October 16th, 1902.
To Mrs. Edmund Maurice.
The scene[[128]] was really most beautiful and very funnily primitive. The great tent was blown to atoms; and the little red daïs was out under the free sky, with the great lake and splendid mountains, and golden bracken slopes around us; and the nice north country people quite near, and so happy and orderly. The Princess was most kind, and really deeply interested in the National Trust work. I reminded her of the opening of Wakefield Street, and our early days. My heart is very full of the thought of all who helped to get this land. I wished you could have been with us. It really was a wonderful thing to think it was done.
Hilston, Headington Road, Oxford,
November 26th, 1902.
To her Mother.
... We had a very wonderful visit to Edinburgh after I wrote to you. We met, I should think, the most interesting Edinburgh people. Dr. and Mrs. Kerr had about twelve guests each of the three nights we were there, and were most kind in telling us, before dinner, who were coming. On Friday morning we had a large meeting of workers, with representatives from Perth, Dundee, and Glasgow, all working in houses, and we discussed practical questions. At four o’clock we went to Mr. Haldane’s to tea, and met a crowd of people, Provost, town councillors, owners, workmen, donors. Then came the public meeting, when I read my paper. It was crowded and most responsive, and the paper answered the purpose admirably. The chairman, a clergyman, who they say is doing a great work in Edinburgh, spoke of Maurice, Kingsley, and Ruskin as “the giants from whom we have learnt, and drawn inspiration,” and referred to my having known them, and the privilege of having heard of them from me, and welcomed me for their sake as well as my own.
That night came a Presbyterian clergyman, who has 1,000 working men at his Sunday services, and 800 women on Wednesdays. He hardly ever goes out, but came to meet me. Such a fine fellow! Everyone was most kind, and we had a wonderful departure next day. Thirty or forty of the workers came to see us off, brought the most magnificent bouquet, and large bunches of violets with such words of thanks. It was like a royal departure.
January 25th, 1903.
To Mr. Wm. Blyth.