ENPages
p.
ROYAL CASTLE FAMILY HOTEL, LYNTON, N. DEVONSHIRE MAY 10th, 1896 My Darling One, Another Sunday away from thee, but not in thought are we separated; you would still be near me even tho' God hung the curtain of death between us. Do you know that this is the aniversary of our "Kentucky Cardinal" day and we were to have spent it together - what a month this was last year for both of us - it contains so much of extreme emotions, such a month as one does not wish to live over again. You left Oak Park the morning of the 18th, and then came the sad experience in Obelin and your start for England - How like a dream is all seems, and all that has happened since, to us. Well - Darling, I must begin back where I left off at Barnstaple. Friday morning Ernie and I went for a long [travel ?] and rested on the banks of a little stream.
p.
We wended our way back to the town and came upon the market where all the farmers wives had collected to sell their [tiny ?] stock. It was one of the quaintest sights I ever saw. Each daintily dressed house wife sitting on a little stool with a clothes basket of wares to be sold. The stock in trade usually consisted of a few pats of butter, a peck of apples, two or three chickens all cleaned and ready for cooking, a bowl of devonshire cream, little bouquets of flowers and perhaps one little dead rabbit. Such a quaint sight I shall never forget. It seemed such a pitiful playing at shop. Sheep also were tied up here & there poor frightened little creatures, waiting for the highest bidder. Well! Enough of the market.- We engaged box seats on the coach for Linton 20 miles away and started about 4 o'clock. It was a heavenly ride, through the wildest of scenery up hill & down. They frequently change horses, desiring five at a time.
We arrived here at about 7:30 p.m. Friday and have been here since. It is the far [favored ?] Lorna Doone country and also the scene of Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley, great novel. We are 20 miles from the nearest railroad, which alone gives this peaceful little village a great charm. This morning I went to a little Cong. church and Ernie went to the Wesleyan Chapel. We both heard good gospel sermons. And Oh Possum! I sleep in a great big 4 post canopy bed that you have to climb up into, with a ladder. I feel like Queen Elizabeth when I get into it. The wild flowers are out in profusion. I will enclose a few English violets for your mother, that I picked right along the edge of a sheer precipice down to the sea. Tomorrow we shall coach and then 20 miles to Il Fracovme [sic], [Ilfracombe] and some time next week shall go down to London. I so long to get there for the letters - It is such a long time not to hear a word
p.
from my darling - and by the time you get this, Clarence, you will be all through with finals and will be taking that pleasant little respite from work before the graduation and the Baccalaureate Sunday will be almost here, I shall think of you through each item of that gay week. You may be absolutely certain that I am thinking of you at the very moment of your graduation. How proud of you, I shall be - My own dear love - We will be very happy this summer, in our own quiet way, and there is nothing, dear love, for you to worry about. If Oak Park does not prove to be the place for your labors, there are other places, and life is before us. We are not driven to anything, we only have to seek God's will in every thing. Now Goodbye my darling you know that you have all my love, and trust, So, just a kiss from Sunshine
p.
NEW YORK, N. Y. MAY 22 96
[other postmark too hard to read]
p.
addressed envelope from Royal Castle Hotel, Lynton
Clarence E Hemingway Oak Park Ave. Oak Park Cook Co Illinois U. S.
