V. F. M. to E. Œ. S. (Ross, July, 1888.)
“It is a curious thing to be at Ross. But it does not seem as if we were—not yet. It takes a long time to patch the present Ross, and the one I remember, on to each other. It is, of course, smaller, and was, I think, disappointing, but it is deeply interesting, as you can imagine. It is also heartrending.... Everything looks ragged and unkempt, but it is a fine free feeling to sit up in this window and look abroad. There are plenty of trees left, and there is a wonderful Sleeping-Beauty-Palace air about everything, wildness, and luxuriance, and solitude. As to being lonely, or anything like it, it does not enter my mind. The amount of work to be done would put an end to that pretty fast.... The garden is, as the people told me, ‘the height o’ yerself in weeds,’ not a walk visible. The hot-house, a sloping jungle of vines run wild; the melon pit rears with great care a grove of nettles, the stable-yard is a meadow. We inhabit five rooms in the house, the drawing-room having been made (by the caretakers) a kitchen. I could laugh and I could cry when I think of it. There is a small elderly mare here
MARTIN ROSS.
H. A. C.
ROSS LAKE.