Portmanteau No. 001 19361016
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17 pages, in three sections.
[Betty was 191/2, and had been married three weeks when she started to write this)
In the Train between
Mafeking and Bulawayo.
16th October, 1936.
Everybody darling,
Well, we're on the second to last lap now, and it's all being such fun - even this most ghastly of all ghastly train journeys. But I'll start from the beginning, and I'll go right on till I come to the end, then I'll stop, but it'll probably last for several days, this letter.
I've told you how terribly nice the Dunnottar was. She was very modern, without being flashy, and the decorations were all nice pastel shades and subdued lighting - no horrible naked women with scarlet blobs and square behinds. We were at the Captain's Table, and at it too were:
Miss Maxwell (senior) About forty in the shade, a niece of Sir James Maxwell, the last Governor of N.R. He was the cove who always put his finger tips together and said "So I perceive" and died a few weeks after he retired - though not as a result of perceiving. Quite a nice little person, and she laughed a lot when we were rude to each other and got quite coy when G said nice things to her.
Miss Maxwell (junior) Extra specially scotch, without a vestige of a sense of humour, and when she laughed she went "Her Her Her". She sang Annie Laurie at the Concert, with her eyebrows up at the middle corners, and her eyes fixed mourn-fully on the ceiling and the corners of her mouth just about resting on the floor. But she had quite a decent voice, and twenty years ago it might have been less like an unoiled elastic-sided boot, or doodle-sac's death rattle. Quite harmless and not a bit fierce and chatted quite brightly about aquamarines and aeroplanes and the like.
Miss Cresswell. Tall and could be very nice-looking, with Bachman-eyes and fair wavy hair, but just missed it and looked ridiculous instead, because she would try and flutter her eyelashes, when it was quite obvious they forgot how to flutter a good thirty years ago. She was rather like Mrs. Dalton, of Mantola fame, in the way she talked - i.e. she said at lunch one day "I have been talking to Mr. Bradley, a MOST interesting man, and about the only person with whom one can really TALK on this boat, about Things That Matter." She told me to remember her to Dad, who will, of course , remember her QUITE well, as she was eight years old and knew him very well when he was A.D.C. at Cape Town "way back in '86 or some such obscure vintage. Of COURSE you remember the lady, don't you Dad!
Mrs. Bell. Such a dear creature, and had met you several times, Dad. Once at Northwoods, Johannesburg, before it was the Albu's, a VERY long time ago when you were living in Jo'burg, You went out into the garden and lay down under a tree on the grass where they were all sitting, and you said "This is better, I feel more at home in the open air," or words to that effect. Then she met you again at Bulawayo, soon after it was relieved, during the Matablele Campaign, and she was in laager there during the M.C. with Rhodes.
She was terribly interesting, sweet to look at, with a very slow, quiet voice, and looked much to sweet and frail to have been through all that, and she was very diffident about talking about it, but when she did she spoke so naturally and amusingly, and gave her point of view of it all. She was a young newly-married then, and they were living by themselves on a farm about five miles away from Bulawayo, and one day her husband was out somewhere with the Cape-cart, and a native boy rushed in and said ''get out of here quickly and ride to Byo for your life; the master has gone to get help, but he won't be back in time before the enemy get here."
And she was SO amusing then, because she told us how miserable she was at having to leave her lovely new trousseau clothes and her lovely silver-backed brushes etc. behind to be looted, so she bundled them all into a laundry-bag and leapt on her horse and galloped off to Byo. And on the way the horse got faster and faster, and the bundle began to get loose, and she had to go through a thick belt of trees, and she got into an awful panic that the enemy would be ambusshing there, so she tried to stop the horse to go round, aid couldn't, aid then her bundle flew away, and there was her lovely wedding dress streaming out behind her, and she hadn't the nerve to stop and pick anything up.
Eventually she got into Byo, with abso-bally-lutely nothing to her name except her horse and the clothes she stood up in. Rhodes was terribly kind to her, and looked after her till her husband galloped in, and there were 300 of them laagered there in a circle of Cape carts and waggons, and Rhodes used to come round and chaff them all to keep their spirits up.
It was terribly interesting, and she told it all in such a matter-of-fact, calm way, as though it was quite in the scheme of things!
The other person was a girl called Dorothy Chatfield, a very nice, quiet girl, not very beautiful to look at, but a charming manner and face, and was nice and rude to a and they chaffed each-other a lot. She was going out to stay with her married sister at Simonstown - and Mrs. Davies (the fortune-telling woman) told her that sh'll be married before the year is out: Cheers for the British Navy: I do hope so, because she's so nice, and getting on for 26 or 7, I should think.
But other than those people, we hardly came into contact with anybody else at all, and we were rather wrapped up in our-selves, strange to relate. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, I think I told you about, and she has given me quite a lot of useful and reassuring advice about Things Out There, and made me think it is going to be all so easy, which it is. There's nothing difficult about it at all - it's just new, and I will learn with practice such things as how not to wash socks and what a pound of sugar looks like, etc. After all, he's lived there for six years and he's not dead yet, and I don't think anything I can do can be a disimprovement on the life he's always led.
We entered for quite a lot of the Sports, and won nine prizes between us. He got first prize for Ghandi at the Fancy Dress, and I got first for the Women's Singles at Deck tennis, of which the semi-finals were about -he most exciting and most enjoyable match I've ever played; nearly every game was deuce, and I eventually won 7-5, 4-6;, 7-5. The finals were much easier - 6-4, 6-3, He played in the Contract Bridge, but didn't do much good, and also Ping Pons, in which I was knocked out first-round.
That was rather funny, too. The female I played was an Austrylian, from Melbourne, and I said I'd been there for the Centenary Jamboree, and she talked about that and a lot of other things, and was very very very chatty, and among other things she said "I was thrilled to see old General Barden-Paowell, when I was walking about the Camp. Of course there was a terrific crowd raound him, but I managed to push through, and just saw him as he got into his car, and he DID look a dear:' Then a few days after that she came up to me and said "I Mrs Cly, I'd no idea when I was talking to you the other day that you were the old chief's daughter, and I'm very praooud to have myde your aquyntance.
We didn't go in for Pushers or Slaps or Bucket Quoits, needless to say, but I also got into the finals of Women's Doubles, and Semi-finals of Mixed Doubles, of Deck Tennis, which is definitely my strong point. He didn't get anywhere much in that, as his partner was a little girl of twelve, so it didn't give him much chance to Show His Prowess.
In the deck sports we did quite well, walking away with Seconds for Biscuit and Whistle Race, Potatoe Race, Blindfold Driving Race (round rows of bottles, without nocking them over) and one or two others that I can't remember. Anyway, we made a fat fortune out of the Sports Committee, to the value of 45/-, and I felt very awkward going up and getting all these prizes, specially as he wasn't there, but was playing bridge when the prize-giving took place.
I've got to learn Bridge. As you know I'm not at all keen on it, and in fact at the moment I definitely dislike it, but I think it grows on one, and I'll soon like it when I've started. I'm learning it because it will be awfully useful, and one would feel an awful fool if, say, two people drop in on their way up the river, and the evening is spoilt because one person can't play. It sorta damps things rather, as you can't play a Round Game with four people only, and you SIMPLY can't sit and talk for hours after dinner - not even such champion talkers as we are! And it is definitely a Social Asset, specially in this country where there is probably quite a lot of spare time. G loves it, and I beleive is very good, according to some players on board, so I don't see why I shouldn't like it too.
Well. We stopped at Ascension for a few hours in the morning, and the next day, dear St. Helena again. I got a very nice welcoming letter From Mrs. Walcott, and another from Eileen Jecks, that very nice Ranger Captain, who is a member of my Lone Company. She said she was coming on board anyhow to have her hair cut, so we met her, and she took us ashore and took us in her baby austin to the foot of Jacob's Ladder, and we walked all the way up - every single one of the six hundred and ninety nine steps. They were very steep - larger than the usual steps, and we had to rest quite a number of times, as it was very heart-beating and puff-making work, and the sun was rather hot. But it was great fun, and quite worth it, as she met us at the top with the Baby Austin and Two Bottles of BEER.
So we sat on a rock and consumed the Beer, and then she swept us down and we called on Mrs. Walcott, but her husband was away and she was very common and wore spectacles but was charmed to see us and was still suffering from the effects of your wonderful kindness in asking her to stay at Pax, which it nearly broke her dear heart to refuse.
So Eileen came on board for lunch, and we sailed in the afternoon, and it WAS fun seeing the delicious little place again, even though we didn't have time to go "up-country'. The people were sweet, and asked for old clothes like they did last time, and it DID so remind us of last time, and it felt so funny coming back with A Husband, when last time I ' d only just met him, and he only just Knew!
The silly footling old Bishop of St Helena was on board with his wife and tiny child, 'Lionel William' - poor kid - going to some Cynod or Sinod or mere Conference or something in the Cape. But I think he was feeling a little sick, as he was only seen once more, and that was on the memorable occasion when he was playing deck quoits, and suddenly rushed to the side and upset over the edge many things, including his beautiful false teeth. Whereupon he retired to bed, and the ship got up a fund for the Bishop's Teeth.
On the evening before we arrived at Cape Town we got through most of our packing, and also posted 92 letters! So many people in S.A. and the Rhodesias had written, or cabled and had to be thanked for, and also we had finished off the lesser important of the home ones, and my "obscure girl-friends", as G always calls them!
Then we arrived at Cape Town at about ten on Tuesday morning, but it was so disappointing, there was a heavy mist, and we couldn't see a thing except the cranes on the wharf till we were right in, and then we could see a bit of the Lion - but no sign of Table Mountain. Lots of letters came on board for us, including a lovely one from Mum, which I will answer at the end of this - if I remember by the time I get there - and a simply marvellous ten-page affair from Mummy, telling us all about her view of the wedding and what other poeple had said or written to her about it, and a nice one from Daddy giving G splendid advice about giving way to his wife, which I will not for get ! ! !
There was also one from Lizzie, saying she would come down to the boat on the chance of seeing me, and one from Scipio, and from Joan Robinson, and a wire from Hugh and Nicolette, and letters from Mrs. FitzHenry asking me to stay in Lusaka any time I liked, and one from Mrs . Cartmel-Robinson asking us to stay at Livingstone on our way up, which we accepted with alacrity,.
We had to deal with one or two press reporters and photographers on board, and then we snooped down the gangway, to be greeted at the bottom by Lizzie and Marjorie Campbell, which was great fun. They suggested waiting with the car while we did the Customs so that they could take us to the Hotel, but we thought they'd better not as we knew we'd probably be a long time - and it was just as well, as we didn't get away from that Shed for about three hours! All our things were stacked in the partition labelled "Jeans", as they do it all by agents, and he was our agent, and he chose to leave us till the last.
So we read our letters all over again, and looked at the photos of the wedding which you kindly sent us, and showed them to one or two people, aid people came and talked to us and sympathised. Then we started to count the things. There were 27 pieces altogether! My two tin trunks, the radio, which we found had one bit of wood coming off, so we nailed it on again and got them to put a stout rope round it,, and I hope it will arrive safely; my tin bath in a crate; the linen; the camp bed and bedding; G's Vanesta boxes; his guns and ammunition; and a dozen and one other things that we never dreamt we had.
So we made them chalk nice big notices on them saying "In Bond, Living stone" and then rushed off in a taxi to the Grand Hotel, in the middle of the town., as the Mount Nelson was too grand and vast and palatial and aristocratic for the likes of us. However we were doomed to disappointments, as there was not a scrap of room in the Grand, so we had to go the Mt.N. after all.
We had a very nice blue room with a bit of balciny and a bathroom of our own,, and we had lunch directly we arrived, which was about two o'clock.
And who should appear on the scene but Margaret Townsend. I think Heather knew she was going to South Africa, didn't you, little hag? Well there she was, looking quite attractive with nicely done fair hair and a nice cool-looking green linen coat and skirt - on your advice, Heather. So she came and sat down at our table and talked to us for a bit, and told us all she was going to do. They are going up to the Falls and the Kruger Park, etc - no, sorry, not the Kruger Park, as it's too late - but I expect they'll do all the other sights of S.A. before they've finished. She's travelling with a young couple and their baby and nurse, and is enjoying it hugely, and was quite fun. We saw her several times, and she was very friendly.
It was fairly hot by this time, so we slept all the rest of the afternoon. We have got sadly into the sleeping after lunch, alias Reading for the Staff College, habit, and it's so lovely knowing there is somebody else there to talk to when you get bored with being asleep.
Then we got up and went for a lovely walk just at dusk, through, the garden where the hibiscus was out, and we saw two black cats, and then down the sort of park that leads down to the town. We went about half way down there, and looked at the lovely statue of Physical Energy, silhouetted against the reddish sky above the Lion. The Lion was very clear and black and huge, and Table Mountain was still glowing a deep red from the sun, and seemed extra specially huge, because it was the first glimpse we had of it. It was very clear and well-cut against the sky, and the silly little Pimple looked so impertinent, perched on the very edge and pretending that it was going to jump over at any minute. I've lost my dislike of it now, because it gave us that wonderful half hour up there last time; we were so sorry there wasn't time this time.
Then we strolled back to dinner, and I was rung up by Fenella Douglas, the old St. James's friend of Heather's, and we arranged to meet tomorrow. Also Joan Robinson rang up to say that she and Dulce Foster were coming down to see us at the train. Poor Dulce has been having a horrible time, as as soon as her youngest child recovered from pneumonia, the eldest got some obscure internal desease, and at the same time she had to have an big operation. She is almost well again no, and the boy is doing well, but she hasn't had a very pleasant time since we saw her.
After dinner we talked to some people from the boat for a bit and wrote one or two letters, and then we went for a lovely long walk right down the Park-thing, to the town, and walked down Adderley Street looking at the shops and deciding what we needed to buy tomorrow.
The next day we managed to get up and finished breakfast at about ten.15! I had my hair washed, and then we met Fenella, and had Srawberries and Cream, and she was very nice and chatty, and not half so made-up as she was in March, and looked much happier and less blase, which was a great improvement.
G went shopping again in the afternoon, and Mina Gordon name up and talked to me and had a spot of drinks with us, and was such fun. It's so funny having to say "Betty Clay speaking", and they say 'Who?' and I say "Oh , just Betty' and they say "Oh, it's YOU is it!" It IS such fun being married, specially to G, because he IS so nice, the very nicest husband in the world. And he's so thoughtful and does absolutely everything, like getting. the key and opening the door and turning on the bath water and opening the window and paying the taxi and getting the tickets and carrying the parcels and so on and so on ad lib ad infinitum ad nauseum but it ain't ad nauseum to me.
Well, I must stop now as. it's getting rather late. I don't know when I'll be able to do any more, but I'll try tomoroow. We have the whole day at Bulawayo tomorrow, and Peter has managed to get weekend leave to come down and spend the day with us, isn't that lovely. I'm awfully glad, as G now thinks I haven't GOT a brother, and if they didn't meet now they wouldn't meet for a long time as our leaves don't click.
Goodnight everybody, sleep tight, and mind the fleas don't bight.
Sunday, 18th October, 1936.
c/o Mrs. Cartmel-Robinson,
P.C.'s House,
Livingstone,
N.R.
Well, here I go again, and we've got out of that dear, lovely, clean, cool, smooth, comfortable train and we've had a bath and a huge breakfast and a letter from Mum so we are defintiely in very good form and Mrs. C.-R. is being SO kind, so I'll go on and tell you all we've done since I petered out on Friday evening.
After Mina Gordon had had drinks with us, we finished our packing and taxi'd down to the station in an enormous pearly-green Studebaker, and leapt into the train with our eight things in the carriage and fourteen in the van! On the platform were dear old Scipio, Dulce Foster, leaning on Joan Robinson's arm and looking rather thin and pale but in very high spirits, the gallant creature, and Lizzie and Marjorie Campbell. They produced presents by the million - four boxes of dried fruit, a huge basket of fresh fruit and a box of chocolates and a novel and two toast racks!
So they all saw us off and will write post-haste to you when they get home to say how miserable we looked and how ill and underfed and bored with each other!!
So the journey started, and went on all through Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and we arrived here on Sunday morning - this morning - at seven a.m.
At Mafeking on Friday morning, Mrs. Springall and Mrs. Lionel Cooke came down to meet us at seven, and swept us off to breakfast and a nice wash. Mrs. Reilly, the female we stayed with last time, is now living at the Residency with Mrs. Rey, as her husband died very suddenly last Tuesday. Isn't it awful. I am trying to write her a Letter, but it's taking such a lot of time and thought, and I don't know what to say without my Mum! Then Mrs. Springall took us in her lovely ricketty old car with no side curtains to call on Little Jackie Masterman's old arthritis-stricken mother, in the lovely new flats that have been built on the site of your watch-tower, Dad. You know your office is now The Model Dress Emporium, and this block of four modern flats is now next door. And you know, l told you how they had discovered the old ladder that you used to climb up on to the watch-tower by, and were determined to put it back as it always had been; however, they found it was almost crumbling to pieces with white mice - I mean white ants - so they couldn't.
It was all exactly the same is it was in April, except that some Jackaranders were out and making Blue Carpets all over the road. We didn't have time to call at the Convent, but we just saw Major Cooke for a brief moment, and he gave you his salaams. He was looking very fit, and his business is quite recovered from the results of the fire.
Poor Mummy and Daddy [her parents-in-law], this must be so boring for you, all these names that you don't know, but I hope you will forgive it, and try and skip over the boring parts and try and pick out the bits of jam - if there are any. - in this long epistle.
Well, we jumped into the train again, and Miss Archer in her white cotton stockings and her hat, came to see us, and was thrilled to hear that I had seen the Godleys quite lately and said she would tell the Colonel!
Friday was terribly hot. All day we travelled through Bechuanaland, with flat scrub land and reddish sand on every side, and when we stopped - which we did at every little Dead Dog Dorp we came to - the heat was awful, as there was no breeze and the dust had time to settle nicely. Our noses suffered most as the dust got into them so. But we managed to survive all right reading and sleeping and talking mildly; we had meant to teach me Bridge all the journey - but we didn't play once! We sat with the Bradleys quite a lot, and little Julian, aged three, was simply sweet, playing with his plastecine, and his clockwork Bird and his chalks.
The sunset was marvellous though, really fiery, and after the sun had gone the afterglow was broken by continuous stabs of lightning, which is a good sign, as it means the rains are coming soon, and the heat will break. It must have been round about 96 to 100 in the train that day. And we managed to get through it without grumbling! After all, it doesn't make it any cooler, in fact it only makes it feel hotter to grumble, and puts one in a bad temper unnecessarily, so we just stayed quite calm and lay on our seats all day and had no bedclothes on all night, and felt quite happy. You know what I'm like in a train usually - specially when it's hot - so you see what A Husband has done for the good of Yours Truly:
We arrived at Bulawayo on Saturday at 7. 30 . am. and when we looked out, lo and behold, young Peter and Paul Kenworthy and his Dog Scot, standing on the platoform! They heaved us out and were very nice, and managed our luggage and swished up into Paul's lovely green V8 - Government Car! - and swept us off to the Grand Hotel, where we had the most glorious Bath, and a Huge Breakfast.
Peter was looking very well, and happy and contented with everything, and seemed awfully pleased to see us, and liked G very much indeed. He said when he got my wire that he didn't believe it at first! He got it when he was out on tour, and did not get back to civilisation for three weeks, that was why he hadn't answered. How marvellous of you to write Mum, actually on the day of the wedding, and we told him all about it, and all about the Great Romance of Our Life, and he said you were sending him photos of the wedding, so we didn't give him the ones Mummy sent us. He brought the Blue Box down with him, and I haven't the slightest idea how to thread the film., but no doubt I will learn with experience. He has lent it to us indefinitely, so we are wondering when he will see it again! It will be lovely to have it, so you will soon see pictures of our house and everything.
Yes, he was very nice, and I was awfully glad to see him, and I think G liked him.
He came out shopping with us all the morning, but Paul had to go off to his Office, and we got such things as lamp shades and felt-shoes - or are they veldt-shoes! - which are divinely comfy, and some khaki shirts for me to wear riding and on tour. We went back to lunch at the Grand, and it was very hot - about 96, I should think, but we didn't mind, and sat on nice cool leather sofas - all the afternoon - reading Snob's Gazettes and Punch and waffling. There was a terrific lot to talk about, and we didn't waste much time.
Soon after tea Paul came back. He had been out into the bush in his car to Deal with some natives or something, and had suggested that we might go with him, but had strongly advised us hot to! I'm glad we didn't go, as it was quite nice and cool and restful in the Grand, after the rattling heat of the train.
Then Paul and his pipe and his dog and his car took us all back to the station, and we left at about 5.30, and Peter left for Salisbury soon after us.
Another marvellous sunset, and the lovely flat bush country is all tinged with red just now, and the grass is burnt up, but there are quite a lot of flowers about and green buds - and I forgot to tell you how nice and vegetated the Karoo Desert looked. It was all made of smooth hills of stoney sand, and all these little rocky plants sticking their plucky heads out of the hard ground gave a nice furry, soft, colourful effect to an otherwise bare expanse.
Isn't it an extraordinary thing, you know there was a waiter on the train from Bulawayo to Livingstone last time who had been on the same train as you before, and who was waiter at the Falls Hotel, and who was our waiter again going down from Salisby to Bulawayo? Well here he was again, like the bad penny, and was thrilled to be serving me again, and said would I give his regards to His Lordship, and how were you all, and said to G "Of course I've known the old Lord for many years"! His name was Harvey, and he was most attentive.
Then when we woke up this morning at about 6 o'clock, we looked out to see if we could see the cloud over the Falls - but there wasn't a sign of it, and we didn't see anything at all till we were nearly going over the Bridge. Apparently England thinks that the Eastern Cataract has dried up because of the drought, but the real reason is that the Falls Electic Power Station has been started, so they have dammed up the E.C. so that they can build it It looked absolutely extraordinary, seeing this huge, magnificent black cliff, with green trees and grass and bushes growing all along the top, and one miserable little trickle in the middle of it, and trying to imagine it as a swirling thunder of water, like it was when we saw it last. Of course the Devil's Cataract is still going strong, and the one next to it, but all the "left hand side" is practically dried up. But it hasn't spoilt it, because one can see the great depth of it so well, and the shape of it. We haven't been along there to see it close to yet, but Mrs. Cartmel-Robinson said we must go there this afternoon, and we are going to walk through the Rain Forest in our bathers, and we must go out on to Danger Point.
It's such FUN seeing it again, but it's rather a shame in a way that I have seen it before, as it would be such fun for G being with me when I saw it for the first time. It IS so lovely.
Well, Mrs. Cartmel-Robinson plucked us and our eight pieces and the One remaining box of Dried Fruit out of the train, and we said goodbye to the Bradley's, who are in the Secretariat this Tour, and she took us along in her V8 to her delicious little house, where we had breakfast and another Gorgeous Bath, which I may say was very much needed. Her husband is up in Lusaka, at a Conference, so she is by herself with Loftus, the ducky little wire haired fox terrier - do you remember him? He IS so sweet, and it is too funny to see him trying to bite the water as it squirts out of the garden hose - one of the going-round-and round kind.
Her two daughters, Joan (13) and Sheila (15) are at school at a little school called Fernhill Manor School at New Milton, in the New Forest, and I wondered if ever you were down there you might like to beat them up if you got the chance. They look a delicious pair by their photographs, and I'm sure they would love it and she would appreciate it.
She is awfully nice, and has been terribly kind to us, housing us like this for an indefinite period while The Powers That Be try and make up their minds what to do with us. She has been giving us lots of Home Truths about different people in the Service, and I'm getting to know them all quite well by name and repute now, so it will be fun meeting them all: which I am bound to do sometime or other.
They have such a funny habit in this town, of Sundowner Parties. They take place at about 6.30 every evening, and all the females are in Evening dress! The habit started as a sort of after-games-before-going-home-to-dress-for-dinner friendly party, with anybody dropping in and saying Hallo and helping themselves to drinks and wandering out when they liked - a lovely informal way of exchanging the time of day and talking to your friends, without having the bother of dinner or lunch parties, in the same way as we have people to tea at home, which you can't do out here. But now they take their Sundowner parties very seriously. They ask the people they want, they have all the chairs in a neat, fromal circle round the drinks, and everybody says how do you do when they arrive and "Goodbye, its been so nice meeting you, thank you ever so much" when they go, and all the rest of it. You are parked in a chair with somebody on either side of you, and every ten minutes or so the hostess gets up and moves all the men! So you are made to talk to people, and can't just wander about and talk to the ones you want to. An absurd business - and we won't have any nonsense of that sort at Sesheke, anyway!
We went out to the Falls on Sunday evening, and again on Monday evening, and again yesterday morning. It is now Wednesday morning, and I am afraid I have missed the airmail, so I needn't hurry any more as it won't go for a week now. I hope you got our cable all right, and that you won't think we are dead not hearing for such a long time, but I do hope the length of this will make up for that - quantity, though not quality!
Well, Sunday evening, Mrs. Cartmel-Robinson took us along in her car, in our bathers, and it's high time G had a new bather; that old one is ten years old and has a high back and a high neck and is made of cotton!
We went along to the Devil's Cataract, and it is about half the size it was when we saw it last. You remember there was a huge rock in the middle of it that made the water bounce up quite high? Well the rock now shows, and the water goes over all smooth and slithy. It looks very fine from the Rain Forest though, and G and I walked all along the edge, and we thought we saw a croccy sitting on a rock at the bottom, but I think it was a log really. We got quite wet from the spray, but nothing like as wet as we would have got five months ago when it realy WAS like rain. We went right along to Danger Point, and stood up on the huge boulder at the corner, from which you see water on three sides, sheer down on all sides. I had to hang on to G very hard because he's the breed that want to jump over when they look over edges, but luckily he had a very good reason for not wanting to jump over!
There were lots of people walking about on the opposite side, which WAS the Rainbow Falls , and which is now just bare, rutty black rock, dotted with islands and pools, and has SUCH a sharp, sheer edge.
Now, Monday. G's boys turned up in the morning - four of them and three wives and one child. They all lined themselves up because they wanted to meet the Mufumahari - which is Me - so we went out, and when we arrived they all knelt, not quite to the ground, and clapped their hands and said 'Mutendi Mama" so I said Mutendi back and G told me all their names, and then they knelt and clapped again and went away, and they WERE so sweet: They are all Wemba, the ones from Worth-East that he has had ever since he came out, and it is most unusual for Wemba to go all the way to Barotse, so it is a great complement to G that they have all stayed with him. One even preferred to come with G than to stay at home with his wife, who refused to leave her home.
We went out shopping, ordering our emergency stores to go up to Sesheke for the first few days before the main stuff arrives, getting letters and things from the bank and Post Office, seeing somebody about getting our stuff through the Customs, and so on. I've opened an account at the African Lakes Corproration, which is where we are getting all our stuff, and it has absolutely everything from carpets to cucumbers, and the lady behind the stocking counter will get you anything you like, and if they haven't got it in stock she will get it for you somehow.
In the evening, after a VERY hot and sleepy afternoon's rest, we went out to the Falls again. This time we stayed this side as we wanted to go down Palm Grove, but there was a huge notice up saying "DANGER." and telling you not to go down between certain hours as Blasting was in progress, so we couldn't go down. On the way back we stopped at a Hippo-ey place on the chance,, and as luck would have it, after some time, we suddenly saw an enormous Mouth quite close to the bank off the further side. It didn't come right out, but the Mouth was there allright, and it couldn't be anything else but a Hippo! Mrs. C-R loves Hippoes, and comes out nearly every evening to see if there are any about, and often sees them, quite close.
We went home through the Game Park, which we went to on Good Friday, do you remember, after the Rally, and watched the four giraffe being fed, and the wildebeest, Judy and Bill, and the delicious little baby zebra, Shirley Temple? Well, we saw three giraffes, chewing away at the trees quite close, so close that we could see the flowery pattern on their skins, but they wouldn't come right up to the car and put their heads in as they sometimes do. We saw several duiker, and the bush-buck who got in by mistake through the wire netting, but no zebra. We also talked to two tiny sables that they have in a separate little cage as they are too young to go into the big park yet, and they stood there and licked our hands and tried to suck our fingers off and were SO sweet, with their great knobbly knees and their tiny flicky tails and calf-like faces.
Then, yesterday G and I went out there in the new Bus, as Mrs. C-R was out playing Bridge, and we walked down the Palm Grove with the cine-camera. it's quite a long, steep walk, and it was terribly, burstingly hot, but we went very gently with lots of rests, and it got quite shady when we got to the bottom. It was lovely and quiet down there, except now and then there was a scrabble of monkeys in the trees, and we saw the MOST delicious sight, which I DO hope we succeeded in getting on the camera. There was a big rock, surrounded by several others at the side of the path, and there, looking over the edge of the rock, was a row of about eight faces - sixteen enormous eyes, with sixteen enormous round ears on either side of them, and tiny black button noses. They were dock Rabbits, or Hyrax, and they were SIMPLY sweet. We filmed them like that, and then G threw a stone towards them and they all jumped about and ran up on the next door rocks, or leapt into their hole and generally made a great fuss, scuttling about with their rubber-soled feet and their little round tail-less behinds.
We sat down at the bottom for a time, looking down the gorge to the Hotel, standing on its cliff at the bottom of the gorge. The bridge looked huge and rather fine rather Up above us, and we saw one or two tiny people walk across it, which made us realise how very big it really is. We couldn't see the Falls of course, because we were round the corner of the Knife Edge, but the Boiling Pot was just below us, where Major Dutton fell in once, and was fished out again, and the strength of the current looks terrific.
It was lovely and peaceful and quiet down there, and nobody else came to disturb the peace of it, so we were very happy all by ourselves and the animals.
So now I think I'd better stop for a time. I'll finish this off when we come back from the town, as we've got to go and do some more store-ordering.
There ! we've come back now, and we ordered thousands of things and didn't look at the price of any of them and we are going to be so broke when we have to pay for them! Which reminds me, we went to the Bank and asked them how much money we had got, and I had got £50 - I don't quite know where it has come from! - and he had got about £200, so we are really quite well off and will be able to pay off all the bills I expect. The things we have got to pay for are: His bill at Walter's for his wedding gear and all the things they packed and sent out for him this time; the excess weight going up to Sesheke, because if we fly we will have to send all the stuff up by barge anyhow, and we only have this allowance of 4,000 pounds, and our stuff is a good deal more; Customs on the things we have with us - wireless, camera, new stuff, etc; carriage and customs on the presents, which will be absolutely terrific. But I'm sure we'll be able to do it all right. I have borrowed a Sewing Machine from somebody who is going Home next month.
Thursday, 22nd, October, 1936.
The English Mail arrived last night, and this morning all the letters came, and we got Four lovely fat ones from you, Mum, and several others. Thank you so much for the photos, which I think are awfully good. Are you sending a NICE one of me, phramed, to each of the Bridesmaids? Because if so, will you PLEASE send the bill to me. I want them to have a really nice one of me, and they all asked for one, so could you please do that, and send me the bill.
Thank you for writing to Dulcie Shaw for me. She is one of my Lone Guides, so I have written to her quite lately; she will be thrilled to get a letter from you.
I loved the letter from Esther Capadose, and I also got an absolutely rich one from John and Kate Hodgetts, who I think must be mad, or are they some dim friends of yours?!!! I've never heard of them, nor has G, but this letter is really almost worth phraming. Do show it to Mummy when you have stopped laughing, as I'm sure she'd love it, and then do send it back to us. What had I better do about it, do you think - had better answer it in the same vein, or shall I leave it unanswered, or what?
How sweet, Green saying "I see the ship's left" - I can just imagine him saying it!
I also got letters from Mr. C. F. Taylor, the Vicar of Burton-on-Trent, an old friend of Daddy's, a sweet letter telling me how much the parish loves the family, and how interested they all were to hear of another Clay getting himself scooped into marriage. From naughty little Mr. Whitmee, from Dulce Foster. - rather funny getting her letter, after I had seen her in Cape Town last week - from Lizzie MacNeillie - ditto - from Mrs. Acutt in Durban, and from Margery Macdonald in Melbourne, who is getting married next year.
It was nice seeing that little card from Somebody White, saying how much she had loved the wedding. Thank you also for the letter from Mrs. Gardiner, about her daughter Mrs. Bloomfield. It's rather a coincidence, that Mrs. Bloomfield is now in Lusaka, and staying with her is Mr. Cartmel-Robinson - and we are staying with Mrs. Cartmel-Robinson here! We don't actually know her, but we know them by name of course as they're in the service.
Well, I'11 stop now, as this is SO huge that I don't expect the aeroplane will be able to get up off the ground. We will write again very soon, and we will probably write quite a lot of these day-to-day diary sort of letters, as we can just sit down any time and tell you anything we think of on the spur of the moment, and send them off when they get boo big, or too dirty:
With all our love - or rather what's left over from each other - to you all, and the next ones will be in carbon so that you needn't squabble over them!
Your own
Bet
