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Dear Willie
Father has just discovered this in his pocket unposted!! I am so sorry. Just send it back here when you are done with it, as it isn't a letter to go about. A
High Commissioner's Office, Johannesburg.
April: 12: 1903
My dearest old Mother
Many thanks for your last kind but melancholy letter. I am very sorry you have had so much worry in connection with the church, and I hope you have not allowed it to hurt your health. I do not know why you object to take Altarstone when I tell you that I will pay the rent, and anything more that may be necessary. However if Altarstone is not to be had you must get someplace equally nice. I want us all to be together in some nice place when I come back, that old William may have a pleasant last month to remember & that I may have a good holiday.
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I haven't very much news this week. I have had a quiet but busy time, but my work now is much more leisurely and dignified – drafting Ordinances & Proclamations and preparing financial schemes with H.E. – than the awful grind I had before. I am extremely well and the weather is a cool clear autumn variety. I am not quite sure what will be the date of my homecoming – either the beginning or the end of August, I think.
It is Easter & Hugh Wyndham is in Pretoria. Mrs Mackenzie, our Scots housekeeper, came to me & said that she felt just like a Roman Catholic, not having been to church since
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she came to this country. Apparently she used to belong to the congregation of Ross in the Cowcaddens. So I sent her into church in our dog cart; but she must have got a screed of cauld morality from the man we keep here, for she said that in the future she would not trouble such an apology for a Kirk.
I attended H.E. to early communion this morning, the usual piece of mummery which takes away one's appetite for breakfast.
I am very sorry to think you are worrying about church matters. Please call on me for a contribution, whenever you want, and remember I am earnest about Altarstone, & shall be as mad as a March hare if you don't take that or some place as good. You know how
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unsatisfactory it is coming back to find a family scattered up & down the country – at Peebles & Broughton & Glasgow.
I have read during the last week two excellent novels – 'The Light Behind' by Mrs Wilfred Ward, & 'Lady Rose's Daughter' by Mrs Humphry Ward. Tell Anna that she should certainly read the latter. I liked it so much that I wrote to Mrs Ward about it.
The Government seem to be marching steadily from bad to worse. John Edgar, with his black but comely face, arrived in the country last Tuesday, and so far as I can gather from his letter at once joined the extreme sect of the [Afrikaner] Bond. I must go down & interview him with a sjambok.
With much love to all
Your affectionate son
John
