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[image-version of the coat of arms of the United Kingdom]
High Commissioner's Office,
Johannesburg
April: 25 :: 1903
My dearest Mother
May thanks to you and Anna for your last letter. I hope Anna has had a pleasant holiday and is much refreshed. Unhappy Bird! [His brother, Walter] What is wrong with that stalwart fowl? I doubt indoor life is not the one for him.
Poor old body! You are cumbered about with many cares. I am glad you did so well at the Sale of Work. It is time you and "Auld John Ox" parted company, or the one will be the death of the other. I will be glad to give you a contribution, if you will tell me what you want.
I hope you have taken Altarstone for September.
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or some equally nice bit. I don't suppose I shall be able to let you know the date I am coming home till just before I sail, as Lord Milner intends to leave like a thief in the night.
John Edgar seems to like his work and Cape Town enormously. I regret to say that he has joined the Bond in spirit already. I intend to deal very faithfully with him pretty soon.
I have had a hard week's work, for I had 3 days on a Legal Commission, and the rest of the time I have been busy drafting franchise proposals, and preparing a Federal Budget. But my life now is
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much more leisurely than it has been for months, and I have actually leisure to read a few books. I have just finished such a good Jacobite novel - "Poor Sons of a Day" by a cousin of Lady Tullibardine's.
I had a large mail this week, - letters from Richard Brown, Uncle Willie, [?illegible], Denman, Strachey, Raymond Asquith, & Angela Malcolm. Richard Brown is very opposed to the idea of my leaving politics for literature - as indeed so am I. He says that the eldest Miss Hamilton is married - another blow to his young affections. Raymond Asquith is in Egypt, and thinks very little of it. He says that the desert sunsets, with their rapid variations from
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pink to purple remind him of nothing so much as Beerbohm Tree in "Herod".
There is a small reunion of the inhabitants of Peeblesshire being got up here, at which I am asked to preside. I am also lecturing to the Philosophical Society next month.
I am very well, & the weather could not be better though we made it ourselves. Every morning at 6 I either ride or walk for an hour, & it is perfectly delicious. I hope you will have a good summer after your stormy winter.
With much love to all
Your affectionate son
John