Aug 19th/07
My dear Mother,
I had better write you a few lines before we go to bed this evening as we shall probably not want to stay in to write letters tomorrow morning.
We have been getting on splendidly since we left home & are enjoying ourselves very much. Aunt Lottie managed the long journey better than we expected & only began to get really tired an hour or so before we arrived at Cork. It was funny our meeting May & Fred Butler in the tram to Fishguard, they are at Killarney now & are going on to stay with friends at Tralee. We had a good chat with them on the boat. We dined in the train after leaving Waterford, so when we got to our hotel in Cork we went straight to bed – very glad to get there. We slept well – Sunday morning Jack arrived just in time to breakfast with us – Aunt Lottie had a good rest day which was just what she needed. We three wanted to see something of Cork so we thought we would to Church in the evening & explore a little in the morning. We just went inside the Protestant Cathedral – a very fine building – also went into an R.C. Church, then took a tram out to Blackrock a pretty suburb on the shores of Cork harbour. On getting back we made enquiries about getting to Blarney & found we could go by steam train. Aunt Lottie did not care to come, she went to a 3.30 service at the Cathedral but we three had a very nice afternoon at Blarney, which is well worth seeing.
The dinner here at our hotel was 4 p.m.! but we rather remonstrated at the unearthliness of the hour, so they promised to keep ours hot till 6. We were ready for dinner at that time, but took longer over it than we expected for by the time it was over it was 7 o’clock & too late to get to the evening service we had meant to go to, so I am afraid we were all “heathen Jews”. It was such a lovely evening that we felt we must have a little stroll, so we went up a steep hill in a direction we had not hitherto explored – we went early to bed.
This morning we managed to get in a train ride to Shandon where we saw the Church the new of Mary Shandon, but we did not get as far as the old Church of “the bells of Shandon” fame. Auntie of course did not come, we had to start at 11.30 from the hotel & she wouldn’t have had time to pack & pay the bill! The hotel was fairly comfortable but might have been more so for the price we thought it was rather terribly commercial.
The railway journey to Bantry was very pretty, the scenery becoming more & more wild & rugged as we went on. At Bantry we had time for lunch, then had a coach drive to Glengarriff – a most beautiful round the head of Bantry Bay – we got here in time for tea (which to our great joy we find is included in the tariff). This seems a very nice hotel standing about a quarter of a mile from the bay of which there is a lovely view from the windows & balcony. After tea we all went for a stroll, there are lovely walks immediately around, wild flowers of all sorts grow in profusion – there are quite tall hedges of fuchsia both here & at Cork & great clumps of hydrangeas grow in the grounds of this hotel. We dined at 7.30 – a very good dinner – everything very nice & a band playing meanwhile.
We three took another stroll after we had sat for a while after dinner. We are very glad we have two days here & already feel we shall be quite sorry to leave on Thursday. Our address at Killarney will be the Muckcross Hotel. Aunt Lottie did not seem tired this evening although it has been a fairly long day. Jack is quite enjoying it I think & we three have great fun, Aunt Lottie likes us to go out whether she wants to or not, as she says “Jack wants all the fresh air he can get”.
It is getting late so I will finish this in the morning.
Tuesday The post goes out late in the afternoon, so I left this to finish till after lunch. We went a road walk this morning along a lovely road round the harbour, we sat for some time on a rocky height overlooking the harbour. It is a glorious day & the scenery all round is beautiful, very wild & rocky. We set back in time for one o’clock lunch, Auntie seemed the least tired of all of us we thought, however she has now gone for a rest in her room & the rest of us intend to spend the afternoon sitting out in the grounds where I am at the present time. After tea we think of taking a small boat & going a two hours row on the harbour which will be delightful I expect, it is studded with pretty islands & surrounded with rocky hills which take purple on blue hues in the distance. There were two torpedo boats in the Bay yesterday when we arrived, one is anchored in full view from the hotel, the other we saw sailing off this morning down the bay. We are having lovely weather so far, only had a shower or two on Sunday in Cork which didn’t hurt us much.
I hope things are going well at home.
Much love to you all
your loving daughter
May E Sladden
