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357, Whitney Avenue,

Anna Chapin Ray
New Haven
Connecticut

First August, 1936

Dear Colonel Wood,-

Thank you enormously for doing my errand. I
was sorry to ask it of you; but I was sure you would do it
with just the proper degree of casualness.

Now that the aroma - musk - of Franklin
Delano's presence has evaporated from Quebec, the book is
starting, and to your address. As a mere Yankee out of Devon
out of Brittany, I don't just know the exact path to the
steps of the throne. Together, the Custom House, the Post
Office and I evolved the strange jumble of markings to keep
out the customs inspectors.

I wonder what you, who knew Mr. Taft and,
probably, Mr. Hoover, both gentlefolk, and wise, and honour -
gained n realization of the progressive disintegrating of all
our national decencies. The best excuse we are making is to
admit quite frankly that the man, his wife, and children are
definitely degenerate, mentally and morally . The corruption of
this government is untellable. But we hope a good deal from
the simpler Kansan.

Lord Tweedsmuir's Scotland was a delight. When
Sandy Foulis, child of Ottawa Bildad, went to the Paris cemetery,
I went across to buy a native-born Scottie and, for the
four months it took to get him old enough for the trip back
to Paris, we lived int he charming Royal George on the banks
of the Tay: Tay Bridge under one window and the North Inch outside
the other, with the autumn-coloured Grampians beyond.
Never was a long foreigner given a better time. I even got a
Bairn's Token!

And, living at Saint Malo, we were given the
freedom of the library, with access to the Jacques Cartier
Manuscripts. Caenmohr Fergus Steele is an erudite canine.
Wolfe ^Not James; but a dog of the name of Wolfe^, by this time, should be chasing bunnies in the Happy
Hunting Ground. I greet his successor - for there is sure
to be one.

With great thanks and all good wishes for you
and for my beloved Canada,

Sincerely

Anne Chapin Ray