He then minces all the chicken meat and adds minced onion
                        and potatoes. He then stuffs the chicken skin with the minced meat and carefully sews it
                        together again. The resulting dish is very filling because the boned chicken is twice the
                        size of a normal one. It lies on its back as round as a football with bloated legs in the air.
                        Rather repulsive to look at but Lamek is most proud of his accomplishment.
                        The other day he produced another of his masterpieces – a cooked tortoise. It
                        was served on a dish covered with parsley and crouched there sans shell but, only too
                        obviously, a tortoise. I took one look and fled with heaving diaphragm, but George said
                        it tasted quite good. He tells me that he has had queerer dishes produced by former
                        cooks. He says that once in his hunting days his cook served up a skinned baby
                        monkey with its hands folded on its breast. He says it would take a cannibal to eat that
                        dish.

                        And now for something sad. Poor old Llew died quite suddenly and it was a sad
                        shock to this tiny community. We went across to the funeral and it was a very simple and
                        dignified affair. Llew was buried on Joni’s farm in a grave dug by the farm boys. The
                        body was wrapped in a blanket and bound to some boards and lowered into the
                        ground. There was no service. The men just said “Good-bye Llew.” and “Sleep well
                        Llew”, and things like that. Then Joni and his brother-in-law Max, and George shovelled
                        soil over the body after which the grave was filled in by Joni’s shamba boys. It was a
                        lovely bright afternoon and I thought how simple and sensible a funeral it was.
                        I hope you will be glad to have me home. I bet Dad will be holding thumbs that
                        the baby will be a girl.

                        Very much love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Note
                        “There are no letters to my family during the period of Sept. 1931 to June 1932
                        because during these months I was living with my parents and sister in a suburb of
                        Cape Town. I had hoped to return to Tanganyika by air with my baby soon after her
                        birth in Feb.1932 but the doctor would not permit this.

                        A month before my baby was born, a company called Imperial Airways, had
                        started the first passenger service between South Africa and England. One of the night
                        stops was at Mbeya near my husband’s coffee farm, and it was my intention to take the
                        train to Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia and to fly from there to Mbeya with my month
                        old baby. In those days however, commercial flying was still a novelty and the doctor
                        was not sure that flying at a high altitude might not have an adverse effect upon a young
                        baby.

                        He strongly advised me to wait until the baby was four months old and I did this
                        though the long wait was very trying to my husband alone on our farm in Tanganyika,
                        and to me, cherished though I was in my old home.

                        My story, covering those nine long months is soon told. My husband drove me
                        down from Mbeya to Broken Hill in NorthernRhodesia. The journey was tedious as the
                        weather was very hot and dry and the road sandy and rutted, very different from the
                        Great North road as it is today. The wooden wheel spokes of the car became so dry
                        that they rattled and George had to bind wet rags around them. We had several
                        punctures and with one thing and another I was lucky to catch the train.
                        My parents were at Cape Town station to welcome me and I stayed
                        comfortably with them, living very quietly, until my baby was born. She arrived exactly
                        on the appointed day, Feb.8th.

                        I wrote to my husband “Our Charmian Ann is a darling baby. She is very fair and
                        rather pale and has the most exquisite hands, with long tapering fingers. Daddy
                        absolutely dotes on her and so would you, if you were here. I can’t bear to think that you
                        are so terribly far away. Although Ann was born exactly on the day, I was taken quite by
                        surprise. It was awfully hot on the night before, and before going to bed I had a fancy for
                        some water melon. The result was that when I woke in the early morning with labour
                        pains and vomiting I thought it was just an attack of indigestion due to eating too much
                        melon. The result was that I did not wake Marjorie until the pains were pretty frequent.
                        She called our next door neighbour who, in his pyjamas, drove me to the nursing home
                        at breakneck speed. The Matron was very peeved that I had left things so late but all
                        went well and by nine o’clock, Mother, positively twittering with delight, was allowed to
                        see me and her first granddaughter . She told me that poor Dad was in such a state of
                        nerves that he was sick amongst the grapevines. He says that he could not bear to go
                        through such an anxious time again, — so we will have to have our next eleven in
                        Tanganyika!”

                        The next four months passed rapidly as my time was taken up by the demands
                        of my new baby. Dr. Trudy King’s method of rearing babies was then the vogue and I
                        stuck fanatically to all the rules he laid down, to the intense exasperation of my parents
                        who longed to cuddle the child.

                        As the time of departure drew near my parents became more and more reluctant
                        to allow me to face the journey alone with their adored grandchild, so my brother,
                        Graham, very generously offered to escort us on the train to Broken Hill where he could
                        put us on the plane for Mbeya.

                        Eleanor Rushby

                         

                        Mchewe Estate. June 15th 1932

                        Dearest Family,

                        You’ll be glad to know that we arrived quite safe and sound and very, very
                        happy to be home.The train Journey was uneventful. Ann slept nearly all the way.
                        Graham was very kind and saw to everything. He even sat with the baby whilst I went
                        to meals in the dining car.

                        We were met at Broken Hill by the Thoms who had arranged accommodation for
                        us at the hotel for the night. They also drove us to the aerodrome in the morning where
                        the Airways agent told us that Ann is the first baby to travel by air on this section of the
                        Cape to England route. The plane trip was very bumpy indeed especially between
                        Broken Hill and Mpika. Everyone was ill including poor little Ann who sicked up her milk
                        all over the front of my new coat. I arrived at Mbeya looking a sorry caricature of Radiant
                        Motherhood. I must have been pale green and the baby was snow white. Under the
                        circumstances it was a good thing that George did not meet us. We were met instead
                        by Ken Menzies, the owner of the Mbeya Hotel where we spent the night. Ken was
                        most fatherly and kind and a good nights rest restored Ann and me to our usual robust
                        health.

                        Mbeya has greatly changed. The hotel is now finished and can accommodate
                        fifty guests. It consists of a large main building housing a large bar and dining room and
                        offices and a number of small cottage bedrooms. It even has electric light. There are
                        several buildings out at the aerodrome and private houses going up in Mbeya.
                        After breakfast Ken Menzies drove us out to the farm where we had a warm
                        welcome from George, who looks well but rather thin. The house was spotless and the
                        new cook, Abel, had made light scones for tea. George had prepared all sorts of lovely
                        surprises. There is a new reed ceiling in the living room and a new dresser gay with
                        willow pattern plates which he had ordered from England. There is also a writing table
                        and a square table by the door for visitors hats. More personal is a lovely model ship
                        which George assembled from one of those Hobbie’s kits. It puts the finishing touch to
                        the rather old world air of our living room.

                        In the bedroom there is a large double bed which George made himself. It has
                        strips of old car tyres nailed to a frame which makes a fine springy mattress and on top
                        of this is a thick mattress of kapok.In the kitchen there is a good wood stove which
                        George salvaged from a Mission dump. It looks a bit battered but works very well. The
                        new cook is excellent. The only blight is that he will wear rubber soled tennis shoes and
                        they smell awful. I daren’t hurt his feelings by pointing this out though. Opposite the
                        kitchen is a new laundry building containing a forty gallon hot water drum and a sink for
                        washing up. Lovely!

                        George has been working very hard. He now has forty acres of coffee seedlings
                        planted out and has also found time to plant a rose garden and fruit trees. There are
                        orange and peach trees, tree tomatoes, paw paws, guavas and berries. He absolutely
                        adores Ann who has been very good and does not seem at all unsettled by the long
                        journey.

                        It is absolutely heavenly to be back and I shall be happier than ever now that I
                        have a baby to play with during the long hours when George is busy on the farm,
                        Thank you for all your love and care during the many months I was with you. Ann
                        sends a special bubble for granddad.

                        Your very loving,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate Mbeya July 18th 1932

                        Dearest Family,

                        Ann at five months is enchanting. She is a very good baby, smiles readily and is
                        gaining weight steadily. She doesn’t sleep much during the day but that does not
                        matter, because, apart from washing her little things, I have nothing to do but attend to
                        her. She sleeps very well at night which is a blessing as George has to get up very
                        early to start work on the shamba and needs a good nights rest.
                        My nights are not so good, because we are having a plague of rats which frisk
                        around in the bedroom at night. Great big ones that come up out of the long grass in the
                        gorge beside the house and make cosy homes on our reed ceiling and in the thatch of
                        the roof.

                        We always have a night light burning so that, if necessary, I can attend to Ann
                        with a minimum of fuss, and the things I see in that dim light! There are gaps between
                        the reeds and one night I heard, plop! and there, before my horrified gaze, lay a newly
                        born hairless baby rat on the floor by the bed, plop, plop! and there lay two more.
                        Quite dead, poor things – but what a careless mother.

                        I have also seen rats scampering around on the tops of the mosquito nets and
                        sometimes we have them on our bed. They have a lovely game. They swarm down
                        the cord from which the mosquito net is suspended, leap onto the bed and onto the
                        floor. We do not have our net down now the cold season is here and there are few
                        mosquitoes.

                        Last week a rat crept under Ann’s net which hung to the floor and bit her little
                        finger, so now I tuck the net in under the mattress though it makes it difficult for me to
                        attend to her at night. We shall have to get a cat somewhere. Ann’s pram has not yet
                        arrived so George carries her when we go walking – to her great content.
                        The native women around here are most interested in Ann. They come to see
                        her, bearing small gifts, and usually bring a child or two with them. They admire my child
                        and I admire theirs and there is an exchange of gifts. They produce a couple of eggs or
                        a few bananas or perhaps a skinny fowl and I hand over sugar, salt or soap as they
                        value these commodities. The most lavish gift went to the wife of Thomas our headman,
                        who produced twin daughters in the same week as I had Ann.

                        Our neighbours have all been across to welcome me back and to admire the
                        baby. These include Marion Coster who came out to join her husband whilst I was in
                        South Africa. The two Hickson-Wood children came over on a fat old white donkey.
                        They made a pretty picture sitting astride, one behind the other – Maureen with her arms
                        around small Michael’s waist. A native toto led the donkey and the children’ s ayah
                        walked beside it.

                        It is quite cold here now but the sun is bright and the air dry. The whole
                        countryside is beautifully green and we are a very happy little family.

                        Lots and lots of love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate August 11th 1932

                        Dearest Family,

                        George has been very unwell for the past week. He had a nasty gash on his
                        knee which went septic. He had a swelling in the groin and a high temperature and could
                        not sleep at night for the pain in his leg. Ann was very wakeful too during the same
                        period, I think she is teething. I luckily have kept fit though rather harassed. Yesterday the
                        leg looked so inflamed that George decided to open up the wound himself. he made
                        quite a big cut in exactly the right place. You should have seen the blackish puss
                        pouring out.

                        After he had thoroughly cleaned the wound George sewed it up himself. he has
                        the proper surgical needles and gut. He held the cut together with his left hand and
                        pushed the needle through the flesh with his right. I pulled the needle out and passed it
                        to George for the next stitch. I doubt whether a surgeon could have made a neater job
                        of it. He is still confined to the couch but today his temperature is normal. Some
                        husband!

                        The previous week was hectic in another way. We had a visit from lions! George
                        and I were having supper about 8.30 on Tuesday night when the back verandah was
                        suddenly invaded by women and children from the servants quarters behind the kitchen.
                        They were all yelling “Simba, Simba.” – simba means lions. The door opened suddenly
                        and the houseboy rushed in to say that there were lions at the huts. George got up
                        swiftly, fetched gun and ammunition from the bedroom and with the houseboy carrying
                        the lamp, went off to investigate. I remained at the table, carrying on with my supper as I
                        felt a pioneer’s wife should! Suddenly something big leapt through the open window
                        behind me. You can imagine what I thought! I know now that it is quite true to say one’s
                        hair rises when one is scared. However it was only Kelly, our huge Irish wolfhound,
                        taking cover.

                        George returned quite soon to say that apparently the commotion made by the
                        women and children had frightened the lions off. He found their tracks in the soft earth
                        round the huts and a bag of maize that had been playfully torn open but the lions had
                        moved on.

                        Next day we heard that they had moved to Hickson-Wood’s shamba. Hicky
                        came across to say that the lions had jumped over the wall of his cattle boma and killed
                        both his white Muskat riding donkeys.
                        He and a friend sat up all next night over the remains but the lions did not return to
                        the kill.

                        Apart from the little set back last week, Ann is blooming. She has a cap of very
                        fine fair hair and clear blue eyes under straight brow. She also has lovely dimples in both
                        cheeks. We are very proud of her.

                        Our neighbours are picking coffee but the crops are small and the price is low. I
                        am amazed that they are so optimistic about the future. No one in these parts ever
                        seems to grouse though all are living on capital. They all say “Well if the worst happens
                        we can always go up to the Lupa Diggings.”

                        Don’t worry about us, we have enough to tide us over for some time yet.

                        Much love to all,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 28th Sept. 1932

                        Dearest Family,

                        News! News! I’m going to have another baby. George and I are delighted and I
                        hope it will be a boy this time. I shall be able to have him at Mbeya because things are
                        rapidly changing here. Several German families have moved to Mbeya including a
                        German doctor who means to build a hospital there. I expect he will make a very good
                        living because there must now be some hundreds of Europeans within a hundred miles
                        radius of Mbeya. The Europeans are mostly British or German but there are also
                        Greeks and, I believe, several other nationalities are represented on the Lupa Diggings.
                        Ann is blooming and developing according to the Book except that she has no
                        teeth yet! Kath Hickson-Wood has given her a very nice high chair and now she has
                        breakfast and lunch at the table with us. Everything within reach goes on the floor to her
                        amusement and my exasperation!

                        You ask whether we have any Church of England missionaries in our part. No we
                        haven’t though there are Lutheran and Roman Catholic Missions. I have never even
                        heard of a visiting Church of England Clergyman to these parts though there are babies
                        in plenty who have not been baptised. Jolly good thing I had Ann Christened down
                        there.

                        The R.C. priests in this area are called White Fathers. They all have beards and
                        wear white cassocks and sun helmets. One, called Father Keiling, calls around frequently.
                        Though none of us in this area is Catholic we take it in turn to put him up for the night. The
                        Catholic Fathers in their turn are most hospitable to travellers regardless of their beliefs.
                        Rather a sad thing has happened. Lucas our old chicken-boy is dead. I shall miss
                        his toothy smile. George went to the funeral and fired two farewell shots from his rifle
                        over the grave – a gesture much appreciated by the locals. Lucas in his day was a good
                        hunter.

                        Several of the locals own muzzle loading guns but the majority hunt with dogs
                        and spears. The dogs wear bells which make an attractive jingle but I cannot bear the
                        idea of small antelope being run down until they are exhausted before being clubbed of
                        stabbed to death. We seldom eat venison as George does not care to shoot buck.
                        Recently though, he shot an eland and Abel rendered down the fat which is excellent for
                        cooking and very like beef fat.

                        Much love to all,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. P.O.Mbeya 21st November 1932

                        Dearest Family,

                        George has gone off to the Lupa for a week with John Molteno. John came up
                        here with the idea of buying a coffee farm but he has changed his mind and now thinks of
                        staking some claims on the diggings and also setting up as a gold buyer.

                        Did I tell you about his arrival here? John and George did some elephant hunting
                        together in French Equatorial Africa and when John heard that George had married and
                        settled in Tanganyika, he also decided to come up here. He drove up from Cape Town
                        in a Baby Austin and arrived just as our labourers were going home for the day. The little
                        car stopped half way up our hill and John got out to investigate. You should have heard
                        the astonished exclamations when John got out – all 6 ft 5 ins. of him! He towered over
                        the little car and even to me it seemed impossible for him to have made the long
                        journey in so tiny a car.

                        Kath Wood has been over several times lately. She is slim and looks so right in
                        the shirt and corduroy slacks she almost always wears. She was here yesterday when
                        the shamba boy, digging in the front garden, unearthed a large earthenware cooking pot,
                        sealed at the top. I was greatly excited and had an instant mental image of fabulous
                        wealth. We made the boy bring the pot carefully on to the verandah and opened it in
                        happy anticipation. What do you think was inside? Nothing but a grinning skull! Such a
                        treat for a pregnant female.

                        We have a tree growing here that had lovely straight branches covered by a
                        smooth bark. I got the garden boy to cut several of these branches of a uniform size,
                        peeled off the bark and have made Ann a playpen with the poles which are much like
                        broom sticks. Now I can leave her unattended when I do my chores. The other morning
                        after breakfast I put Ann in her playpen on the verandah and gave her a piece of toast
                        and honey to keep her quiet whilst I laundered a few of her things. When I looked out a
                        little later I was horrified to see a number of bees buzzing around her head whilst she
                        placidly concentrated on her toast. I made a rapid foray and rescued her but I still don’t
                        know whether that was the thing to do.

                        We all send our love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mbeya Hospital. April 25th. 1933

                        Dearest Family,

                        Here I am, installed at the very new hospital, built by Dr Eckhardt, awaiting the
                        arrival of the new baby. George has gone back to the farm on foot but will walk in again
                        to spend the weekend with us. Ann is with me and enjoys the novelty of playing with
                        other children. The Eckhardts have two, a pretty little girl of two and a half and a very fair
                        roly poly boy of Ann’s age. Ann at fourteen months is very active. She is quite a little girl
                        now with lovely dimples. She walks well but is backward in teething.

                        George, Ann and I had a couple of days together at the hotel before I moved in
                        here and several of the local women visited me and have promised to visit me in
                        hospital. The trip from farm to town was very entertaining if not very comfortable. There
                        is ten miles of very rough road between our farm and Utengule Mission and beyond the
                        Mission there is a fair thirteen or fourteen mile road to Mbeya.

                        As we have no car now the doctor’s wife offered to drive us from the Mission to
                        Mbeya but she would not risk her car on the road between the Mission and our farm.
                        The upshot was that I rode in the Hickson-Woods machila for that ten mile stretch. The
                        machila is a canopied hammock, slung from a bamboo pole, in which I reclined, not too
                        comfortably in my unwieldy state, with Ann beside me or sometime straddling me. Four
                        of our farm boys carried the machila on their shoulders, two fore and two aft. The relief
                        bearers walked on either side. There must have been a dozen in all and they sang a sort
                        of sea shanty song as they walked. One man would sing a verse and the others took up
                        the chorus. They often improvise as they go. They moaned about my weight (at least
                        George said so! I don’t follow Ki-Swahili well yet) and expressed the hope that I would
                        have a son and that George would reward them handsomely.

                        George and Kelly, the dog, followed close behind the machila and behind
                        George came Abel our cook and his wife and small daughter Annalie, all in their best
                        attire. The cook wore a palm beach suit, large Terai hat and sunglasses and two colour
                        shoes and quite lent a tone to the proceedings! Right at the back came the rag tag and
                        bobtail who joined the procession just for fun.

                        Mrs Eckhardt was already awaiting us at the Mission when we arrived and we had
                        an uneventful trip to the Mbeya Hotel.

                        During my last week at the farm I felt very tired and engaged the cook’s small
                        daughter, Annalie, to amuse Ann for an hour after lunch so that I could have a rest. They
                        played in the small verandah room which adjoins our bedroom and where I keep all my
                        sewing materials. One afternoon I was startled by a scream from Ann. I rushed to the
                        room and found Ann with blood steaming from her cheek. Annalie knelt beside her,
                        looking startled and frightened, with my embroidery scissors in her hand. She had cut off
                        half of the long curling golden lashes on one of Ann’s eyelids and, in trying to finish the
                        job, had cut off a triangular flap of skin off Ann’s cheek bone.

                        I called Abel, the cook, and demanded that he should chastise his daughter there and
                        then and I soon heard loud shrieks from behind the kitchen. He spanked her with a
                        bamboo switch but I am sure not as well as she deserved. Africans are very tolerant
                        towards their children though I have seen husbands and wives fighting furiously.
                        I feel very well but long to have the confinement over.

                        Very much love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mbeya Hospital. 2nd May 1933.

                        Dearest Family,

                        Little George arrived at 7.30 pm on Saturday evening 29 th. April. George was
                        with me at the time as he had walked in from the farm for news, and what a wonderful bit
                        of luck that was. The doctor was away on a case on the Diggings and I was bathing Ann
                        with George looking on, when the pains started. George dried Ann and gave her
                        supper and put her to bed. Afterwards he sat on the steps outside my room and a
                        great comfort it was to know that he was there.

                        The confinement was short but pretty hectic. The Doctor returned to the Hospital
                        just in time to deliver the baby. He is a grand little boy, beautifully proportioned. The
                        doctor says he has never seen a better formed baby. He is however rather funny
                        looking just now as his head is, very temporarily, egg shaped. He has a shock of black
                        silky hair like a gollywog and believe it or not, he has a slight black moustache.
                        George came in, looked at the baby, looked at me, and we both burst out
                        laughing. The doctor was shocked and said so. He has no sense of humour and couldn’t
                        understand that we, though bursting with pride in our son, could never the less laugh at
                        him.

                        Friends in Mbeya have sent me the most gorgeous flowers and my room is
                        transformed with delphiniums, roses and carnations. The room would be very austere
                        without the flowers. Curtains, bedspread and enamelware, walls and ceiling are all
                        snowy white.

                        George hired a car and took Ann home next day. I have little George for
                        company during the day but he is removed at night. I am longing to get him home and
                        away from the German nurse who feeds him on black tea when he cries. She insists that
                        tea is a medicine and good for him.

                        Much love from a proud mother of two.
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate 12May 1933

                        Dearest Family,

                        We are all together at home again and how lovely it feels. Even the house
                        servants seem pleased. The boy had decorated the lounge with sprays of
                        bougainvillaea and Abel had backed one of his good sponge cakes.

                        Ann looked fat and rosy but at first was only moderately interested in me and the
                        new baby but she soon thawed. George is good with her and will continue to dress Ann
                        in the mornings and put her to bed until I am satisfied with Georgie.

                        He, poor mite, has a nasty rash on face and neck. I am sure it is just due to that
                        tea the nurse used to give him at night. He has lost his moustache and is fast loosing his
                        wild black hair and emerging as quite a handsome babe. He is a very masculine looking
                        infant with much more strongly marked eyebrows and a larger nose that Ann had. He is
                        very good and lies quietly in his basket even when awake.

                        George has been making a hatching box for brown trout ova and has set it up in
                        a small clear stream fed by a spring in readiness for the ova which is expected from
                        South Africa by next weeks plane. Some keen fishermen from Mbeya and the District
                        have clubbed together to buy the ova. The fingerlings are later to be transferred to
                        streams in Mbeya and Tukuyu Districts.

                        I shall now have my hands full with the two babies and will not have much time for the
                        garden, or I fear, for writing very long letters. Remember though, that no matter how
                        large my family becomes, I shall always love you as much as ever.

                        Your affectionate,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 14th June 1933

                        Dearest Family,

                        The four of us are all well but alas we have lost our dear Kelly. He was rather a
                        silly dog really, although he grew so big he retained all his puppy ways but we were all
                        very fond of him, especially George because Kelly attached himself to George whilst I
                        was away having Ann and from that time on he was George’s shadow. I think he had
                        some form of biliary fever. He died stretched out on the living room couch late last night,
                        with George sitting beside him so that he would not feel alone.

                        The children are growing fast. Georgie is a darling. He now has a fluff of pale
                        brown hair and his eyes are large and dark brown. Ann is very plump and fair.
                        We have had several visitors lately. Apart from neighbours, a car load of diggers
                        arrived one night and John Molteno and his bride were here. She is a very attractive girl
                        but, I should say, more suited to life in civilisation than in this back of beyond. She has
                        gone out to the diggings with her husband and will have to walk a good stretch of the fifty
                        or so miles.

                        The diggers had to sleep in the living room on the couch and on hastily erected
                        camp beds. They arrived late at night and left after breakfast next day. One had half a
                        beard, the other side of his face had been forcibly shaved in the bar the night before.

                        your affectionate,
                        Eleanor

                        Mchewe Estate. August 10 th. 1933

                        Dearest Family,

                        George is away on safari with two Indian Army officers. The money he will get for
                        his services will be very welcome because this coffee growing is a slow business, and
                        our capitol is rapidly melting away. The job of acting as White Hunter was unexpected
                        or George would not have taken on the job of hatching the ova which duly arrived from
                        South Africa.

                        George and the District Commissioner, David Pollock, went to meet the plane
                        by which the ova had been consigned but the pilot knew nothing about the package. It
                        came to light in the mail bag with the parcels! However the ova came to no harm. David
                        Pollock and George brought the parcel to the farm and carefully transferred the ova to
                        the hatching box. It was interesting to watch the tiny fry hatch out – a process which took
                        several days. Many died in the process and George removed the dead by sucking
                        them up in a glass tube.

                        When hatched, the tiny fry were fed on ant eggs collected by the boys. I had to
                        take over the job of feeding and removing the dead when George left on safari. The fry
                        have to be fed every four hours, like the baby, so each time I have fed Georgie. I hurry
                        down to feed the trout.

                        The children are very good but keep me busy. Ann can now say several words
                        and understands more. She adores Georgie. I long to show them off to you.

                        Very much love
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. October 27th 1933

                        Dear Family,

                        All just over flu. George and Ann were very poorly. I did not fare so badly and
                        Georgie came off best. He is on a bottle now.

                        There was some excitement here last Wednesday morning. At 6.30 am. I called
                        for boiling water to make Georgie’s food. No water arrived but muffled shouting and the
                        sound of blows came from the kitchen. I went to investigate and found a fierce fight in
                        progress between the house boy and the kitchen boy. In my efforts to make them stop
                        fighting I went too close and got a sharp bang on the mouth with the edge of an
                        enamelled plate the kitchen boy was using as a weapon. My teeth cut my lip inside and
                        the plate cut it outside and blood flowed from mouth to chin. The boys were petrified.
                        By the time I had fed Georgie the lip was stiff and swollen. George went in wrath
                        to the kitchen and by breakfast time both house boy and kitchen boy had swollen faces
                        too. Since then I have a kettle of boiling water to hand almost before the words are out
                        of my mouth. I must say that the fight was because the house boy had clouted the
                        kitchen boy for keeping me waiting! In this land of piece work it is the job of the kitchen
                        boy to light the fire and boil the kettle but the houseboy’s job to carry the kettle to me.
                        I have seen little of Kath Wood or Marion Coster for the past two months. Major
                        Jones is the neighbour who calls most regularly. He has a wireless set and calls on all of
                        us to keep us up to date with world as well as local news. He often brings oranges for
                        Ann who adores him. He is a very nice person but no oil painting and makes no effort to
                        entertain Ann but she thinks he is fine. Perhaps his monocle appeals to her.

                        George has bought a six foot long galvanised bath which is a great improvement
                        on the smaller oval one we have used until now. The smaller one had grown battered
                        from much use and leaks like a sieve. Fortunately our bathroom has a cement floor,
                        because one had to fill the bath to the brim and then bath extremely quickly to avoid
                        being left high and dry.

                        Lots and lots of love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. P.O. Mbeya 1st December 1933

                        Dearest Family,

                        Ann has not been well. We think she has had malaria. She has grown a good
                        deal lately and looks much thinner and rather pale. Georgie is thriving and has such
                        sparkling brown eyes and a ready smile. He and Ann make a charming pair, one so fair
                        and the other dark.

                        The Moltenos’ spent a few days here and took Georgie and me to Mbeya so
                        that Georgie could be vaccinated. However it was an unsatisfactory trip because the
                        doctor had no vaccine.

                        George went to the Lupa with the Moltenos and returned to the farm in their Baby
                        Austin which they have lent to us for a week. This was to enable me to go to Mbeya to
                        have a couple of teeth filled by a visiting dentist.

                        We went to Mbeya in the car on Saturday. It was quite a squash with the four of
                        us on the front seat of the tiny car. Once George grabbed the babies foot instead of the
                        gear knob! We had Georgie vaccinated at the hospital and then went to the hotel where
                        the dentist was installed. Mr Dare, the dentist, had few instruments and they were very
                        tarnished. I sat uncomfortably on a kitchen chair whilst he tinkered with my teeth. He filled
                        three but two of the fillings came out that night. This meant another trip to Mbeya in the
                        Baby Austin but this time they seem all right.

                        The weather is very hot and dry and the garden a mess. We are having trouble
                        with the young coffee trees too. Cut worms are killing off seedlings in the nursery and
                        there is a borer beetle in the planted out coffee.

                        George bought a large grey donkey from some wandering Masai and we hope
                        the children will enjoy riding it later on.

                        Very much love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 14th February 1934.

                        Dearest Family,

                        You will be sorry to hear that little Ann has been very ill, indeed we were terribly
                        afraid that we were going to lose her. She enjoyed her birthday on the 8th. All the toys
                        you, and her English granny, sent were unwrapped with such delight. However next
                        day she seemed listless and a bit feverish so I tucked her up in bed after lunch. I dosed
                        her with quinine and aspirin and she slept fitfully. At about eleven o’clock I was
                        awakened by a strange little cry. I turned up the night light and was horrified to see that
                        Ann was in a convulsion. I awakened George who, as always in an emergency, was
                        perfectly calm and practical. He filled the small bath with very warm water and emersed
                        Ann in it, placing a cold wet cloth on her head. We then wrapped her in blankets and
                        gave her an enema and she settled down to sleep. A few hours later we had the same
                        thing over again.

                        At first light we sent a runner to Mbeya to fetch the doctor but waited all day in
                        vain and in the evening the runner returned to say that the doctor had gone to a case on
                        the diggings. Ann had been feverish all day with two or three convulsions. Neither
                        George or I wished to leave the bedroom, but there was Georgie to consider, and in
                        the afternoon I took him out in the garden for a while whilst George sat with Ann.
                        That night we both sat up all night and again Ann had those wretched attacks of
                        convulsions. George and I were worn out with anxiety by the time the doctor arrived the
                        next afternoon. Ann had not been able to keep down any quinine and had had only
                        small sips of water since the onset of the attack.

                        The doctor at once diagnosed the trouble as malaria aggravated by teething.
                        George held Ann whilst the Doctor gave her an injection. At the first attempt the needle
                        bent into a bow, George was furious! The second attempt worked and after a few hours
                        Ann’s temperature dropped and though she was ill for two days afterwards she is now
                        up and about. She has also cut the last of her baby teeth, thank God. She looks thin and
                        white, but should soon pick up. It has all been a great strain to both of us. Georgie
                        behaved like an angel throughout. He played happily in his cot and did not seem to
                        sense any tension as people say, babies do. Our baby was cheerful and not at all
                        subdued.

                        This is the rainy season and it is a good thing that some work has been done on
                        our road or the doctor might not have got through.

                        Much love to all,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 1st October 1934

                        Dearest Family,

                        We are all well now, thank goodness, but last week Georgie gave us such a
                        fright. I was sitting on the verandah, busy with some sewing and not watching Ann and
                        Georgie, who were trying to reach a bunch of bananas which hung on a rope from a
                        beam of the verandah. Suddenly I heard a crash, Georgie had fallen backward over the
                        edge of the verandah and hit the back of his head on the edge of the brick furrow which
                        carries away the rainwater. He lay flat on his back with his arms spread out and did not
                        move or cry. When I picked him up he gave a little whimper, I carried him to his cot and
                        bathed his face and soon he began sitting up and appeared quite normal. The trouble
                        began after he had vomited up his lunch. He began to whimper and bang his head
                        against the cot.

                        George and I were very worried because we have no transport so we could not
                        take Georgie to the doctor and we could not bear to go through again what we had gone
                        through with Ann earlier in the year. Then, in the late afternoon, a miracle happened. Two
                        men George hardly knew, and complete strangers to me, called in on their way from the
                        diggings to Mbeya and they kindly drove Georgie and me to the hospital. The Doctor
                        allowed me to stay with Georgie and we spent five days there. Luckily he responded to
                        treatment and is now as alive as ever. Children do put years on one!

                        There is nothing much else to report. We have a new vegetable garden which is
                        doing well but the earth here is strange. Gardens seem to do well for two years but by
                        that time the soil is exhausted and one must move the garden somewhere else. The
                        coffee looks well but it will be another year before we can expect even a few bags of
                        coffee and prices are still low. Anyway by next year George should have some good
                        return for all his hard work.

                        Lots of love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. November 4th 1934

                        Dearest Family,

                        George is home from his White Hunting safari looking very sunburnt and well.
                        The elderly American, who was his client this time, called in here at the farm to meet me
                        and the children. It is amazing what spirit these old lads have! This one looked as though
                        he should be thinking in terms of slippers and an armchair but no, he thinks in terms of
                        high powered rifles with telescopic sights.

                        It is lovely being together again and the children are delighted to have their Dad
                        home. Things are always exciting when George is around. The day after his return
                        George said at breakfast, “We can’t go on like this. You and the kids never get off the
                        shamba. We’ll simply have to get a car.” You should have heard the excitement. “Get a
                        car Daddy?’” cried Ann jumping in her chair so that her plaits bounced. “Get a car
                        Daddy?” echoed Georgie his brown eyes sparkling. “A car,” said I startled, “However
                        can we afford one?”

                        “Well,” said George, “on my way back from Safari I heard that a car is to be sold
                        this week at the Tukuyu Court, diseased estate or bankruptcy or something, I might get it
                        cheap and it is an A.C.” The name meant nothing to me, but George explained that an
                        A.C. is first cousin to a Rolls Royce.

                        So off he went to the sale and next day the children and I listened all afternoon for
                        the sound of an approaching car. We had many false alarms but, towards evening we
                        heard what appeared to be the roar of an aeroplane engine. It was the A.C. roaring her
                        way up our steep hill with a long plume of steam waving gaily above her radiator.
                        Out jumped my beaming husband and in no time at all, he was showing off her
                        points to an admiring family. Her lines are faultless and seats though worn are most
                        comfortable. She has a most elegant air so what does it matter that the radiator leaks like
                        a sieve, her exhaust pipe has broken off, her tyres are worn almost to the canvas and
                        she has no windscreen. She goes, and she cost only five pounds.

                        Next afternoon George, the kids and I piled into the car and drove along the road
                        on lookout for guinea fowl. All went well on the outward journey but on the homeward
                        one the poor A.C. simply gasped and died. So I carried the shot gun and George
                        carried both children and we trailed sadly home. This morning George went with a bunch
                        of farmhands and brought her home. Truly temperamental, she came home literally
                        under her own steam.

                        George now plans to get a second hand engine and radiator for her but it won’t
                        be an A.C. engine. I think she is the only one of her kind in the country.
                        I am delighted to hear, dad, that you are sending a bridle for Joseph for
                        Christmas. I am busy making a saddle out of an old piece of tent canvas stuffed with
                        kapok, some webbing and some old rug straps. A car and a riding donkey! We’re
                        definitely carriage folk now.

                        Lots of love to all,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 28th December 1934

                        Dearest Family,

                        Thank you for the wonderful Christmas parcel. My frock is a splendid fit. George
                        declares that no one can knit socks like Mummy and the children love their toys and new
                        clothes.

                        Joseph, the donkey, took his bit with an air of bored resignation and Ann now
                        rides proudly on his back. Joseph is a big strong animal with the looks and disposition of
                        a mule. he will not go at all unless a native ‘toto’ walks before him and when he does go
                        he wears a pained expression as though he were carrying fourteen stone instead of
                        Ann’s fly weight. I walk beside the donkey carrying Georgie and our cat, ‘Skinny Winnie’,
                        follows behind. Quite a cavalcade. The other day I got so exasperated with Joseph that
                        I took Ann off and I got on. Joseph tottered a few paces and sat down! to the huge
                        delight of our farm labourers who were going home from work. Anyway, one good thing,
                        the donkey is so lazy that there is little chance of him bolting with Ann.

                        The Moltenos spent Christmas with us and left for the Lupa Diggings yesterday.
                        They arrived on the 22nd. with gifts for the children and chocolates and beer. That very
                        afternoon George and John Molteno left for Ivuna, near Lake Ruckwa, to shoot some
                        guinea fowl and perhaps a goose for our Christmas dinner. We expected the menfolk
                        back on Christmas Eve and Anne and I spent a busy day making mince pies and
                        sausage rolls. Why I don’t know, because I am sure Abel could have made them better.
                        We decorated the Christmas tree and sat up very late but no husbands turned up.
                        Christmas day passed but still no husbands came. Anne, like me, is expecting a baby
                        and we both felt pretty forlorn and cross. Anne was certain that they had been caught up
                        in a party somewhere and had forgotten all about us and I must say when Boxing Day
                        went by and still George and John did not show up I felt ready to agree with her.
                        They turned up towards evening and explained that on the homeward trip the car
                        had bogged down in the mud and that they had spent a miserable Christmas. Anne
                        refused to believe their story so George, to prove their case, got the game bag and
                        tipped the contents on to the dining room table. Out fell several guinea fowl, long past
                        being edible, followed by a large goose so high that it was green and blue where all the
                        feathers had rotted off.

                        The stench was too much for two pregnant girls. I shot out of the front door
                        closely followed by Anne and we were both sick in the garden.

                        I could not face food that evening but Anne is made of stronger stuff and ate her
                        belated Christmas dinner with relish.

                        I am looking forward enormously to having Marjorie here with us. She will be able
                        to carry back to you an eyewitness account of our home and way of life.

                        Much love to you all,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 5th January 1935

                        Dearest Family,

                        You cannot imagine how lovely it is to have Marjorie here. She came just in time
                        because I have had pernicious vomiting and have lost a great deal of weight and she
                        took charge of the children and made me spend three days in hospital having treatment.
                        George took me to the hospital on the afternoon of New Years Eve and decided
                        to spend the night at the hotel and join in the New Years Eve celebrations. I had several
                        visitors at the hospital that evening and George actually managed to get some imported
                        grapes for me. He returned to the farm next morning and fetched me from the hospital
                        four days later. Of course the old A.C. just had to play up. About half way home the
                        back axle gave in and we had to send a passing native some miles back to a place
                        called Mbalizi to hire a lorry from a Greek trader to tow us home to the farm.
                        The children looked well and were full of beans. I think Marjorie was thankful to
                        hand them over to me. She is delighted with Ann’s motherly little ways but Georgie she
                        calls “a really wild child”. He isn’t, just has such an astonishing amount of energy and is
                        always up to mischief. Marjorie brought us all lovely presents. I am so thrilled with my
                        sewing machine. It may be an old model but it sews marvellously. We now have an
                        Alsatian pup as well as Joseph the donkey and the two cats.

                        Marjorie had a midnight encounter with Joseph which gave her quite a shock but
                        we had a good laugh about it next day. Some months ago George replaced our wattle
                        and daub outside pit lavatory by a substantial brick one, so large that Joseph is being
                        temporarily stabled in it at night. We neglected to warn Marj about this and one night,
                        storm lamp in hand, she opened the door and Joseph walked out braying his thanks.
                        I am afraid Marjorie is having a quiet time, a shame when the journey from Cape
                        Town is so expensive. The doctor has told me to rest as much as I can, so it is
                        impossible for us to take Marj on sight seeing trips.

                        I hate to think that she will be leaving in ten days time.

                        Much love,
                        Eleanor.

                        Mchewe Estate. 18th February 1935

                        Dearest Family,

                        You must be able to visualise our life here quite well now that Marj is back and
                        has no doubt filled in all the details I forget to mention in my letters. What a journey we
                        had in the A.C. when we took her to the plane. George, the children and I sat in front and
                        Marj sat behind with numerous four gallon tins of water for the insatiable radiator. It was
                        raining and the canvas hood was up but part of the side flaps are missing and as there is
                        no glass in the windscreen the rain blew in on us. George got fed up with constantly
                        removing the hot radiator cap so simply stuffed a bit of rag in instead. When enough
                        steam had built up in the radiator behind the rag it blew out and we started all over again.
                        The car still roars like an aeroplane engine and yet has little power so that George sent
                        gangs of boys to the steep hills between the farm and the Mission to give us a push if
                        necessary. Fortunately this time it was not, and the boys cheered us on our way. We
                        needed their help on the homeward journey however.

                        George has now bought an old Chev engine which he means to install before I
                        have to go to hospital to have my new baby. It will be quite an engineering feet as
                        George has few tools.

                        I am sorry to say that I am still not well, something to do with kidneys or bladder.
                        George bought me some pills from one of the several small shops which have opened
                        in Mbeya and Ann is most interested in the result. She said seriously to Kath Wood,
                        “Oh my Mummy is a very clever Mummy. She can do blue wee and green wee as well
                        as yellow wee.” I simply can no longer manage the children without help and have
                        engaged the cook’s wife, Janey, to help. The children are by no means thrilled. I plead in
                        vain that I am not well enough to go for walks. Ann says firmly, “Ann doesn’t want to go
                        for a walk. Ann will look after you.” Funny, though she speaks well for a three year old,
                        she never uses the first person. Georgie say he would much rather walk with
                        Keshokutwa, the kitchen boy. His name by the way, means day-after-tomorrow and it
                        suits him down to the ground, Kath Wood walks over sometimes with offers of help and Ann will gladly go walking with her but Georgie won’t. He on the other hand will walk with Anne Molteno
                        and Ann won’t. They are obstinate kids. Ann has developed a very fertile imagination.
                        She has probably been looking at too many of those nice women’s magazines you
                        sent. A few days ago she said, “You are sick Mummy, but Ann’s got another Mummy.
                        She’s not sick, and my other mummy (very smugly) has lovely golden hair”. This
                        morning’ not ten minutes after I had dressed her, she came in with her frock wet and
                        muddy. I said in exasperation, “Oh Ann, you are naughty.” To which she instantly
                        returned, “My other Mummy doesn’t think I am naughty. She thinks I am very nice.” It
                        strikes me I shall have to get better soon so that I can be gay once more and compete
                        with that phantom golden haired paragon.

                        We had a very heavy storm over the farm last week. There was heavy rain with
                        hail which stripped some of the coffee trees and the Mchewe River flooded and the
                        water swept through the lower part of the shamba. After the water had receded George
                        picked up a fine young trout which had been stranded. This was one of some he had
                        put into the river when Georgie was a few months old.

                        The trials of a coffee farmer are legion. We now have a plague of snails. They
                        ring bark the young trees and leave trails of slime on the glossy leaves. All the ring
                        barked trees will have to be cut right back and this is heartbreaking as they are bearing
                        berries for the first time. The snails are collected by native children, piled upon the
                        ground and bashed to a pulp which gives off a sickening stench. I am sorry for the local
                        Africans. Locusts ate up their maize and now they are losing their bean crop to the snails.

                        Lots of love, Eleanor

                        #6260
                        TracyTracy
                        Participant

                          From Tanganyika with Love

                          With thanks to Mike Rushby.

                          • “The letters of Eleanor Dunbar Leslie to her parents and her sister in South Africa
                            concerning her life with George Gilman Rushby of Tanganyika, and the trials and
                            joys of bringing up a family in pioneering conditions.

                          These letters were transcribed from copies of letters typed by Eleanor Rushby from
                          the originals which were in the estate of Marjorie Leslie, Eleanor’s sister. Eleanor
                          kept no diary of her life in Tanganyika, so these letters were the living record of an
                          important part of her life.

                          Prelude
                          Having walked across Africa from the East coast to Ubangi Shauri Chad
                          in French Equatorial Africa, hunting elephant all the way, George Rushby
                          made his way down the Congo to Leopoldville. He then caught a ship to
                          Europe and had a holiday in Brussels and Paris before visiting his family
                          in England. He developed blackwater fever and was extremely ill for a
                          while. When he recovered he went to London to arrange his return to
                          Africa.

                          Whilst staying at the Overseas Club he met Eileen Graham who had come
                          to England from Cape Town to study music. On hearing that George was
                          sailing for Cape Town she arranged to introduce him to her friend
                          Eleanor Dunbar Leslie. “You’ll need someone lively to show you around,”
                          she said. “She’s as smart as paint, a keen mountaineer, a very good school
                          teacher, and she’s attractive. You can’t miss her, because her father is a
                          well known Cape Town Magistrate. And,” she added “I’ve already written
                          and told her what ship you are arriving on.”

                          Eleanor duly met the ship. She and George immediately fell in love.
                          Within thirty six hours he had proposed marriage and was accepted
                          despite the misgivings of her parents. As she was under contract to her
                          High School, she remained in South Africa for several months whilst
                          George headed for Tanganyika looking for a farm where he could build
                          their home.

                          These details are a summary of chapter thirteen of the Biography of
                          George Gilman Rushby ‘The Hunter is Death “ by T.V.Bulpin.

                           

                          Dearest Marj,
                          Terrifically exciting news! I’ve just become engaged to an Englishman whom I
                          met last Monday. The result is a family upheaval which you will have no difficulty in
                          imagining!!

                          The Aunts think it all highly romantic and cry in delight “Now isn’t that just like our
                          El!” Mummy says she doesn’t know what to think, that anyway I was always a harum
                          scarum and she rather expected something like this to happen. However I know that
                          she thinks George highly attractive. “Such a nice smile and gentle manner, and such
                          good hands“ she murmurs appreciatively. “But WHY AN ELEPHANT HUNTER?” she
                          ends in a wail, as though elephant hunting was an unmentionable profession.
                          Anyway I don’t think so. Anyone can marry a bank clerk or a lawyer or even a
                          millionaire – but whoever heard of anyone marrying anyone as exciting as an elephant
                          hunter? I’m thrilled to bits.

                          Daddy also takes a dim view of George’s profession, and of George himself as
                          a husband for me. He says that I am so impulsive and have such wild enthusiasms that I
                          need someone conservative and steady to give me some serenity and some ballast.
                          Dad says George is a handsome fellow and a good enough chap he is sure, but
                          he is obviously a man of the world and hints darkly at a possible PAST. George says
                          he has nothing of the kind and anyway I’m the first girl he has asked to marry him. I don’t
                          care anyway, I’d gladly marry him tomorrow, but Dad has other ideas.

                          He sat in his armchair to deliver his verdict, wearing the same look he must wear
                          on the bench. If we marry, and he doesn’t think it would be a good thing, George must
                          buy a comfortable house for me in Central Africa where I can stay safely when he goes
                          hunting. I interrupted to say “But I’m going too”, but dad snubbed me saying that in no
                          time at all I’ll have a family and one can’t go dragging babies around in the African Bush.”
                          George takes his lectures with surprising calm. He says he can see Dad’s point of
                          view much better than I can. He told the parents today that he plans to buy a small
                          coffee farm in the Southern Highlands of Tanganyika and will build a cosy cottage which
                          will be a proper home for both of us, and that he will only hunt occasionally to keep the
                          pot boiling.

                          Mummy, of course, just had to spill the beans. She said to George, “I suppose
                          you know that Eleanor knows very little about house keeping and can’t cook at all.” a fact
                          that I was keeping a dark secret. But George just said, “Oh she won’t have to work. The
                          boys do all that sort of thing. She can lie on a couch all day and read if she likes.” Well
                          you always did say that I was a “Lily of the field,” and what a good thing! If I were one of
                          those terribly capable women I’d probably die of frustration because it seems that
                          African house boys feel that they have lost face if their Memsahibs do anything but the
                          most gracious chores.

                          George is absolutely marvellous. He is strong and gentle and awfully good
                          looking too. He is about 5 ft 10 ins tall and very broad. He wears his curly brown hair cut
                          very short and has a close clipped moustache. He has strongly marked eyebrows and
                          very striking blue eyes which sometimes turn grey or green. His teeth are strong and
                          even and he has a quiet voice.

                          I expect all this sounds too good to be true, but come home quickly and see for
                          yourself. George is off to East Africa in three weeks time to buy our farm. I shall follow as
                          soon as he has bought it and we will be married in Dar es Salaam.

                          Dad has taken George for a walk “to get to know him” and that’s why I have time
                          to write such a long screed. They should be back any minute now and I must fly and
                          apply a bit of glamour.

                          Much love my dear,
                          your jubilant
                          Eleanor

                          S.S.Timavo. Durban. 28th.October. 1930.

                          Dearest Family,
                          Thank you for the lovely send off. I do wish you were all on board with me and
                          could come and dance with me at my wedding. We are having a very comfortable
                          voyage. There were only four of the passengers as far as Durban, all of them women,
                          but I believe we are taking on more here. I have a most comfortable deck cabin to
                          myself and the use of a sumptuous bathroom. No one is interested in deck games and I
                          am having a lazy time, just sunbathing and reading.

                          I sit at the Captain’s table and the meals are delicious – beautifully served. The
                          butter for instance, is moulded into sprays of roses, most exquisitely done, and as for
                          the ice-cream, I’ve never tasted anything like them.

                          The meals are continental type and we have hors d’oeuvre in a great variety
                          served on large round trays. The Italians souse theirs with oil, Ugh! We also of course
                          get lots of spaghetti which I have some difficulty in eating. However this presents no
                          problem to the Chief Engineer who sits opposite to me. He simply rolls it around his
                          fork and somehow the spaghetti flows effortlessly from fork to mouth exactly like an
                          ascending escalator. Wine is served at lunch and dinner – very mild and pleasant stuff.
                          Of the women passengers the one i liked best was a young German widow
                          from South west Africa who left the ship at East London to marry a man she had never
                          met. She told me he owned a drapers shop and she was very happy at the prospect
                          of starting a new life, as her previous marriage had ended tragically with the death of her
                          husband and only child in an accident.

                          I was most interested to see the bridegroom and stood at the rail beside the gay
                          young widow when we docked at East London. I picked him out, without any difficulty,
                          from the small group on the quay. He was a tall thin man in a smart grey suit and with a
                          grey hat perched primly on his head. You can always tell from hats can’t you? I wasn’t
                          surprised to see, when this German raised his head, that he looked just like the Kaiser’s
                          “Little Willie”. Long thin nose and cold grey eyes and no smile of welcome on his tight
                          mouth for the cheery little body beside me. I quite expected him to jerk his thumb and
                          stalk off, expecting her to trot at his heel.

                          However she went off blithely enough. Next day before the ship sailed, she
                          was back and I saw her talking to the Captain. She began to cry and soon after the
                          Captain patted her on the shoulder and escorted her to the gangway. Later the Captain
                          told me that the girl had come to ask him to allow her to work her passage back to
                          Germany where she had some relations. She had married the man the day before but
                          she disliked him because he had deceived her by pretending that he owned a shop
                          whereas he was only a window dresser. Bad show for both.

                          The Captain and the Chief Engineer are the only officers who mix socially with
                          the passengers. The captain seems rather a melancholy type with, I should say, no
                          sense of humour. He speaks fair English with an American accent. He tells me that he
                          was on the San Francisco run during Prohibition years in America and saw many Film
                          Stars chiefly “under the influence” as they used to flock on board to drink. The Chief
                          Engineer is big and fat and cheerful. His English is anything but fluent but he makes up
                          for it in mime.

                          I visited the relations and friends at Port Elizabeth and East London, and here at
                          Durban. I stayed with the Trotters and Swans and enjoyed myself very much at both
                          places. I have collected numerous wedding presents, china and cutlery, coffee
                          percolator and ornaments, and where I shall pack all these things I don’t know. Everyone has been terribly kind and I feel extremely well and happy.

                          At the start of the voyage I had a bit of bad luck. You will remember that a
                          perfectly foul South Easter was blowing. Some men were busy working on a deck
                          engine and I stopped to watch and a tiny fragment of steel blew into my eye. There is
                          no doctor on board so the stewardess put some oil into the eye and bandaged it up.
                          The eye grew more and more painful and inflamed and when when we reached Port
                          Elizabeth the Captain asked the Port Doctor to look at it. The Doctor said it was a job for
                          an eye specialist and telephoned from the ship to make an appointment. Luckily for me,
                          Vincent Tofts turned up at the ship just then and took me off to the specialist and waited
                          whilst he extracted the fragment with a giant magnet. The specialist said that I was very
                          lucky as the thing just missed the pupil of my eye so my sight will not be affected. I was
                          temporarily blinded by the Belladona the eye-man put in my eye so he fitted me with a
                          pair of black goggles and Vincent escorted me back to the ship. Don’t worry the eye is
                          now as good as ever and George will not have to take a one-eyed bride for better or
                          worse.

                          I have one worry and that is that the ship is going to be very much overdue by
                          the time we reach Dar es Salaam. She is taking on a big wool cargo and we were held
                          up for three days in East london and have been here in Durban for five days.
                          Today is the ninth Anniversary of the Fascist Movement and the ship was
                          dressed with bunting and flags. I must now go and dress for the gala dinner.

                          Bless you all,
                          Eleanor.

                          S.S.Timavo. 6th. November 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          Nearly there now. We called in at Lourenco Marques, Beira, Mozambique and
                          Port Amelia. I was the only one of the original passengers left after Durban but there we
                          took on a Mrs Croxford and her mother and two men passengers. Mrs C must have
                          something, certainly not looks. She has a flat figure, heavily mascared eyes and crooked
                          mouth thickly coated with lipstick. But her rather sweet old mother-black-pearls-type tells
                          me they are worn out travelling around the world trying to shake off an admirer who
                          pursues Mrs C everywhere.

                          The one male passenger is very quiet and pleasant. The old lady tells me that he
                          has recently lost his wife. The other passenger is a horribly bumptious type.
                          I had my hair beautifully shingled at Lourenco Marques, but what an experience it
                          was. Before we docked I asked the Captain whether he knew of a hairdresser, but he
                          said he did not and would have to ask the agent when he came aboard. The agent was
                          a very suave Asian. He said “Sure he did” and offered to take me in his car. I rather
                          doubtfully agreed — such a swarthy gentleman — and was driven, not to a hairdressing
                          establishment, but to his office. Then he spoke to someone on the telephone and in no
                          time at all a most dago-y type arrived carrying a little black bag. He was all patent
                          leather, hair, and flashing smile, and greeted me like an old and valued friend.
                          Before I had collected my scattered wits tthe Agent had flung open a door and
                          ushered me through, and I found myself seated before an ornate mirror in what was only
                          too obviously a bedroom. It was a bedroom with a difference though. The unmade bed
                          had no legs but hung from the ceiling on brass chains.

                          The agent beamingly shut the door behind him and I was left with my imagination
                          and the afore mentioned oily hairdresser. He however was very business like. Before I
                          could say knife he had shingled my hair with a cut throat razor and then, before I could
                          protest, had smothered my neck in stinking pink powder applied with an enormous and
                          filthy swansdown powder puff. He held up a mirror for me to admire his handiwork but I
                          was aware only of the enormous bed reflected in it, and hurriedly murmuring “very nice,
                          very nice” I made my escape to the outer office where, to my relief, I found the Chief
                          Engineer who escorted me back to the ship.

                          In the afternoon Mrs Coxford and the old lady and I hired a taxi and went to the
                          Polana Hotel for tea. Very swish but I like our Cape Peninsula beaches better.
                          At Lorenco Marques we took on more passengers. The Governor of
                          Portuguese Nyasaland and his wife and baby son. He was a large middle aged man,
                          very friendly and unassuming and spoke perfect English. His wife was German and
                          exquisite, as fragile looking and with the delicate colouring of a Dresden figurine. She
                          looked about 18 but she told me she was 28 and showed me photographs of two
                          other sons – hefty youngsters, whom she had left behind in Portugal and was missing
                          very much.

                          It was frightfully hot at Beira and as I had no money left I did not go up to the
                          town, but Mrs Croxford and I spent a pleasant hour on the beach under the Casurina
                          trees.

                          The Governor and his wife left the ship at Mozambique. He looked very
                          imposing in his starched uniform and she more Dresden Sheperdish than ever in a
                          flowered frock. There was a guard of honour and all the trimmings. They bade me a warm farewell and invited George and me to stay at any time.

                          The German ship “Watussi” was anchored in the Bay and I decided to visit her
                          and try and have my hair washed and set. I had no sooner stepped on board when a
                          lady came up to me and said “Surely you are Beeba Leslie.” It was Mrs Egan and she
                          had Molly with her. Considering Mrs Egan had not seen me since I was five I think it was
                          jolly clever of her to recognise me. Molly is charming and was most friendly. She fixed
                          things with the hairdresser and sat with me until the job was done. Afterwards I had tea
                          with them.

                          Port Amelia was our last stop. In fact the only person to go ashore was Mr
                          Taylor, the unpleasant man, and he returned at sunset very drunk indeed.
                          We reached Port Amelia on the 3rd – my birthday. The boat had anchored by
                          the time I was dressed and when I went on deck I saw several row boats cluttered
                          around the gangway and in them were natives with cages of wild birds for sale. Such tiny
                          crowded cages. I was furious, you know me. I bought three cages, carried them out on
                          to the open deck and released the birds. I expected them to fly to the land but they flew
                          straight up into the rigging.

                          The quiet male passenger wandered up and asked me what I was doing. I said
                          “I’m giving myself a birthday treat, I hate to see caged birds.” So next thing there he
                          was buying birds which he presented to me with “Happy Birthday.” I gladly set those
                          birds free too and they joined the others in the rigging.

                          Then a grinning steward came up with three more cages. “For the lady with
                          compliments of the Captain.” They lost no time in joining their friends.
                          It had given me so much pleasure to free the birds that I was only a little
                          discouraged when the quiet man said thoughtfully “This should encourage those bird
                          catchers you know, they are sold out. When evening came and we were due to sail I
                          was sure those birds would fly home, but no, they are still there and they will probably
                          remain until we dock at Dar es Salaam.

                          During the morning the Captain came up and asked me what my Christian name
                          is. He looked as grave as ever and I couldn’t think why it should interest him but said “the
                          name is Eleanor.” That night at dinner there was a large iced cake in the centre of the
                          table with “HELENA” in a delicate wreath of pink icing roses on the top. We had
                          champagne and everyone congratulated me and wished me good luck in my marriage.
                          A very nice gesture don’t you think. The unpleasant character had not put in an
                          appearance at dinner which made the party all the nicer

                          I sat up rather late in the lounge reading a book and by the time I went to bed
                          there was not a soul around. I bathed and changed into my nighty,walked into my cabin,
                          shed my dressing gown, and pottered around. When I was ready for bed I put out my
                          hand to draw the curtains back and a hand grasped my wrist. It was that wretched
                          creature outside my window on the deck, still very drunk. Luckily I was wearing that
                          heavy lilac silk nighty. I was livid. “Let go at once”, I said, but he only grinned stupidly.
                          “I’m not hurting you” he said, “only looking”. “I’ll ring for the steward” said I, and by
                          stretching I managed to press the bell with my free hand. I rang and rang but no one
                          came and he just giggled. Then I said furiously, “Remember this name, George
                          Rushby, he is a fine boxer and he hates specimens like you. When he meets me at Dar
                          es Salaam I shall tell him about this and I bet you will be sorry.” However he still held on
                          so I turned and knocked hard on the adjoining wall which divided my cabin from Mrs
                          Croxfords. Soon Mrs Croxford and the old lady appeared in dressing gowns . This
                          seemed to amuse the drunk even more though he let go my wrist. So whilst the old
                          lady stayed with me, Mrs C fetched the quiet passenger who soon hustled him off. He has kept out of my way ever since. However I still mean to tell George because I feel
                          the fellow got off far too lightly. I reported the matter to the Captain but he just remarked
                          that he always knew the man was low class because he never wears a jacket to meals.
                          This is my last night on board and we again had free champagne and I was given
                          some tooled leather work by the Captain and a pair of good paste earrings by the old
                          lady. I have invited them and Mrs Croxford, the Chief Engineer, and the quiet
                          passenger to the wedding.

                          This may be my last night as Eleanor Leslie and I have spent this long while
                          writing to you just as a little token of my affection and gratitude for all the years of your
                          love and care. I shall post this letter on the ship and must turn now and get some beauty
                          sleep. We have been told that we shall be in Dar es Salaam by 9 am. I am so excited
                          that I shall not sleep.

                          Very much love, and just for fun I’ll sign my full name for the last time.
                          with my “bes respeks”,

                          Eleanor Leslie.

                          Eleanor and George Rushby:

                          Eleanor and George Rushby

                          Splendid Hotel, Dar es Salaam 11th November 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          I’m writing this in the bedroom whilst George is out buying a tin trunk in which to
                          pack all our wedding presents. I expect he will be gone a long time because he has
                          gone out with Hicky Wood and, though our wedding was four days ago, it’s still an
                          excuse for a party. People are all very cheery and friendly here.
                          I am wearing only pants and slip but am still hot. One swelters here in the
                          mornings, but a fresh sea breeze blows in the late afternoons and then Dar es Salaam is
                          heavenly.

                          We arrived in Dar es Salaam harbour very early on Friday morning (7 th Nov).
                          The previous night the Captain had said we might not reach Dar. until 9 am, and certainly
                          no one would be allowed on board before 8 am. So I dawdled on the deck in my
                          dressing gown and watched the green coastline and the islands slipping by. I stood on
                          the deck outside my cabin and was not aware that I was looking out at the wrong side of
                          the landlocked harbour. Quite unknown to me George and some friends, the Hickson
                          Woods, were standing on the Gymkhana Beach on the opposite side of the channel
                          anxiously scanning the ship for a sign of me. George says he had a horrible idea I had
                          missed the ship. Blissfully unconscious of his anxiety I wandered into the bathroom
                          prepared for a good soak. The anchor went down when I was in the bath and suddenly
                          there was a sharp wrap on the door and I heard Mrs Croxford say “There’s a man in a
                          boat outside. He is looking out for someone and I’m sure it’s your George. I flung on
                          some clothes and rushed on deck with tousled hair and bare feet and it was George.
                          We had a marvellous reunion. George was wearing shorts and bush shirt and
                          looked just like the strong silent types one reads about in novels. I finished dressing then
                          George helped me bundle all the wedding presents I had collected en route into my
                          travelling rug and we went into the bar lounge to join the Hickson Woods. They are the
                          couple from whom George bought the land which is to be our coffee farm Hicky-Wood
                          was laughing when we joined them. he said he had called a chap to bring a couple of
                          beers thinking he was the steward but it turned out to be the Captain. He does wear
                          such a very plain uniform that I suppose it was easy to make the mistake, but Hicky
                          says he was not amused.

                          Anyway as the H-W’s are to be our neighbours I’d better describe them. Kath
                          Wood is very attractive, dark Irish, with curly black hair and big brown eyes. She was
                          married before to Viv Lumb a great friend of George’s who died some years ago of
                          blackwater fever. They had one little girl, Maureen, and Kath and Hicky have a small son
                          of three called Michael. Hicky is slightly below average height and very neat and dapper
                          though well built. He is a great one for a party and good fun but George says he can be
                          bad tempered.

                          Anyway we all filed off the ship and Hicky and Cath went on to the hotel whilst
                          George and I went through customs. Passing the customs was easy. Everyone
                          seemed to know George and that it was his wedding day and I just sailed through,
                          except for the little matter of the rug coming undone when George and I had to scramble
                          on the floor for candlesticks and fruit knives and a wooden nut bowl.
                          Outside the customs shed we were mobbed by a crowd of jabbering Africans
                          offering their services as porters, and soon my luggage was piled in one rickshaw whilst
                          George and I climbed into another and we were born smoothly away on rubber shod
                          wheels to the Splendid Hotel. The motion was pleasing enough but it seemed weird to
                          be pulled along by one human being whilst another pushed behind.  We turned up a street called Acacia Avenue which, as its name implies, is lined
                          with flamboyant acacia trees now in the full glory of scarlet and gold. The rickshaw
                          stopped before the Splendid Hotel and I was taken upstairs into a pleasant room which
                          had its own private balcony overlooking the busy street.

                          Here George broke the news that we were to be married in less than an hours
                          time. He would have to dash off and change and then go straight to the church. I would
                          be quite all right, Kath would be looking in and friends would fetch me.
                          I started to dress and soon there was a tap at the door and Mrs Hickson-Wood
                          came in with my bouquet. It was a lovely bunch of carnations and frangipani with lots of
                          asparagus fern and it went well with my primrose yellow frock. She admired my frock
                          and Leghorn hat and told me that her little girl Maureen was to be my flower girl. Then
                          she too left for the church.

                          I was fully dressed when there was another knock on the door and I opened it to
                          be confronted by a Police Officer in a starched white uniform. I’m McCallum”, he said,
                          “I’ve come to drive you to the church.” Downstairs he introduced me to a big man in a
                          tussore silk suit. “This is Dr Shicore”, said McCallum, “He is going to give you away.”
                          Honestly, I felt exactly like Alice in Wonderland. Wouldn’t have been at all surprised if
                          the White Rabbit had popped up and said he was going to be my page.

                          I walked out of the hotel and across the pavement in a dream and there, by the
                          curb, was a big dark blue police car decorated with white ribbons and with a tall African
                          Police Ascari holding the door open for me. I had hardly time to wonder what next when
                          the car drew up before a tall German looking church. It was in fact the Lutheran Church in
                          the days when Tanganyika was German East Africa.

                          Mrs Hickson-Wood, very smart in mushroom coloured georgette and lace, and
                          her small daughter were waiting in the porch, so in we went. I was glad to notice my
                          friends from the boat sitting behind George’s friends who were all complete strangers to
                          me. The aisle seemed very long but at last I reached George waiting in the chancel with
                          Hicky-Wood, looking unfamiliar in a smart tussore suit. However this feeling of unreality
                          passed when he turned his head and smiled at me.

                          In the vestry after the ceremony I was kissed affectionately by several complete
                          strangers and I felt happy and accepted by George’s friends. Outside the church,
                          standing apart from the rest of the guests, the Italian Captain and Chief Engineer were
                          waiting. They came up and kissed my hand, and murmured felicitations, but regretted
                          they could not spare the time to come to the reception. Really it was just as well
                          because they would not have fitted in at all well.

                          Dr Shircore is the Director of Medical Services and he had very kindly lent his
                          large house for the reception. It was quite a party. The guests were mainly men with a
                          small sprinkling of wives. Champagne corks popped and there was an enormous cake
                          and soon voices were raised in song. The chief one was ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’
                          and I shall remember it for ever.

                          The party was still in full swing when George and I left. The old lady from the ship
                          enjoyed it hugely. She came in an all black outfit with a corsage of artificial Lily-of-the-
                          Valley. Later I saw one of the men wearing the corsage in his buttonhole and the old
                          lady was wearing a carnation.

                          When George and I got back to the hotel,I found that my luggage had been
                          moved to George’s room by his cook Lamek, who was squatting on his haunches and
                          clapped his hands in greeting. My dears, you should see Lamek – exactly like a
                          chimpanzee – receding forehead, wide flat nose, and long lip, and such splayed feet. It was quite a strain not to laugh, especially when he produced a gift for me. I have not yet
                          discovered where he acquired it. It was a faded mauve straw toque of the kind worn by
                          Queen Mary. I asked George to tell Lamek that I was touched by his generosity but felt
                          that I could not accept his gift. He did not mind at all especially as George gave him a
                          generous tip there and then.

                          I changed into a cotton frock and shady straw hat and George changed into shorts
                          and bush shirt once more. We then sneaked into the dining room for lunch avoiding our
                          wedding guests who were carrying on the party in the lounge.

                          After lunch we rejoined them and they all came down to the jetty to wave goodbye
                          as we set out by motor launch for Honeymoon Island. I enjoyed the launch trip very
                          much. The sea was calm and very blue and the palm fringed beaches of Dar es Salaam
                          are as romantic as any bride could wish. There are small coral islands dotted around the
                          Bay of which Honeymoon Island is the loveliest. I believe at one time it bore the less
                          romantic name of Quarantine Island. Near the Island, in the shallows, the sea is brilliant
                          green and I saw two pink jellyfish drifting by.

                          There is no jetty on the island so the boat was stopped in shallow water and
                          George carried me ashore. I was enchanted with the Island and in no hurry to go to the
                          bungalow, so George and I took our bathing costumes from our suitcases and sent the
                          luggage up to the house together with a box of provisions.

                          We bathed and lazed on the beach and suddenly it was sunset and it began to
                          get dark. We walked up the beach to the bungalow and began to unpack the stores,
                          tea, sugar, condensed milk, bread and butter, sardines and a large tin of ham. There
                          were also cups and saucers and plates and cutlery.

                          We decided to have an early meal and George called out to the caretaker, “Boy
                          letta chai”. Thereupon the ‘boy’ materialised and jabbered to George in Ki-Swaheli. It
                          appeared he had no utensil in which to boil water. George, ever resourceful, removed
                          the ham from the tin and gave him that. We had our tea all right but next day the ham
                          was bad.

                          Then came bed time. I took a hurricane lamp in one hand and my suitcase in the
                          other and wandered into the bedroom whilst George vanished into the bathroom. To
                          my astonishment I saw two perfectly bare iron bedsteads – no mattress or pillows. We
                          had brought sheets and mosquito nets but, believe me, they are a poor substitute for a
                          mattress.

                          Anyway I arrayed myself in my pale yellow satin nightie and sat gingerly down
                          on the iron edge of the bed to await my groom who eventually appeared in a
                          handsome suit of silk pyjamas. His expression, as he took in the situation, was too much
                          for me and I burst out laughing and so did he.

                          Somewhere in the small hours I woke up. The breeze had dropped and the
                          room was unbearably stuffy. I felt as dry as a bone. The lamp had been turned very
                          low and had gone out, but I remembered seeing a water tank in the yard and I decided
                          to go out in the dark and drink from the tap. In the dark I could not find my slippers so I
                          slipped my feet into George’s shoes, picked up his matches and groped my way out
                          of the room. I found the tank all right and with one hand on the tap and one cupped for
                          water I stooped to drink. Just then I heard a scratchy noise and sensed movements
                          around my feet. I struck a match and oh horrors! found that the damp spot on which I was
                          standing was alive with white crabs. In my hurry to escape I took a clumsy step, put
                          George’s big toe on the hem of my nightie and down I went on top of the crabs. I need
                          hardly say that George was awakened by an appalling shriek and came rushing to my
                          aid like a knight of old.  Anyway, alarms and excursions not withstanding, we had a wonderful weekend on the island and I was sorry to return to the heat of Dar es Salaam, though the evenings
                          here are lovely and it is heavenly driving along the coast road by car or in a rickshaw.
                          I was surprised to find so many Indians here. Most of the shops, large and small,
                          seem to be owned by Indians and the place teems with them. The women wear
                          colourful saris and their hair in long black plaits reaching to their waists. Many wear baggy
                          trousers of silk or satin. They give a carnival air to the sea front towards sunset.
                          This long letter has been written in instalments throughout the day. My first break
                          was when I heard the sound of a band and rushed to the balcony in time to see The
                          Kings African Rifles band and Askaris march down the Avenue on their way to an
                          Armistice Memorial Service. They looked magnificent.

                          I must end on a note of most primitive pride. George returned from his shopping
                          expedition and beamingly informed me that he had thrashed the man who annoyed me
                          on the ship. I felt extremely delighted and pressed for details. George told me that
                          when he went out shopping he noticed to his surprise that the ‘Timavo” was still in the
                          harbour. He went across to the Agents office and there saw a man who answered to the
                          description I had given. George said to him “Is your name Taylor?”, and when he said
                          “yes”, George said “Well my name is George Rushby”, whereupon he hit Taylor on the
                          jaw so that he sailed over the counter and down the other side. Very satisfactory, I feel.
                          With much love to all.

                          Your cave woman
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate. P.O. Mbeya 22 November 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          Well here we are at our Country Seat, Mchewe Estate. (pronounced
                          Mn,-che’-we) but I will start at the beginning of our journey and describe the farm later.
                          We left the hotel at Dar es Salaam for the station in a taxi crowded with baggage
                          and at the last moment Keith Wood ran out with the unwrapped bottom layer of our
                          wedding cake. It remained in its naked state from there to here travelling for two days in
                          the train on the luggage rack, four days in the car on my knee, reposing at night on the
                          roof of the car exposed to the winds of Heaven, and now rests beside me in the tent
                          looking like an old old tombstone. We have no tin large enough to hold it and one
                          simply can’t throw away ones wedding cake so, as George does not eat cake, I can see
                          myself eating wedding cake for tea for months to come, ants permitting.

                          We travelled up by train from Dar to Dodoma, first through the lush vegetation of
                          the coastal belt to Morogoro, then through sisal plantations now very overgrown with
                          weeds owing to the slump in prices, and then on to the arid area around Dodoma. This
                          part of the country is very dry at this time of the year and not unlike parts of our Karoo.
                          The train journey was comfortable enough but slow as the engines here are fed with
                          wood and not coal as in South Africa.

                          Dodoma is the nearest point on the railway to Mbeya so we left the train there to
                          continue our journey by road. We arrived at the one and only hotel in the early hours and
                          whilst someone went to rout out the night watchman the rest of us sat on the dismal
                          verandah amongst a litter of broken glass. Some bright spark remarked on the obvious –
                          that there had been a party the night before.

                          When we were shown to a room I thought I rather preferred the verandah,
                          because the beds had not yet been made up and there was a bucket of vomit beside
                          the old fashioned washstand. However George soon got the boys to clean up the
                          room and I fell asleep to be awakened by George with an invitation to come and see
                          our car before breakfast.

                          Yes, we have our own car. It is a Chev, with what is called a box body. That
                          means that sides, roof and doors are made by a local Indian carpenter. There is just the
                          one front seat with a kapok mattress on it. The tools are kept in a sort of cupboard fixed
                          to the side so there is a big space for carrying “safari kit” behind the cab seat.
                          Lamek, who had travelled up on the same train, appeared after breakfast, and
                          helped George to pack all our luggage into the back of the car. Besides our suitcases
                          there was a huge bedroll, kitchen utensils and a box of provisions, tins of petrol and
                          water and all Lamek’s bits and pieces which included three chickens in a wicker cage and
                          an enormous bunch of bananas about 3 ft long.

                          When all theses things were packed there remained only a small space between
                          goods and ceiling and into this Lamek squeezed. He lay on his back with his horny feet a
                          mere inch or so from the back of my head. In this way we travelled 400 miles over
                          bumpy earth roads and crude pole bridges, but whenever we stopped for a meal
                          Lamek wriggled out and, like Aladdin’s genie, produced good meals in no time at all.
                          In the afternoon we reached a large river called the Ruaha. Workmen were busy
                          building a large bridge across it but it is not yet ready so we crossed by a ford below
                          the bridge. George told me that the river was full of crocodiles but though I looked hard, I
                          did not see any. This is also elephant country but I did not see any of those either, only
                          piles of droppings on the road. I must tell you that the natives around these parts are called Wahehe and the river is Ruaha – enough to make a cat laugh. We saw some Wahehe out hunting with spears
                          and bows and arrows. They live in long low houses with the tiniest shuttered windows
                          and rounded roofs covered with earth.

                          Near the river we also saw a few Masai herding cattle. They are rather terrifying to
                          look at – tall, angular, and very aloof. They wear nothing but a blanket knotted on one
                          shoulder, concealing nothing, and all carried one or two spears.
                          The road climbs steeply on the far side of the Ruaha and one has the most
                          tremendous views over the plains. We spent our first night up there in the high country.
                          Everything was taken out of the car, the bed roll opened up and George and I slept
                          comfortably in the back of the car whilst Lamek, rolled in a blanket, slept soundly by a
                          small fire nearby. Next morning we reached our first township, Iringa, and put up at the
                          Colonist Hotel. We had a comfortable room in the annex overlooking the golf course.
                          our room had its own little dressing room which was also the bathroom because, when
                          ordered to do so, the room boy carried in an oval galvanised bath and filled it with hot
                          water which he carried in a four gallon petrol tin.

                          When we crossed to the main building for lunch, George was immediately hailed
                          by several men who wanted to meet the bride. I was paid some handsome
                          compliments but was not sure whether they were sincere or the result of a nice alcoholic
                          glow. Anyhow every one was very friendly.

                          After lunch I went back to the bedroom leaving George chatting away. I waited and
                          waited – no George. I got awfully tired of waiting and thought I’d give him a fright so I
                          walked out onto the deserted golf course and hid behind some large boulders. Soon I
                          saw George returning to the room and the boy followed with a tea tray. Ah, now the hue
                          and cry will start, thought I, but no, no George appeared nor could I hear any despairing
                          cry. When sunset came I trailed crossly back to our hotel room where George lay
                          innocently asleep on his bed, hands folded on his chest like a crusader on his tomb. In a
                          moment he opened his eyes, smiled sleepily and said kindly, “Did you have a nice walk
                          my love?” So of course I couldn’t play the neglected wife as he obviously didn’t think
                          me one and we had a very pleasant dinner and party in the hotel that evening.
                          Next day we continued our journey but turned aside to visit the farm of a sprightly
                          old man named St.Leger Seaton whom George had known for many years, so it was
                          after dark before George decided that we had covered our quota of miles for the day.
                          Whilst he and Lamek unpacked I wandered off to a stream to cool my hot feet which had
                          baked all day on the floor boards of the car. In the rather dim moonlight I sat down on the
                          grassy bank and gratefully dabbled my feet in the cold water. A few minutes later I
                          started up with a shriek – I had the sensation of red hot pins being dug into all my most
                          sensitive parts. I started clawing my clothes off and, by the time George came to the
                          rescue with the lamp, I was practically in the nude. “Only Siafu ants,” said George calmly.
                          Take off all your clothes and get right in the water.” So I had a bathe whilst George
                          picked the ants off my clothes by the light of the lamp turned very low for modesty’s
                          sake. Siafu ants are beastly things. They are black ants with outsized heads and
                          pinchers. I shall be very, very careful where I sit in future.

                          The next day was even hotter. There was no great variety in the scenery. Most
                          of the country was covered by a tree called Miombo, which is very ordinary when the
                          foliage is a mature deep green, but when in new leaf the trees look absolutely beautiful
                          as the leaves,surprisingly, are soft pastel shades of red and yellow.

                          Once again we turned aside from the main road to visit one of George’s friends.
                          This man Major Hugh Jones MC, has a farm only a few miles from ours but just now he is supervising the making of an airstrip. Major Jones is quite a character. He is below
                          average height and skinny with an almost bald head and one nearly blind eye into which
                          he screws a monocle. He is a cultured person and will, I am sure, make an interesting
                          neighbour. George and Major Jones’ friends call him ‘Joni’ but he is generally known in
                          this country as ‘Ropesoles’ – as he is partial to that type of footwear.
                          We passed through Mbeya township after dark so I have no idea what the place
                          is like. The last 100 miles of our journey was very dusty and the last 15 miles extremely
                          bumpy. The road is used so little that in some places we had to plow our way through
                          long grass and I was delighted when at last George turned into a side road and said
                          “This is our place.” We drove along the bank of the Mchewe River, then up a hill and
                          stopped at a tent which was pitched beside the half built walls of our new home. We
                          were expected so there was hot water for baths and after a supper of tinned food and
                          good hot tea, I climbed thankfully into bed.

                          Next morning I was awakened by the chattering of the African workmen and was
                          soon out to inspect the new surroundings. Our farm was once part of Hickson Wood’s
                          land and is separated from theirs by a river. Our houses cannot be more than a few
                          hundred yards apart as the crow flies but as both are built on the slopes of a long range
                          of high hills, and one can only cross the river at the foot of the slopes, it will be quite a
                          safari to go visiting on foot . Most of our land is covered with shoulder high grass but it
                          has been partly cleared of trees and scrub. Down by the river George has made a long
                          coffee nursery and a large vegetable garden but both coffee and vegetable seedlings
                          are too small to be of use.

                          George has spared all the trees that will make good shade for the coffee later on.
                          There are several huge wild fig trees as big as oaks but with smooth silvery-green trunks
                          and branches and there are lots of acacia thorn trees with flat tops like Japanese sun
                          shades. I’ve seen lovely birds in the fig trees, Louries with bright plumage and crested
                          heads, and Blue Rollers, and in the grasslands there are widow birds with incredibly long
                          black tail feathers.

                          There are monkeys too and horrible but fascinating tree lizards with blue bodies
                          and orange heads. There are so many, many things to tell you but they must wait for
                          another time as James, the house boy, has been to say “Bafu tiari” and if I don’t go at
                          once, the bath will be cold.

                          I am very very happy and terribly interested in this new life so please don’t
                          worry about me.

                          Much love to you all,
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate 29th. November 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          I’ve lots of time to write letters just now because George is busy supervising the
                          building of the house from early morning to late afternoon – with a break for lunch of
                          course.

                          On our second day here our tent was moved from the house site to a small
                          clearing further down the slope of our hill. Next to it the labourers built a ‘banda’ , which is
                          a three sided grass hut with thatched roof – much cooler than the tent in this weather.
                          There is also a little grass lav. so you see we have every convenience. I spend most of
                          my day in the banda reading or writing letters. Occasionally I wander up to the house site
                          and watch the building, but mostly I just sit.

                          I did try exploring once. I wandered down a narrow path towards the river. I
                          thought I might paddle and explore the river a little but I came round a bend and there,
                          facing me, was a crocodile. At least for a moment I thought it was and my adrenaline
                          glands got very busy indeed. But it was only an enormous monitor lizard, four or five
                          feet long. It must have been as scared as I was because it turned and rushed off through
                          the grass. I turned and walked hastily back to the camp and as I passed the house site I
                          saw some boys killing a large puff adder. Now I do my walking in the evenings with
                          George. Nothing alarming ever seems to happen when he is around.

                          It is interesting to watch the boys making bricks for the house. They make a pile
                          of mud which they trample with their feet until it is the right consistency. Then they fill
                          wooden moulds with the clayey mud, and press it down well and turn out beautiful shiny,
                          dark brown bricks which are laid out in rows and covered with grass to bake slowly in the
                          sun.

                          Most of the materials for the building are right here at hand. The walls will be sun
                          dried bricks and there is a white clay which will make a good whitewash for the inside
                          walls. The chimney and walls will be of burnt brick and tiles and George is now busy
                          building a kiln for this purpose. Poles for the roof are being cut in the hills behind the
                          house and every day women come along with large bundles of thatching grass on their
                          heads. Our windows are modern steel casement ones and the doors have been made
                          at a mission in the district. George does some of the bricklaying himself. The other
                          bricklayer is an African from Northern Rhodesia called Pedro. It makes me perspire just
                          to look at Pedro who wears an overcoat all day in the very hot sun.
                          Lamek continues to please. He turns out excellent meals, chicken soup followed
                          by roast chicken, vegetables from the Hickson-Woods garden and a steamed pudding
                          or fruit to wind up the meal. I enjoy the chicken but George is fed up with it and longs for
                          good red meat. The chickens are only about as large as a partridge but then they cost
                          only sixpence each.

                          I had my first visit to Mbeya two days ago. I put on my very best trousseau frock
                          for the occasion- that yellow striped silk one – and wore my wedding hat. George didn’t
                          comment, but I saw later that I was dreadfully overdressed.
                          Mbeya at the moment is a very small settlement consisting of a bundle of small
                          Indian shops – Dukas they call them, which stock European tinned foods and native soft
                          goods which seem to be mainly of Japanese origin. There is a one storied Government
                          office called the Boma and two attractive gabled houses of burnt brick which house the
                          District Officer and his Assistant. Both these houses have lovely gardens but i saw them
                          only from the outside as we did not call. After buying our stores George said “Lets go to the pub, I want you to meet Mrs Menzies.” Well the pub turned out to be just three or four grass rondavels on a bare
                          plot. The proprietor, Ken Menzies, came out to welcome us. I took to him at once
                          because he has the same bush sandy eyebrows as you have Dad. He told me that
                          unfortunately his wife is away at the coast, and then he ushered me through the door
                          saying “Here’s George with his bride.” then followed the Iringa welcome all over again,
                          only more so, because the room was full of diggers from the Lupa Goldfields about fifty
                          miles away.

                          Champagne corks popped as I shook hands all around and George was
                          clapped on the back. I could see he was a favourite with everyone and I tried not to be
                          gauche and let him down. These men were all most kind and most appeared to be men
                          of more than average education. However several were unshaven and looked as
                          though they had slept in their clothes as I suppose they had. When they have a little luck
                          on the diggings they come in here to Menzies pub and spend the lot. George says
                          they bring their gold dust and small nuggets in tobacco tins or Kruschen salts jars and
                          hand them over to Ken Menzies saying “Tell me when I’ve spent the lot.” Ken then
                          weighs the gold and estimates its value and does exactly what the digger wants.
                          However the Diggers get good value for their money because besides the drink
                          they get companionship and good food and nursing if they need it. Mrs Menzies is a
                          trained nurse and most kind and capable from what I was told. There is no doctor or
                          hospital here so her experience as a nursing sister is invaluable.
                          We had lunch at the Hotel and afterwards I poured tea as I was the only female
                          present. Once the shyness had worn off I rather enjoyed myself.

                          Now to end off I must tell you a funny story of how I found out that George likes
                          his women to be feminine. You will remember those dashing black silk pyjamas Aunt
                          Mary gave me, with flowered “happy coat” to match. Well last night I thought I’d give
                          George a treat and when the boy called me for my bath I left George in the ‘banda’
                          reading the London Times. After my bath I put on my Japanese pyjamas and coat,
                          peered into the shaving mirror which hangs from the tent pole and brushed my hair until it
                          shone. I must confess that with my fringe and shingled hair I thought I made quite a
                          glamourous Japanese girl. I walked coyly across to the ‘banda’. Alas no compliment.
                          George just glanced up from the Times and went on reading.
                          He was away rather a long time when it came to his turn to bath. I glanced up
                          when he came back and had a slight concussion. George, if you please, was arrayed in
                          my very best pale yellow satin nightie. The one with the lace and ribbon sash and little
                          bows on the shoulder. I knew exactly what he meant to convey. I was not to wear the
                          trousers in the family. I seethed inwardly, but pretending not to notice, I said calmly “shall
                          I call for food?” In this garb George sat down to dinner and it says a great deal for African
                          phlegm that the boy did not drop the dishes.

                          We conversed politely about this and that, and then, as usual, George went off
                          to bed. I appeared to be engrossed in my book and did not stir. When I went to the
                          tent some time later George lay fast asleep still in my nightie, though all I could see of it
                          was the little ribbon bows looking farcically out of place on his broad shoulders.
                          This morning neither of us mentioned the incident, George was up and dressed
                          by the time I woke up but I have been smiling all day to think what a ridiculous picture
                          we made at dinner. So farewell to pyjamas and hey for ribbons and bows.

                          Your loving
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate. Mbeya. 8th December 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          A mere shadow of her former buxom self lifts a languid pen to write to you. I’m
                          convalescing after my first and I hope my last attack of malaria. It was a beastly
                          experience but all is now well and I am eating like a horse and will soon regain my
                          bounce.

                          I took ill on the evening of the day I wrote my last letter to you. It started with a
                          splitting headache and fits of shivering. The symptoms were all too familiar to George
                          who got me into bed and filled me up with quinine. He then piled on all the available
                          blankets and packed me in hot water bottles. I thought I’d explode and said so and
                          George said just to lie still and I’d soon break into a good sweat. However nothing of the
                          kind happened and next day my temperature was 105 degrees. Instead of feeling
                          miserable as I had done at the onset, I now felt very merry and most chatty. George
                          now tells me I sang the most bawdy songs but I hardly think it likely. Do you?
                          You cannot imagine how tenderly George nursed me, not only that day but
                          throughout the whole eight days I was ill. As we do not employ any African house
                          women, and there are no white women in the neighbourhood at present to whom we
                          could appeal for help, George had to do everything for me. It was unbearably hot in the
                          tent so George decided to move me across to the Hickson-Woods vacant house. They
                          have not yet returned from the coast.

                          George decided I was too weak to make the trip in the car so he sent a
                          messenger over to the Woods’ house for their Machila. A Machila is a canopied canvas
                          hammock slung from a bamboo pole and carried by four bearers. The Machila duly
                          arrived and I attempted to walk to it, clinging to George’s arm, but collapsed in a faint so
                          the trip was postponed to the next morning when I felt rather better. Being carried by
                          Machila is quite pleasant but I was in no shape to enjoy anything and got thankfully into
                          bed in the Hickson-Woods large, cool and rather dark bedroom. My condition did not
                          improve and George decided to send a runner for the Government Doctor at Tukuyu
                          about 60 miles away. Two days later Dr Theis arrived by car and gave me two
                          injections of quinine which reduced the fever. However I still felt very weak and had to
                          spend a further four days in bed.

                          We have now decided to stay on here until the Hickson-Woods return by which
                          time our own house should be ready. George goes off each morning and does not
                          return until late afternoon. However don’t think “poor Eleanor” because I am very
                          comfortable here and there are lots of books to read and the days seem to pass very
                          quickly.

                          The Hickson-Wood’s house was built by Major Jones and I believe the one on
                          his shamba is just like it. It is a square red brick building with a wide verandah all around
                          and, rather astonishingly, a conical thatched roof. There is a beautiful view from the front
                          of the house and a nice flower garden. The coffee shamba is lower down on the hill.
                          Mrs Wood’s first husband, George’s friend Vi Lumb, is buried in the flower
                          garden. He died of blackwater fever about five years ago. I’m told that before her
                          second marriage Kath lived here alone with her little daughter, Maureen, and ran the farm
                          entirely on her own. She must be quite a person. I bet she didn’t go and get malaria
                          within a few weeks of her marriage.

                          The native tribe around here are called Wasafwa. They are pretty primitive but
                          seem amiable people. Most of the men, when they start work, wear nothing but some
                          kind of sheet of unbleached calico wrapped round their waists and hanging to mid calf. As soon as they have drawn their wages they go off to a duka and buy a pair of khaki
                          shorts for five or six shillings. Their women folk wear very short beaded skirts. I think the
                          base is goat skin but have never got close enough for a good look. They are very shy.
                          I hear from George that they have started on the roof of our house but I have not
                          seen it myself since the day I was carried here by Machila. My letters by the way go to
                          the Post Office by runner. George’s farm labourers take it in turn to act in this capacity.
                          The mail bag is given to them on Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening they are
                          back with our very welcome mail.

                          Very much love,
                          Eleanor.

                          Mbeya 23rd December 1930

                          Dearest Family,

                          George drove to Mbeya for stores last week and met Col. Sherwood-Kelly VC.
                          who has been sent by the Government to Mbeya as Game Ranger. His job will be to
                          protect native crops from raiding elephants and hippo etc., and to protect game from
                          poachers. He has had no training for this so he has asked George to go with him on his
                          first elephant safari to show him the ropes.

                          George likes Col. Kelly and was quite willing to go on safari but not willing to
                          leave me alone on the farm as I am still rather shaky after malaria. So it was arranged that
                          I should go to Mbeya and stay with Mrs Harmer, the wife of the newly appointed Lands
                          and Mines Officer, whose husband was away on safari.

                          So here I am in Mbeya staying in the Harmers temporary wattle and daub
                          house. Unfortunately I had a relapse of the malaria and stayed in bed for three days with
                          a temperature. Poor Mrs Harmer had her hands full because in the room next to mine
                          she was nursing a digger with blackwater fever. I could hear his delirious babble through
                          the thin wall – very distressing. He died poor fellow , and leaves a wife and seven
                          children.

                          I feel better than I have done for weeks and this afternoon I walked down to the
                          store. There are great signs of activity and people say that Mbeya will grow rapidly now
                          owing to the boom on the gold fields and also to the fact that a large aerodrome is to be
                          built here. Mbeya is to be a night stop on the proposed air service between England
                          and South Africa. I seem to be the last of the pioneers. If all these schemes come about
                          Mbeya will become quite suburban.

                          26th December 1930

                          George, Col. Kelly and Mr Harmer all returned to Mbeya on Christmas Eve and
                          it was decided that we should stay and have midday Christmas dinner with the
                          Harmers. Col. Kelly and the Assistant District Commissioner came too and it was quite a
                          festive occasion, We left Mbeya in the early afternoon and had our evening meal here at
                          Hickson-Wood’s farm. I wore my wedding dress.

                          I went across to our house in the car this morning. George usually walks across to
                          save petrol which is very expensive here. He takes a short cut and wades through the
                          river. The distance by road is very much longer than the short cut. The men are now
                          thatching the roof of our cottage and it looks charming. It consists of a very large living
                          room-dinning room with a large inglenook fireplace at one end. The bedroom is a large
                          square room with a smaller verandah room adjoining it. There is a wide verandah in the
                          front, from which one has a glorious view over a wide valley to the Livingstone
                          Mountains on the horizon. Bathroom and storeroom are on the back verandah and the
                          kitchen is some distance behind the house to minimise the risk of fire.

                          You can imagine how much I am looking forward to moving in. We have some
                          furniture which was made by an Indian carpenter at Iringa, refrectory dining table and
                          chairs, some small tables and two armchairs and two cupboards and a meatsafe. Other
                          things like bookshelves and extra cupboards we will have to make ourselves. George
                          has also bought a portable gramophone and records which will be a boon.
                          We also have an Irish wolfhound puppy, a skinny little chap with enormous feet
                          who keeps me company all day whilst George is across at our farm working on the
                          house.

                          Lots and lots of love,
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate 8th Jan 1931

                          Dearest Family,

                          Alas, I have lost my little companion. The Doctor called in here on Boxing night
                          and ran over and killed Paddy, our pup. It was not his fault but I was very distressed
                          about it and George has promised to try and get another pup from the same litter.
                          The Hickson-Woods returned home on the 29th December so we decided to
                          move across to our nearly finished house on the 1st January. Hicky Wood decided that
                          we needed something special to mark the occasion so he went off and killed a sucking
                          pig behind the kitchen. The piglet’s screams were terrible and I felt that I would not be
                          able to touch any dinner. Lamek cooked and served sucking pig up in the traditional way
                          but it was high and quite literally, it stank. Our first meal in our own home was not a
                          success.

                          However next day all was forgotten and I had something useful to do. George
                          hung doors and I held the tools and I also planted rose cuttings I had brought from
                          Mbeya and sowed several boxes with seeds.

                          Dad asked me about the other farms in the area. I haven’t visited any but there
                          are five besides ours. One belongs to the Lutheran Mission at Utengule, a few miles
                          from here. The others all belong to British owners. Nearest to Mbeya, at the foot of a
                          very high peak which gives Mbeya its name, are two farms, one belonging to a South
                          African mining engineer named Griffiths, the other to I.G.Stewart who was an officer in the
                          Kings African Rifles. Stewart has a young woman called Queenie living with him. We are
                          some miles further along the range of hills and are some 23 miles from Mbeya by road.
                          The Mchewe River divides our land from the Hickson-Woods and beyond their farm is
                          Major Jones.

                          All these people have been away from their farms for some time but have now
                          returned so we will have some neighbours in future. However although the houses are
                          not far apart as the crow flies, they are all built high in the foothills and it is impossible to
                          connect the houses because of the rivers and gorges in between. One has to drive right
                          down to the main road and then up again so I do not suppose we will go visiting very
                          often as the roads are very bumpy and eroded and petrol is so expensive that we all
                          save it for occasional trips to Mbeya.

                          The rains are on and George has started to plant out some coffee seedlings. The
                          rains here are strange. One can hear the rain coming as it moves like a curtain along the
                          range of hills. It comes suddenly, pours for a little while and passes on and the sun
                          shines again.

                          I do like it here and I wish you could see or dear little home.

                          Your loving,
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate. 1st April 1931

                          Dearest Family,

                          Everything is now running very smoothly in our home. Lamek continues to
                          produce palatable meals and makes wonderful bread which he bakes in a four gallon
                          petrol tin as we have no stove yet. He puts wood coals on the brick floor of the kitchen,
                          lays the tin lengh-wise on the coals and heaps more on top. The bread tins are then put
                          in the petrol tin, which has one end cut away, and the open end is covered by a flat
                          piece of tin held in place by a brick. Cakes are also backed in this make-shift oven and I
                          have never known Lamek to have a failure yet.

                          Lamek has a helper, known as the ‘mpishi boy’ , who does most of the hard
                          work, cleans pots and pans and chops the firewood etc. Another of the mpishi boy’s
                          chores is to kill the two chickens we eat each day. The chickens run wild during the day
                          but are herded into a small chicken house at night. One of the kitchen boy’s first duties is
                          to let the chickens out first thing in the early morning. Some time after breakfast it dawns
                          on Lamek that he will need a chicken for lunch. he informs the kitchen boy who selects a
                          chicken and starts to chase it in which he is enthusiastically joined by our new Irish
                          wolfhound pup, Kelly. Together they race after the frantic fowl, over the flower beds and
                          around the house until finally the chicken collapses from sheer exhaustion. The kitchen
                          boy then hands it over to Lamek who murders it with the kitchen knife and then pops the
                          corpse into boiling water so the feathers can be stripped off with ease.

                          I pointed out in vain, that it would be far simpler if the doomed chickens were kept
                          in the chicken house in the mornings when the others were let out and also that the correct
                          way to pluck chickens is when they are dry. Lamek just smiled kindly and said that that
                          may be so in Europe but that his way is the African way and none of his previous
                          Memsahibs has complained.

                          My houseboy, named James, is clean and capable in the house and also a
                          good ‘dhobi’ or washboy. He takes the washing down to the river and probably
                          pounds it with stones, but I prefer not to look. The ironing is done with a charcoal iron
                          only we have no charcoal and he uses bits of wood from the kitchen fire but so far there
                          has not been a mishap.

                          It gets dark here soon after sunset and then George lights the oil lamps and we
                          have tea and toast in front of the log fire which burns brightly in our inglenook. This is my
                          favourite hour of the day. Later George goes for his bath. I have mine in the mornings
                          and we have dinner at half past eight. Then we talk a bit and read a bit and sometimes
                          play the gramophone. I expect it all sounds pretty unexciting but it doesn’t seem so to
                          me.

                          Very much love,
                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate 20th April 1931

                          Dearest Family,

                          It is still raining here and the countryside looks very lush and green, very different
                          from the Mbeya district I first knew, when plains and hills were covered in long brown
                          grass – very course stuff that grows shoulder high.

                          Most of the labourers are hill men and one can see little patches of cultivation in
                          the hills. Others live in small villages near by, each consisting of a cluster of thatched huts
                          and a few maize fields and perhaps a patch of bananas. We do not have labour lines on
                          the farm because our men all live within easy walking distance. Each worker has a labour
                          card with thirty little squares on it. One of these squares is crossed off for each days work
                          and when all thirty are marked in this way the labourer draws his pay and hies himself off
                          to the nearest small store and blows the lot. The card system is necessary because
                          these Africans are by no means slaves to work. They work only when they feel like it or
                          when someone in the family requires a new garment, or when they need a few shillings
                          to pay their annual tax. Their fields, chickens and goats provide them with the food they
                          need but they draw rations of maize meal beans and salt. Only our headman is on a
                          salary. His name is Thomas and he looks exactly like the statues of Julius Caesar, the
                          same bald head and muscular neck and sardonic expression. He comes from Northern
                          Rhodesia and is more intelligent than the locals.

                          We still live mainly on chickens. We have a boy whose job it is to scour the
                          countryside for reasonable fat ones. His name is Lucas and he is quite a character. He
                          has such long horse teeth that he does not seem able to close his mouth and wears a
                          perpetual amiable smile. He brings his chickens in beehive shaped wicker baskets
                          which are suspended on a pole which Lucas carries on his shoulder.

                          We buy our groceries in bulk from Mbeya, our vegetables come from our
                          garden by the river and our butter from Kath Wood. Our fresh milk we buy from the
                          natives. It is brought each morning by three little totos each carrying one bottle on his
                          shaven head. Did I tell you that the local Wasafwa file their teeth to points. These kids
                          grin at one with their little sharks teeth – quite an “all-ready-to-eat-you-with-my-dear” look.
                          A few nights ago a message arrived from Kath Wood to say that Queenie
                          Stewart was very ill and would George drive her across to the Doctor at Tukuyu. I
                          wanted George to wait until morning because it was pouring with rain, and the mountain
                          road to Tukuyu is tricky even in dry weather, but he said it is dangerous to delay with any
                          kind of fever in Africa and he would have to start at once. So off he drove in the rain and I
                          did not see him again until the following night.

                          George said that it had been a nightmare trip. Queenie had a high temperature
                          and it was lucky that Kath was able to go to attend to her. George needed all his
                          attention on the road which was officially closed to traffic, and very slippery, and in some
                          places badly eroded. In some places the decking of bridges had been removed and
                          George had to get out in the rain and replace it. As he had nothing with which to fasten
                          the decking to the runners it was a dangerous undertaking to cross the bridges especially
                          as the rivers are now in flood and flowing strongly. However they reached Tukuyu safely
                          and it was just as well they went because the Doctor diagnosed Queenies illness as
                          Spirillium Tick Fever which is a very nasty illness indeed.

                          Eleanor.

                          Mchewe Estate. 20th May 1931

                          Dear Family,

                          I’m feeling fit and very happy though a bit lonely sometimes because George
                          spends much of his time away in the hills cutting a furrow miles long to bring water to the
                          house and to the upper part of the shamba so that he will be able to irrigate the coffee
                          during the dry season.

                          It will be quite an engineering feat when it is done as George only has makeshift
                          surveying instruments. He has mounted an ordinary cheap spirit level on an old camera
                          tripod and has tacked two gramophone needles into the spirit level to give him a line.
                          The other day part of a bank gave way and practically buried two of George’s labourers
                          but they were quickly rescued and no harm was done. However he will not let them
                          work unless he is there to supervise.

                          I keep busy so that the days pass quickly enough. I am delighted with the
                          material you sent me for curtains and loose covers and have hired a hand sewing
                          machine from Pedro-of-the-overcoat and am rattling away all day. The machine is an
                          ancient German one and when I say rattle, I mean rattle. It is a most cumbersome, heavy
                          affair of I should say, the same vintage as George Stevenson’s Rocket locomotive.
                          Anyway it sews and I am pleased with my efforts. We made a couch ourselves out of a
                          native bed, a mattress and some planks but all this is hidden under the chintz cover and
                          it looks quite the genuine bought article. I have some diversions too. Small black faced
                          monkeys sit in the trees outside our bedroom window and they are most entertaining to
                          watch. They are very mischievous though. When I went out into the garden this morning
                          before breakfast I found that the monkeys had pulled up all my carnations. There they
                          lay, roots in the air and whether they will take again I don’t know.

                          I like the monkeys but hate the big mountain baboons that come and hang
                          around our chicken house. I am terrified that they will tear our pup into bits because he is
                          a plucky young thing and will rush out to bark at the baboons.

                          George usually returns for the weekends but last time he did not because he had
                          a touch of malaria. He sent a boy down for the mail and some fresh bread. Old Lucas
                          arrived with chickens just as the messenger was setting off with mail and bread in a
                          haversack on his back. I thought it might be a good idea to send a chicken to George so
                          I selected a spry young rooster which I handed to the messenger. He, however,
                          complained that he needed both hands for climbing. I then had one of my bright ideas
                          and, putting a layer of newspaper over the bread, I tucked the rooster into the haversack
                          and buckled down the flap so only his head protruded.

                          I thought no more about it until two days later when the messenger again
                          appeared for fresh bread. He brought a rather terse note from George saying that the
                          previous bread was uneatable as the rooster had eaten some of it and messed on the
                          rest. Ah me!

                          The previous weekend the Hickson-Woods, Stewarts and ourselves, went
                          across to Tukuyu to attend a dance at the club there. the dance was very pleasant. All
                          the men wore dinner jackets and the ladies wore long frocks. As there were about
                          twenty men and only seven ladies we women danced every dance whilst the surplus
                          men got into a huddle around the bar. George and I spent the night with the Agricultural
                          Officer, Mr Eustace, and I met his fiancee, Lillian Austin from South Africa, to whom I took
                          a great liking. She is Governess to the children of Major Masters who has a farm in the
                          Tukuyu district.

                          On the Sunday morning we had a look at the township. The Boma was an old German one and was once fortified as the Africans in this district are a very warlike tribe.
                          They are fine looking people. The men wear sort of togas and bands of cloth around
                          their heads and look like Roman Senators, but the women go naked except for a belt
                          from which two broad straps hang down, one in front and another behind. Not a graceful
                          garb I assure you.

                          We also spent a pleasant hour in the Botanical Gardens, laid out during the last
                          war by the District Commissioner, Major Wells, with German prisoner of war labour.
                          There are beautiful lawns and beds of roses and other flowers and shady palm lined
                          walks and banana groves. The gardens are terraced with flights of brick steps connecting
                          the different levels and there is a large artificial pond with little islands in it. I believe Major
                          Wells designed the lake to resemble in miniature, the Lakes of Killarney.
                          I enjoyed the trip very much. We got home at 8 pm to find the front door locked
                          and the kitchen boy fast asleep on my newly covered couch! I hastily retreated to the
                          bedroom whilst George handled the situation.

                          Eleanor.

                          #6255
                          TracyTracy
                          Participant

                            My Grandparents

                            George Samuel Marshall 1903-1995

                            Florence Noreen Warren (Nora) 1906-1988

                            I always called my grandfather Mop, apparently because I couldn’t say the name Grandpa, but whatever the reason, the name stuck. My younger brother also called him Mop, but our two cousins did not.

                            My earliest memories of my grandparents are the picnics.  Grandma and Mop loved going out in the car for a picnic. Favourite spots were the Clee Hills in Shropshire, North Wales, especially Llanbedr, Malvern, and Derbyshire, and closer to home, the caves and silver birch woods at Kinver Edge, Arley by the river Severn, or Bridgnorth, where Grandma’s sister Hildreds family lived.  Stourbridge was on the western edge of the Black Country in the Midlands, so one was quickly in the countryside heading west.  They went north to Derbyshire less, simply because the first part of the trip entailed driving through Wolverhampton and other built up and not particularly pleasant urban areas.  I’m sure they’d have gone there more often, as they were both born in Derbyshire, if not for that initial stage of the journey.

                            There was predominantly grey tartan car rug in the car for picnics, and a couple of folding chairs.  There were always a couple of cushions on the back seat, and I fell asleep in the back more times than I can remember, despite intending to look at the scenery.  On the way home Grandma would always sing,  “Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I want to go to bed, I had a little drink about an hour ago, And it’s gone right to my head.”  I’ve looked online for that song, and have not found it anywhere!

                            Grandma didn’t just make sandwiches for picnics, there were extra containers of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and so on.  I used to love to wash up the picnic plates in the little brook on the Clee Hills, near Cleeton St Mary.  The close cropped grass was ideal for picnics, and Mop and the sheep would Baaa at each other.

                            Mop would base the days outting on the weather forcast, but Grandma often used to say he always chose the opposite of what was suggested. She said if you want to go to Derbyshire, tell him you want to go to Wales.  I recall him often saying, on a gloomy day, Look, there’s a bit of clear sky over there.  Mop always did the driving as Grandma never learned to drive. Often she’d dust the dashboard with a tissue as we drove along.

                            My brother and I often spent the weekend at our grandparents house, so that our parents could go out on a Saturday night.  They gave us 5 shillings pocket money, which I used to spend on two Ladybird books at 2 shillings and sixpence each.  We had far too many sweets while watching telly in the evening ~ in the dark, as they always turned the lights off to watch television.  The lemonade and pop was Corona, and came in returnable glass bottles.  We had Woodpecker cider too, even though it had a bit of an alcohol content.

                            Mop smoked Kensitas and Grandma smoked Sovereign cigarettes, or No6, and the packets came with coupons.  They often let me choose something for myself out of the catalogue when there were enough coupons saved up.

                            When I had my first garden, in a rented house a short walk from theirs, they took me to garden nurseries and taught me all about gardening.  In their garden they had berberis across the front of the house under the window, and cotoneaster all along the side of the garage wall. The silver birth tree on the lawn had been purloined as a sapling from Kinver edge, when they first moved into the house.  (they lived in that house on Park Road for more than 60 years).  There were perennials and flowering shrubs along the sides of the back garden, and behind the silver birch, and behind that was the vegeatable garden.  Right at the back was an Anderson shelter turned into a shed, the rhubarb, and the washing line, and the canes for the runner beans in front of those.  There was a little rose covered arch on the path on the left, and privet hedges all around the perimeter.

                            My grandfather was a dental technician. He worked for various dentists on their premises over the years, but he always had a little workshop of his own at the back of his garage. His garage was full to the brim of anything that might potentially useful, but it was not chaotic. He knew exactly where to find anything, from the tiniest screw for spectacles to a useful bit of wire. He was “mechanicaly minded” and could always fix things like sewing machines and cars and so on.

                            Mop used to let me sit with him in his workshop, and make things out of the pink wax he used for gums to embed the false teeth into prior to making the plaster casts. The porcelain teeth came on cards, and were strung in place by means of little holes on the back end of the teeth. I still have a necklace I made by threading teeth onto a string. There was a foot pedal operated drill in there as well, possibly it was a dentists drill previously, that he used with miniature grinding or polishing attachments. Sometimes I made things out of the pink acrylic used for the final denture, which had a strong smell and used to harden quickly, so you had to work fast. Initially, the workshop was to do the work for Uncle Ralph, Grandmas’s sisters husband, who was a dentist. In later years after Ralph retired, I recall a nice man called Claude used to come in the evening to collect the dentures for another dental laboratory. Mop always called his place of work the laboratory.

                            Grandma loved books and was always reading, in her armchair next to the gas fire. I don’t recall seeing Mop reading a book, but he was amazingly well informed about countless topics.
                            At family gatherings, Mops favourite topic of conversation after dinner was the atrocities committed over the centuries by organized religion.

                            My grandfather played snooker in his younger years at the Conservative club. I recall my father assuming he voted Conservative, and Mop told him in no uncertain terms that he’s always voted Labour. When asked why he played snooker at the Conservative club and not the Labour club, he said with a grin that “it was a better class of people”, but that he’d never vote Conservative because it was of no benefit to the likes of us working people.

                            Grandma and her sister in law Marie had a little grocers shop on Brettel Lane in Amblecote for a few years but I have no personal recollection of that as it was during the years we lived in USA. I don’t recall her working other than that. She had a pastry making day once a week, and made Bakewell tart, apple pie, a meat pie, and her own style of pizza. She had an old black hand operated sewing machine, and made curtains and loose covers for the chairs and sofa, but I don’t think she made her own clothes, at least not in later years. I have her sewing machine here in Spain.
                            At regular intervals she’d move all the furniture around and change the front room into the living room and the back into the dining room and vice versa. In later years Mop always had the back bedroom (although when I lived with them aged 14, I had the back bedroom, and painted the entire room including the ceiling purple). He had a very lumpy mattress but he said it fit his bad hip perfectly.

                            Grandma used to alternate between the tiny bedroom and the big bedroom at the front. (this is in later years, obviously) The wardrobes and chests of drawers never changed, they were oak and substantial, but rather dated in appearance. They had a grandfather clock with a brass face and a grandmother clock. Over the fireplace in the living room was a Utrillo print. The bathroom and lavatory were separate rooms, and the old claw foot bath had wood panels around it to make it look more modern. There was a big hot water geyser above it. Grandma was fond of using stick on Fablon tile effects to try to improve and update the appearance of the bathroom and kitchen. Mop was a generous man, but would not replace household items that continued to function perfectly well. There were electric heaters in all the rooms, of varying designs, and gas fires in living room and dining room. The coal house on the outside wall was later turned into a downstairs shower room, when Mop moved his bedroom downstairs into the front dining room, after Grandma had died and he was getting on.

                            Utrillo

                            Mop was 91 when he told me he wouldn’t be growing any vegetables that year. He said the sad thing was that he knew he’d never grow vegetables again. He worked part time until he was in his early 80s.

                            #6253
                            TracyTracy
                            Participant

                              My Grandparents Kitchen

                              My grandmother used to have golden syrup in her larder, hanging on the white plastic coated storage rack that was screwed to the inside of the larder door. Mostly the larder door was left propped open with an old flat iron, so you could see the Heinz ketchup and home made picallilli (she made a particularly good picallili), the Worcester sauce and the jar of pickled onions, as you sat at the kitchen table.

                              If you were sitting to the right of the kitchen table you could see an assortment of mismatched crockery, cups and bowls, shoe cleaning brushes, and at the back, tiny tins of baked beans and big ones of plum tomatoes,  and normal sized tins of vegetable and mushroom soup.  Underneath the little shelves that housed the tins was a blue plastic washing up bowl with a few onions, some in, some out of the yellow string bag they came home from the expensive little village supermarket in.

                              There was much more to the left in the awkward triangular shape under the stairs, but you couldn’t see under there from your seat at the kitchen table.  You could see the shelf above the larder door which held an ugly china teapot of graceless modern lines, gazed with metallic silver which was wearing off in places. Beside the teapot sat a serving bowl, squat and shapely with little handles, like a flattened Greek urn, in white and reddish brown with flecks of faded gilt. A plain white teapot completed the trio, a large cylindrical one with neat vertical ridges and grooves.

                              There were two fridges under the high shallow wooden wall cupboard.  A waist high bulbous old green one with a big handle that pulled out with a clunk, and a chest high sleek white one with a small freezer at the top with a door of its own.  On the top of the fridges were biscuit and cracker tins, big black keys, pencils and brittle yellow notepads, rubber bands and aspirin value packs and a bottle of Brufen.  There was a battered old maroon spectacle case and a whicker letter rack, letters crammed in and fanning over the top.  There was always a pile of glossy advertising pamphlets and flyers on top of the fridges, of the sort that were best put straight into the tiny pedal bin.

                              My grandmother never lined the pedal bin with a used plastic bag, nor with a specially designed plastic bin liner. The bin was so small that the flip top lid was often gaping, resting on a mound of cauliflower greens and soup tins.  Behind the pedal bin, but on the outer aspect of the kitchen wall, was the big black dustbin with the rubbery lid. More often than not, the lid was thrust upwards. If Thursday when the dustbin men came was several days away, you’d wish you hadn’t put those newspapers in, or those old shoes!  You stood in the softly drizzling rain in your slippers, the rubbery sheild of a lid in your left hand and the overflowing pedal bin in the other.  The contents of the pedal bin are not going to fit into the dustbin.  You sigh, put the pedal bin and the dustbin lid down, and roll up your sleeves ~ carefully, because you’ve poked your fingers into a porridge covered teabag.  You grab the sides of the protruding black sack and heave. All being well,  the contents should settle and you should have several inches more of plastic bag above the rim of the dustbin.  Unless of course it’s a poor quality plastic bag in which case your fingernail will go through and a horizontal slash will appear just below rubbish level.  Eventually you upend the pedal bin and scrape the cigarette ash covered potato peelings into the dustbin with your fingers. By now the fibres of your Shetland wool jumper are heavy with damp, just like the fuzzy split ends that curl round your pale frowning brow.  You may push back your hair with your forearm causing the moisture to bead and trickle down your face, as you turn the brass doorknob with your palm and wrist, tea leaves and cigarette ash clinging unpleasantly to your fingers.

                              The pedal bin needs rinsing in the kitchen sink, but the sink is full of mismatched saucepans, some new in shades of harvest gold, some battered and mishapen in stainless steel and aluminium, bits of mashed potato stuck to them like concrete pebbledash. There is a pale pink octagonally ovoid shallow serving dish and a little grey soup bowl with a handle like a miniature pottery saucepan decorated with kitcheny motifs.

                              The water for the coffee bubbles in a suacepan on the cream enamelled gas cooker. My grandmother never used a kettle, although I do remember a heavy flame orange one. The little pan for boiling water had a lip for easy pouring and a black plastic handle.

                              The steam has caused the condensation on the window over the sink to race in rivulets down to the fablon coated windowsill.  The yellow gingham curtains hang limply, the left one tucked behind the back of the cooker.

                              You put the pedal bin back it it’s place below the tea towel holder, and rinse your mucky fingers under the tap. The gas water heater on the wall above you roars into life just as you turn the tap off, and disappointed, subsides.

                              As you lean over to turn the cooker knob, the heat from the oven warms your arm. The gas oven was almost always on, the oven door open with clean tea towels and sometimes large white pants folded over it to air.

                              The oven wasn’t the only heat in my grandparents kitchen. There was an electric bar fire near the red formica table which used to burn your legs. The kitchen table was extended by means of a flap at each side. When I was small I wasn’t allowed to snap the hinge underneath shut as my grandmother had pinched the skin of her palm once.

                              The electric fire was plugged into the same socket as the radio. The radio took a minute or two to warm up when you switched it on, a bulky thing with sharp seventies edges and a reddish wood effect veneer and big knobs.  The light for my grandfathers workshop behind the garage (where he made dentures) was plugged into the same socket, which had a big heavy white three way adaptor in. The plug for the washing machine was hooked by means of a bit of string onto a nail or hook so that it didn’t fall down behing the washing machine when it wasn’t plugged in. Everything was unplugged when it wasn’t in use.  Sometimes there was a shrivelled Christmas cactus on top of the radio, but it couldn’t hide the adaptor and all those plugs.

                              Above the washing machine was a rhomboid wooden wall cupboard with sliding frsoted glass doors.  It was painted creamy gold, the colour of a nicotine stained pub ceiling, and held packets of Paxo stuffing and little jars of Bovril and Marmite, packets of Bisto and a jar of improbably red Maraschino cherries.

                              The nicotine coloured cupboard on the opposite wall had half a dozen large hooks screwed under the bottom shelf. A variety of mugs and cups hung there when they weren’t in the bowl waiting to be washed up. Those cupboard doors seemed flimsy for their size, and the thin beading on the edge of one door had come unstuck at the bottom and snapped back if you caught it with your sleeve.  The doors fastened with a little click in the centre, and the bottom of the door reverberated slightly as you yanked it open. There were always crumbs in the cupboard from the numerous packets of bisucits and crackers and there was always an Allbran packet with the top folded over to squeeze it onto the shelf. The sugar bowl was in there, sticky grains like sandpaper among the biscuit crumbs.

                              Half of one of the shelves was devoted to medicines: grave looking bottles of codeine linctus with no nonsense labels,  brown glass bottles with pills for rheumatism and angina.  Often you would find a large bottle, nearly full, of Brewers yeast or vitamin supplements with a dollar price tag, souvenirs of the familys last visit.  Above the medicines you’d find a faded packet of Napolitana pasta bows or a dusty packet of muesli. My grandparents never used them but she left them in the cupboard. Perhaps the dollar price tags and foreign foods reminded her of her children.

                              If there had been a recent visit you would see monstrous jars of Sanka and Maxwell House coffee in there too, but they always used the coffee.  They liked evaporated milk in their coffee, and used tins and tins of “evap” as they called it. They would pour it over tinned fruit, or rhubard crumble or stewed apples.

                              When there was just the two of them, or when I was there as well, they’d eat at the kitchen table. The table would be covered in a white embroidered cloth and the food served in mismatched serving dishes. The cutlery was large and bent, the knife handles in varying shades of bone. My grandfathers favourite fork had the tip of each prong bent in a different direction. He reckoned it was more efficient that way to spear his meat.  He often used to chew his meat and then spit it out onto the side of his plate. Not in company, of course.  I can understand why he did that, not having eaten meat myself for so long. You could chew a piece of meat for several hours and still have a stringy lump between your cheek and your teeth.

                              My grandfather would always have a bowl of Allbran with some Froment wheat germ for his breakfast, while reading the Daily Mail at the kitchen table.  He never worse slippers, always shoes indoors,  and always wore a tie.  He had lots of ties but always wore a plain maroon one.  His shirts were always cream and buttoned at throat and cuff, and eventually started wearing shirts without detachable collars. He wore greeny grey trousers and a cardigan of the same shade most of the time, the same colour as a damp English garden.

                              The same colour as the slimy green wooden clothes pegs that I threw away and replaced with mauve and fuschia pink plastic ones.  “They’re a bit bright for up the garden, aren’t they,” he said.  He was right. I should have ignored the green peg stains on the laundry.  An English garden should be shades of moss and grassy green, rich umber soil and brick red walls weighed down with an atmosphere of dense and heavy greyish white.

                              After Grandma died and Mop had retired (I always called him Mop, nobody knows why) at 10:00am precisely Mop would  have a cup of instant coffee with evap. At lunch, a bowl of tinned vegetable soup in his special soup bowl, and a couple of Krackawheat crackers and a lump of mature Cheddar. It was a job these days to find a tasty cheddar, he’d say.

                              When he was working, and he worked until well into his seventies, he took sandwiches. Every day he had the same sandwich filling: a combination of cheese, peanut butter and marmite.  It was an unusal choice for an otherwise conventional man.  He loved my grandmothers cooking, which wasn’t brilliant but was never awful. She was always generous with the cheese in cheese sauces and the meat in meat pies. She overcooked the cauliflower, but everyone did then. She made her gravy in the roasting pan, and made onion sauce, bread sauce, parsley sauce and chestnut stuffing.  She had her own version of cosmopolitan favourites, and called her quiche a quiche when everyone was still calling it egg and bacon pie. She used to like Auntie Daphne’s ratatouille, rather exotic back then, and pronounced it Ratta Twa.  She made pizza unlike any other, with shortcrust pastry smeared with tomato puree from a tube, sprinkled with oregano and great slabs of cheddar.

                              The roast was always overdone. “We like our meat well done” she’d say. She’d walk up the garden to get fresh mint for the mint sauce and would announce with pride “these runner beans are out of the garding”. They always grew vegetables at the top of the garden, behind the lawn and the silver birch tree.  There was always a pudding: a slice of almond tart (always with home made pastry), a crumble or stewed fruit. Topped with evap, of course.

                              #6231
                              TracyTracy
                              Participant

                                Gladstone Road

                                My mother remembers her grandfather Samuel Warren’s house at 3 Gladstone Road, Stourbridge. She was born in 1933, so this would be late 1930s early 1940s.

                                “Opening a big wooden gate in a high brick wall off the sidewalk I went down a passage with a very high hedge to the main house which was entered on this side through a sort of glassed-in lean-to then into the dark and damp scullery and then into a large room with a fireplace which was dining room and living room for most of the time. The house was Georgian and had wooden interior shutters at the windows. My Grandad sat by the fire probably most of the day. The fireplace may have had an oven built over or to the side of the fire which was common in those days and was used for cooking.
                                That room led into a hall going three ways and the main front door was here. One hall went to the pantry which had stone slabs for keeping food cool, such a long way from the kitchen! Opposite the pantry was the door to the cellar. One hall led to two large rooms with big windows overlooking the garden. There was also a door at the end of this hallway which opened into the garden. The stairs went up opposite the front door with a box room at the top then along a landing to another hall going right and left with two bedrooms down each hall.
                                The toilet got to from the scullery and lean-to was outside down another passage all overgrown near the pigsty. No outside lights!
                                On Christmas day the families would all have the day here. I think the menfolk went over to the pub {Gate Hangs Well?} for a drink while the women cooked dinner. Chris would take all the children down the dark, damp cellar steps and tell us ghost stories scaring us all. A fire would be lit in one of the big main rooms {probably only used once a year} and we’d sit in there and dinner was served in the other big main room. When the house was originally built the servants would have used the other room and scullery.
                                I have a recollection of going upstairs and into a bedroom off the right hand hall and someone was in bed, I thought an old lady but I was uncomfortable in there and never went in again. Seemed that person was there a long time. I did go upstairs with Betty to her room which was the opposite way down the hall and loved it. She was dating lots of soldiers during the war years. One in particular I remember was an American Army Officer that she was fond of but he was killed when he left England to fight in Germany.
                                I wonder if the person in bed that nobody spoke about was an old housekeeper?
                                My mother used to say there was a white lady who floated around in the garden. I think Kay died at Gladstone Road!”

                                Samuel Warren, born in 1874 in Newhall, Derbyshire, was my grandmothers father.  This is the only photograph we’ve seen of him (seated on right with cap).  Kay, who died of TB in 1938, is holding the teddy bear. Samuel died in 1950, in Stourbridge, at the age of 76.

                                Samuel Warren Kay Warren

                                Left to right: back row: Leslie Warren. Hildred Williams / Griffiths (Nee Warren). Billy Warren. 2nd row: Gladys (Gary) Warren. Kay Warren (holding teddy bear). Samuel Warren (father). Hildred’s son Chris Williams (on knee). Lorna Warren. Joan Williams. Peggy Williams (Hildreds daughters). Jack Warren. Betty Warren.

                                #5808

                                Truth be told, April was missing the US. She missed all their little coterie of maids living in the shadows of the powerful. Missed the drama most of all.

                                She’d been secretly texting Norma and May, while June was lazily sipping mojitos with Jacqui.
                                Norma was fine, but May and the other alien staff had suddenly disappeared when the Secret Services had started to investigate more deeply into the staff’s backgrounds after all the kidnapping fiasco. At least, August had been covering for Norma, such kind soul he was. Besides, the President’s wife could no longer live without her butter chicken. But May and the others couldn’t face the music apparently. Funnily, they couldn’t find “real” American maids nowadays suited to replace them. Good luck with that!

                                April couldn’t tell June, obviously, since her friend harboured such hatred for the system that had them put in jail. As for herself, she couldn’t argue with the fact they’d deserved it. Nothing a good lawyer couldn’t fix though. That’s why she loved the idea of America. Guilty as charged, indeed. Those charges now vanished.

                                She’d thought first that it would fuel her inspiration nicely, but it was the opposite. The sudden extra time had distracted her entirely, and her inspiration seemed inaccessible.

                                She was starting to make up her mind. She would go back, to her family in Arkansas. That could only be temporary of course, as her mother, bless her soul, would start to have her meet all the gents in the neighbourhood in the hopes to finally get her only daughter married. Talk about drama. If that doesn’t kick-start her inspiration engine, nothing would.

                                Problem was, with the virus around spreading mass panic, there seemed to be no sure way to fly back. She would have to devise some circuitous plan.

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