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Letters from Early New Zealand

Lyttelton. December 29th, 1851

page 268
Lyttelton. December 29th, 1851.

My Dear Mother.

I believe I shall soon have an opportunity of sending this, so I dare say it will be only a short letter, for me. The first thing is that I must thank you all for your Fatima letters, which though they make me sad in some ways, I am still very thankful to get. The news about John is what I have fully expected but dreaded to hear in every letter, for a year now, and more.*

It is of no use thinking how much I dread the voyage, for I should dread a good deal more having to do without it, but it is time enough to think about that. This morning, after breakfast, Captain Parsons arrived, fully reinstated in his appointment here by Sir George Grey at Wellington; which is very pleasant, as far as we are concerned, but very unfair upon the man here, a Captain Greaves, who had been half promised it in" the rooms" in London, and had been fully appointed here, as soon as Captain Parsons resigned, a month ago!! I am afraid he and his wife will be very angry, and not without cause. I have not yet told you that the Fatima arrived on Saturday morning, the 27th, and while my husband was away at Christchurch, which he always is on Saturday, I had some visitors from the new ship, and in the afternoon your friends, Mr. Perceval, and Mr. Ross, who seems gentlemanlike and sensible, and very quiet. They came to tea in the evening, and dined with us yesterday. Mr. Perceval is not very taking, as a stranger; he is very ugly, shy, and stammers very much when he tries to talk, but I dare say he is very good; though young, he looks much steadier than his worthy brother, who got into very bad ways, as I told you, drinking, and living at the public houses, and finally came to my husband to borrow money. page 269This was firmly, but respectfully, declined, but he came up to dine with us. I asked him for something to say, why he was going off in such a hurry to New Plymouth, so he said, "To get a wife". It appears it is a Miss Gates, who came out in the same ship with him, much older than himself, and Mr. Wortley told me he had heard, quite as dirty. He landed at New Plymouth, intending to be married forthwith, but somehow it was put off; I think Mr. Tancred rather persuaded him to come away, and make a fair start, as he happened to be there at the time. The last we heard of him was from Nelson, where he was stopped for want of funds to pay his passage on. Mr. Wortley, I think I told you about, but as you ask after him, in case I did not, he is gone up to a station outside our Canterbury block, to the North, which he and Mr. Hanmer (who chose it) are to have and keep together, and we have heard from him there safely arrived, and setting up house, and so on. He went up in a boat with the man and his wife who are to be his servants, and was two days (two nights) on the road. To go by land takes much longer, I don't know how many days, for the road is bad, beyond the hills that bound our plain, and there is a bad river to cross. They will have, indeed, to make out something of a track, for as yet there is none. They are to keep sheep, etc., for some other people, taking them on thirds, as it is called here, besides what stock they can afford for themselves. They will not at all listen to our insinuations that they are going too far off, and will become semi-barbarous; and assure us that they will come down smarter than they ever appeared before, when they come down, once in a month or two, to get letters, or to bring in stock. I have begged them to have a lay figure of a lady, carefully draped, set up in their usual sitting-room and always to behave before it as if it were their mother, or some other dignified lady. They did not quite promise this, but they seem quite duly impressed with the necessities of attending somewhat to those little trifles which are very often altogether neglected by young gentlemen at stations; which neglect, by degrees tells upon their general habits, and even character, in a much stronger way than you might suppose. Mr. Hanmer is, I think, a very good companion for Mr. page 270Wortley; he is so gentlemanlike, and as little likely to fall into such bad ways as anyone I know; and besides will not, I should guess, let Mr. Wortley have too entirely his own way, which many easy-going people might do, for he is very sharp, and I think as likely to "get on well", as the saying goes, as anyone in the Colony, as far as one can prejudge such a matter. His time in the Office has been very well spent, in giving him time to look round and get experience, and a great knowledge of all local affairs, which cannot be bought for money, and also business habits; all of which will, in all probability, be of great use to him now. Mr. Hanmer is gone to Sydney to buy some stock. The Canterbury, which left this place nearly a month ago with a good many letters on board, but I am happy to say none of mine, for I thought it a bad opportunity, came back (!) last Friday, after having encountered three weeks of the most desperate weather, the Captain says, he ever saw. They were going along in a light breeze, with every sail set, when the wind suddenly, in an instant, went round to the opposite quarter and blew a tremendous squall, taking the ship aback, etc. The Captain told me he sent the first mate down, while they took in sail in all haste, to desire that the ports should be shut, dead lights put in, etc.; but they were not quick, and meantime a sea struck the ship, which was going backwards instead of forwards, and smashed in the stern windows, so violently that a lady who was in a stern cabin, nursing a baby of a few weeks old, had her face cut all to pieces. Two cabins were washed into one, and the whole ship deluged. They had not dry clothes to put on for many days, the storms which came on lasted for fourteen days without getting at all better, and at last, as they were still very near here, they came back for more water and provisions. They were going round the south cape of the island, but are now to try the other passage, through Cook's Straits. I imagine that there ought to be a parcel for me on board the Fatima, Killegar shawls, but nothing has yet appeared; however, no one says positively that the parcel was sent, only put up, I know it was. (The shawls and mittens did appear after a very long delay.) Besides, I must not be uneasy if nothing appears, as I hear a schooner is to be sent out soon, carrying page 271nothing but the arrears of luggage from the last two or three ships.

January Ist. I must write down a happy New Year to all, and many of them…. We have a very hot sun, with such a strong blow that no vessel can sail, the Cornwall is waiting to go with Mr. John Deans on board. He goes to Wellington by her, and will then join the Midlothian, in which the Roses came out, which is now fast loading with wool, chiefly from Nelson, and is expected to sail home direct at the end of this month. He will be very much missed here, but goes home for a wife! and expecting to be back here in a year, or very little more, which I hope may come to pass; he is a very nice person, so very straightforward and honest, and so free from anything of a "colonial spirit" in his dealings with everyone. Perhaps you may see him, by some chance, but we did not ask him to call upon you, for that is so completely out of his line. I am very sorry to hear from Mrs. Simeon that when Mr. John Simeon wrote, his youngest little girl was lying so ill from scarlet fever as to be given over. He is sure to feel such a loss more than most people, and I am afraid there was no hope, by what she says. We shall have, I suppose, a long wait for our next news, which is sad for them.

Mrs. Simeon's baby was christened yesterday (January 4th) at the afternoon service. She herself, and her husband, and the governess, standing sponsors, for the real ones in England, I believe; the child is not pretty, but it wore a very fine bib of old lace, in which Mrs. Simeon told me sixty-four children of her family had already been christened. The child was called "Jane Elisabeth", after poor Mrs. Simeon, who died just as they were leaving England. On Saturday, the 3rd, when my husband came in from Christchurch he brought with him, as I thought, some stranger, and I was just wondering who it was who seemed so like the Mr. Lee who came out with us in Lady Nugent, when he called out, "Pray do know me, Mrs. Godley?"—and lo! it was his very self come overland from Nelson in twelve days. This is a great feat, for he came all alone, leading a horse who carried a little flour and meat, as provisions, and his saddle-bags. Captain Mitchell, with several people and horses in com-page 272pany, was very proud of having accomplished this, last year, in six weeks; and then was obliged to report the road almost impassable with stock, but he thought there must be a better route to be found, and so it appears, for Mr. Lee has got upon it, and come through most successfully. It was really a most courageous thing to do, for, for nine days of the time, he came near no human creature; only on two deserted Maori huts, as the nearest approach to humanity; and was travelling through perfectly unknown country, where, if anything had gone wrong with him, he had, humanly speaking, no chance of assistance of any kind. It is of practical use, too, having discovered this good route; because now, we can drive stock from one place to another by land, instead of the great risk and expense of sending them by sea. Mr. Lee now hopes to return here in about two months, bringing down sheep from Nelson, and to establish a station in our part of the world; he was very much delighted with Christchurch, and much surprised to see the change in its appearance since he saw it from the top of the hills, when we called here in April, 1850, in Lady Nugent. Having seen four other settlements, and this country as it originally was, he can admire much more than our new arrivals from England. He only stayed with us till Tuesday (January 6th -12th, night), when he went off to Wellington to try to catch Mr. Felix Wakefield, who is there, en route for England! He is a most unsatisfactory man. I believe his eight or nine children are to be left out in New Zealand.

January 14th, at Ricarton. At last, here we are, fairly settled in country quarters, picnic fashion, and as rustic as anything you can imagine. We had several delays in leaving Lyttelton, and then slept two nights on the road, which is about twelve miles in all! Mrs. Puckle has long been very pressing for me to pay her a visit, and so at last we agreed to stop there on our way; as with everything, beds, cups and saucers, etc., to pack up, they were very glad to get rid of us at home for a night. Some of our heaviest stores, flour, camp oven, a tub, chairs, etc., had to go round by a boat some days before us, to allow for accidents; and the day we were putting these up, William sent me word it was page 273of no use attempting to go with us, as he was not fit to undertake the journey, or such work as catching the horses and so on, here. So we were very much thrown out at first, but we have got a man temporarily, who has been a college servant at Oxford, and, having just landed from the Fatima is very glad of a job; and William is left to keep house with Charity, and look after the chickens and rabbits, and Captain Parsons, who still occupies his room in the house. I am afraid William is quite in a bad way; the doctor says "he is used up". He cannot give up his old practices, and the knowledge of the cause takes away a great deal of the sympathy I should otherwise feel for him; though I am still very sorry when I see him going about, looking so feeble. He has been constantly a little ill, with now and then a fit of sharp illness, that requires immediate help from the doctor, and a day or two in bed, whenever circumstances have induced him to indulge a little more than usual. At Akaroa, I suspect this was the case; he has never been well since, or tolerably equal to his work; which has been principally done for him, excepting in the stable, thereby creating some discontent in the house. I think I must have told you that, after one of these fits, my husband told him he should pay him no more money, either of his wages (£35 a year), or of his 3s. a week for beer; and only pay for him what he might owe for clothes and so on. But my husband was ashamed to insist on seeing every bill, and so he easily eluded this, by asking for a little more than was requisite each time, and then, when his money is gone, he has friends who give it him, I suppose, knowing what "his expectations" are. I suppose he cannot help it. Otherwise he behaves very well, and is so quiet and civil. But I am myself afraid that the end will be that he will not live very long; Powles thinks, not many weeks. At last we made our start, to Arthur's great satisfaction, for he has been as he said, so "anxious to go ever since he heard of it". He was in tremendous spirits as we came over the hill, riding, as usual, on Lady Nugent before me. We walked down, and took the steep short cut something like the side of an ill-built Wall; our descent, too, having to be executed on slippery grass, and at a rapid pace which, my husband page 274assured us, was the best way, in spite of my complaints and repeated slides. At last, Arthur, who was coming down between us, talking as fast and as absurdly as possible, thought I was being too hardly used, and he stopped some wonderful narrative, and wheeled himself across the path, calling out: "Now Father, Father, do have mercy upon your poor wife"; to Mr. Tancred's great amusement, for he happened to be coming over with us.

Mrs. Puckle's house is very small, but it is pretty, and very comfortable; full of little pictures, and good old furniture which she has brought out with her, very un-Colonial looking indeed. She is in very good humour with us now, and was as civil as possible, and only displeased that we did not stay and "dwell" with her. Oh! how much amused you would be with her, and with two or three more here, whom I have come to think quite natural. Mrs. Puckle's (no one ever says "Mr. Puckle's") little parsonage is in quite a nice little valley, just at the foot of the hill, where the bridle path becomes a good road, and a number of people have taken land there, near together or joining. There is Mr. Cookson, fifty acres; Captain Morgan of the Bangalore (and a very nice little man), fifty acres; Mr. Lee (brother to our friend, and, I hear, a very nice person, but still detained in England by a sick wife), fifty acres; the Revd. M. Paul, one of our intended canons, and a great addition to the settlement, though we did not think much of him at first, and he has, I forget how much, but more than fifty; Mrs. Puckle, and the Townsends, who are bounded by the river (Heathcote), over which there is, just below them, a ferry, as it is too wide for a bridge, with our present funds. As they all have children, it makes a neighbourhood already, and quite above an average country one. If there were ready-made trees, it would be a beautiful valley, but for the present, there is that great want. Everyone must work at their gardens, and a little bit of green, to make a pretty foreground, would make the whole scene pretty at once. With moderate success, too; the things grow so fast under a fence, or any protection against the wind, that garden work is very satisfactory, unless you are hoping, as I am, to go away, and leave your work for others. page 275We stayed two nights at Mrs. Puckle's, for the next morning there was rain, so that Powles and the beds could not start; but the next day they came by in good time. Powles and Elisabeth had Lady Nugent, and three other horses brought our goods; beds needfuls, and luxuries, for the two months that we hope to remain here. The ferry is scarcely a mile from the parsonage, and is very easily crossed, as a horse or cart can be trotted on to the punt, and the ferryman hauls you over, by a rope stretched across, in a few minutes. With the assistance of Arthur, pulling very hard, we were soon across, and found Mrs. Russell's dogcart waiting for us, so that I had the great treat of going on wheels. We went along nearly five miles of excellent road into Christchurch, all new since I had been on the Plains, and, much as I had heard, I was very much surprised, and not a little delighted, to see how very much civilized the country had become. There are houses, gardens, and cultivation, in sight all the way along; the patches, in some places, quite touching each other, and though the houses are small, they are tidy and weather-tight looking places. All people, too, doing so well, and looking so contented, and then when we got to the town, the number of houses seemed quite incredible to me, and the whole place so cheerful and so busy, that it has quite lost the dreary look which I own to have thought it had last year. I paid a few visits, one to Mrs. Rose, or rather to her door, for I heard that her third little boy was born the morning before, and she doing as well as possible, hardly ill at all. I also went to see Mrs. Brittan, who is well now, and quite presentable (I told you of her illness), but subject to terrible fits of depression, when she will scarcely eat or speak. Her house is exactly like a small villa, just out of London. The furniture of the drawing-room is exactly that, just as they brought it out; small black marble chimney-piece, paper, carpet, and all, even to the few chairs set round the room in their own places. You sent me a letter from Mrs. Phillimore, I think, about Mr. Bowron (not Bowdery) of Oxford Street. One of his daughters is now governess to Mrs. Brittan's children, and another with Mrs. Bray, whose governess has been married; and he himself is just made a sort of clerk page 276at the Land Office, which is all a great help, and I should hope they will do very well.

Our present locality is quite two miles from Christchurch, though the road is dotted along with houses, and is really very pretty, in its way. We have a wooden house with two rooms; one about ten feet square, which is bedroom for Powles, Arthur, and Elizabeth, and the other is for us, bedroom, sitting-room, etc.; then we have a hired tent, which is servants' hall and kitchen, with a fire out of doors, and a single tent, lent by Mr. Russell, which is our storeroom and pantry, for we have to keep and bring everything we want, as we get nothing here but fresh meat, milk and butter. Even our vegetables we bring from our own garden, for there is no certain supply of them here, and the new potatoes are still 2d, a 1b. We have the beautiful river in front, down only a few feet of bank, as deep, clear and cold as ever; we are never tired of admiring, and "imbibing" it; and across the path, at the back of the house, comes the bush, full of such birds singing all day, tuis, and bellbirds, and N.Z. robins, which are little black and grey birds that light down close to you, like the tamest of English robins in cold weather—and such lovely little green parrots that look so foreign, far more so, to my mind, than anything else out here. Arthur and I counted a little flock of eighteen yesterday. This bush seems full of them, and of mosquitoes, I am sorry to say; however, they do not bite till the dusk, and then only if you sit still out of doors, or let your windows or doors be open too late; and then a few minutes will do all the mischief. Last night we forgot—having grown careless during two or three windy cold evenings when they do not appear—and left the door open for a few minutes, while we admired the stars; but scarcely was the candle out, when we found that our guests had arrived, and a part of the night was spent in personal combats with those that ventured the nearest to us. A few died under our rapid and well-directed blows, but we did not escape without injury. Truth compels me to own, nevertheless, that they are here by no means so terrible as I expected to find them. A little care, so far, prevents their being any real annoyance; but it is, in a great measure, owing to our having so good a house page break
The Encampment at RiccartonBy J.E. Fitzgerald

The Encampment at Riccarton
By J.E. Fitzgerald

page 277that we can shut them out. Sleeping out-of-doors, here, they are sometimes very bad, and the remedy is scarcely much better; the best being to smear yourself perpetually with turpentine and oil, mixed, which is a very dirtying process, even if you don't mind the smell. Our sitting room is really quite a pretty room, with a high wooden roof, and the rough woodwork of the sides, which are not lined with anything, and admit a little light here and there, is quite picturesque. Then we have two large windows looking, one to the water, the other to the bush, with muslin curtains. Our bed disappears, being rolled up under an oppossum-skin rug, and we have a shelf with books, a smart table and two chairs, lent by Mrs. Russell, besides three wooden ones of our own; and my little clock, on the chimney-piece, gives an air of grandeur to the whole. I ought not to forget to mention that the fire burns remarkably well, and never smokes, whereas in our V hut last year, all the smoke, and some of the fire, came straight into the room, in all the bad weather. The days are terribly short, we have not time to enjoy thoroughly all we have to do. We get up pretty early, and go to bed almost as soon as it gets dark; and there are loads of visitors; it is just a good walk from Christchurch and Ilam (Mrs. Russell) is just a mile from us, so that she and Mrs. Cookson, who is staying there for a forthnight, are hereabout every other day, sitting for hours. We are (D.V.) to go there to tea to-night at the primitive hour of six; Arthur to be of the party, to meet the two small Cooksons, so he is occupied in keeping himself cool and fresh in just one petticoat, with a body, but no sleeves; it is a real hot day, but we have not had many yet this summer. It has been generally cool, if not cold, and no one out here remembers anything like so much rain, quite constant showers. Now though this, with plenty of wind, makes some of the new-comers grumble and say they have been deceived in the weather, besides other things, it has really been the greatest boon to those who were here in time to get crops in. You can imagine the assistance that it is to them, with their roughly prepared ground, still sour, as they call it, from the fern. In a summer like the last, their produce must have been very small, and now it is really quite cheering to page 278see all the patches of cultivation looking so well and so green. We are promised potatoes quite cheap, and bread has fallen to famine prices at home, and it is supposed, will be lower very soon, and remain there; while labourers are hardly to be had. They get 4s., 6s., and 5s. a day, if they are tolerably good, and make much more at piecework; and as very few pay any rent, that makes them pretty easy. To give you some idea of their independence, there is only one man out here who works the Lithographic press, and he belongs to the Lyttelton Times staff, and can scarcely ever be spared; so that when they want to use it, they have to get his services as a very great favour, which is not often granted. There is only one other man who understands it, but he works by the day—I think it is—with a horse and cart, and says he prefers out-of-door work, and will not hear of following his old trade.

My husband is away a great deal too much; two or three days a week he goes into the port, and every other day he goes into Christchurch to write at the office there, and comes back to a late cold dinner. To-day (21st) he is gone into port, not intending to return till to-morrow evening; for there are a great many letters to be despatched immediately to go by the Midlothian mail, which is supposed to leave Wellington at the end of this month. It is only on Sunday that we can dine together. It was delightful to go to Church, and hear the great bell booming and sounding very big, even for England, and then the Organ!! and the chaunting and singing, although that is scarcely so good as we have it at Lyttelton; and then although there is, as yet, only the school for a Church, it is of a very ecclesiastical form, and looks just like a plain small church, and has a large east window that has been painted by Mr. Butterfield (the architect's brother), who is now at Christchurch, and a great hand at leading in the singing, and at getting people to come and practise. The congregation would, I think, astonish you; it looks so very much like a country town at home! Altogether, I have seldom been so much surprised and encouraged as by the sight of these plains, from the Ferry to this spot. No one could appreciate the change who had not seen it a year ago. You may suppose that a great page 279deal of Arthur's time is devoted to the river, and there are some little fish in it, just like whitebait, which can sometimes be caught in great numbers. Mrs. Russell has given him a little shrimping-net for catching them, and we are to have a dish of them, if all goes well, to-morrow. Mr. Tancred paid me a visit a day or two after we came, and brought me some beans from his garden, and such a beautiful bouquet from Mrs. Collins, his servant. The Cocks (Harley Street) know her, and wrote to us about her, and we negotiated between them, finding Mr. Tancred's servants, man and wife, were leaving him; and now he likes her and her husband so very much, and they say they are so very comfortable, and he has given them a little garden of their own, where they have grown all sorts of flowers. They are coming to tea with Powles to-night, for Mr. Tancred is gone "up the country" for a few days; I believe looking for a sheep station for himself. I am very glad he is going to begin one, it is such a good speculation, and he is not going to live there, but at his present house, which he has just added four rooms to, and which is, I suppose, nearly five miles from here, on the other side of Christchurch. Mr. Perceval, the younger brother, says he will not go back to England, he is so much delighted with the country, and the life here, and find his brother's, or rather, I believe, his father's, section, such a good one. The brother's return is perfectly uncertain, and meantime he lives at the house on it, which is small and unfinished, and works on the land. He, too, came to see us, and brought me a bag of French beans, and rhubarb from the garden. He is infinitely superior to the elder brother, and so far more steady. I can see that he is already very differently thought of here. His friend, Mr. Ross, is also much liked, and is going for the present to "live and learn" with Mr. Tancred, or rather at his station. On Sunday, the two last came to tea with us; and that is about as many as we can invite at a time, as cups and saucers, and knives and forks, fall short. A few nights before, Mr. Cholmondeley and Mr. Fytton were at tea with us, when "lo and behold you" as Arthur says, Mr. Fytton's dog, one of those great curly Irish water-dogs very like Heneage's "Charley" (who, if you remember, page 280took off a ham and fillet of veal once together to eat by the river at Voelas), penetrated into our tent, and in the face of the world there, got the lid off the pan, and devoured our whole stock of butter; so we were without for two days, as they only churn here twice a week. There are such loads of dogs about, that we have lost two joints of meat in the same way; our own machinery of table and shelves having been so far very incomplete. Last Sunday I went in to see Mrs. Rose, who is very well indeed, better, as they said than she had ever been before; and her nurse, who is an oldish woman, and experienced in every way, has taken a good turn, and become very pleasant, and means to stay with them; and Mr. Rose told me she had done, in every way, as well for her as a month nurse could, and she has had, besides, the advantage of a little more of her own way. The baby is neither big nor little, nor pretty, nor "a very nasty" one, but is cleaner and nicer-looking than any I have seen out of England, It is to be called Eustace. Mr. Rose is a good deal happier than he was, which is a great thing, and they are building a tolerably large house in Christchurch. In the meantime, they really look very neat and comfortable in the little cottage they took at first, though it has only four rooms, of which the largest is at once the sitting-room and her bedroom, one corner being curtained off; and there I found her on the sofa, in white, and pink ribbons, and looking as if she had just had a visit from Locock, or some one equally orthodox. The two children were asleep in the next room, and they, too, are very well and flourishing, It looked so nice and rustic, as we walked away past the next two twin cottages, also taken by gentlemen, to see the family parties all sitting at dinner, at 1.30, through the open doors, just as we used to delight in seeing into the cottages along the road, in travelling.

My husband talks of leaving us, for a fortnight or so, and going round to visit all the stations about, and see the country; but something always comes in the way of a long absence. However, I suppose he will not be Agent here, now, for more than a few months longer. We are very unhappy at all the English yachts having been beaten by that America, which looks, too, such an ugly thing, in our page 281Illustrated News, by the side of our English yachts. I suppose the Exhibition excitement is altogether over. I cannot help rather hoping that they will keep up the building for a garden, fêtes, and all such purposes, It seems a great waste to pull it all down. But I suppose it is rather an encumbrance in the Park. I must own I am very sorry not to have seen it, though it will be a good thing when the Illustrated has done with it. We are so tired of the Exhibition pictures; first the building, as it seemed, each week, with the progress it had made, and then every conceivable inside and outside view, which, to the uninitiated, all look so much alike, we "cannot tell t'other from which" Everyone here, who saw it before coming out, agrees in telling how much we missed, but that is of course; and only one complains of a great squeeze. However, my regret at not seeing that forms such a very small part of my sorrow for being so long out of England, that it is not worth mentioning, and when we are to hope to go home seems just as uncertain, and a little further off, than ever. Charles will tell you all the particulars of our position out here now. My husband is very unhappy at the line that the Association is taking; but excepting that, in great spirits at the progress of things here, and, thank God, very well. Arthur begged I would send this drawing "home", but did not specify who to. He had a new watch, on Xmas Day, from Sara, and told me in the fullness of his heart's gratitude that he should send her "as a reward" a certain little bag, partly made by himself and with a shilling in it, which just fits, a present from his father. However, as the bag and its contents are left in Lyttelton, I hope she will take the will for the deed. I think there is nothing particular for me to add, I am determined to let this letter, at all events, go with my husband's by a messenger who must start as soon as he has finished his breakfast, to be in time for the mail that closes to-day; but I think I shall most likely have time for a letter to Sara, by another opportunity to Wellington, that will still catch the Midlothian. We have a pouring morning, and though we are rather moist, with a line of wet coming through the centre of our roof, and though Elisabeth is very damp, and Wheeler has fallen into the river in getting out the butter, page 282which is kept there for coolness, we are still much more comfortable than in the V huts. A great deal of love to all. I long to hear of Sara, and how Frances is, and William going on, and of poor Charles, after that terrible first visit to Cefn, and now good-bye, and God bless you all.

Yours very affectionately,

Charlotte.

Ricarton, January 24th, 1852.

* Her brother, John Wynne, had been received into the Roman Catholic Church.