Seward House
Badsey
18th March 1915
My dear Juliet
I will try and get your letter written before post time. We had a letter from George this morning written in the train on his way to Southampton; they were to have started last Friday but had to wait as there were not enough transports. He says they made a very early start from Watford, reveille being at 3 am but all the same the towns-people gave them a good send off and all along the road they were well cheered. Of course he says no one knows exactly where they are going, except it may be one or two big brass Generals! We shall all be very anxious to hear from him. His new address is:
No 525 Lance-Corporal G M Sladden
Transport Section
1/15th Company of London, Civil Service Rifles
British Expeditionary Force
You need only put on a penny stamp. Arthur’s address is:
No 9 General Hospital, Rouen
British Expeditionary Force
The doctor came again to see me on Sunday and was very pleased with my progress; he said goodbye to me and said I might go out as soon as the weather was fit. Unfortunately the weather has been cold and dull, but there was some sunshine on Monday afternoon and I went into the garden for about a quarter of an hour. Today I tried the garden for a few minutes in the sun, but the wind was too cold. I am hoping to go and stay with Mrs Burrows at Oxford for a few days on the 8th April and Ethel is to go with me, and today Aunt Lizzie has written to ask May to go and stay with her for Easter; if she should not be back before we start for Oxford, you will have to be the lady of the house and look after Father. How glory for you! You know it will be a case of only Queenie as Ivy leaves the day before Easter. The two of them are nearly turning Ethel’s hair grey over some spring-cleaning, she has to be behind their backs the whole time, or they get playing or doing things badly. What do you think of Kitchener sleeping in the kennel with Ypers the other night, and yet he is terrified of him in the day if Ypers flies at him wanting to play. “Prioress” has a nice red bull calf about a week old; I had a look at him on Monday. So you are likely to have two music pupils next term. Prepare yourself for wanting a lot of patience, no kind of teaching requires more I think. We were amused at your account of Miss Lacey’s calling you up at lunch. How very unpleasant for Miss Lacey to have things disappearing in the school, there may be some undesirable person about and it is very difficult to find out. Uncle Fred writes today that Charlie Hodson ran away from school early in February, they imagine to try and become a scout and cannot be heard of. As he is big and looks 17, Uncle thinks he has probably been taken up by some German soldiers and interned somewhere; poor Annie is having a bad time. Ethel wants to write this evening, so I will not post till tomorrow morning. I hope Cyril will be able to turn up next Sunday at Sydenham. Neither Jack nor Kathleen are coming home for Easter.
Much love dear from your loving mother
Eugénie N Sladden
