Letters to Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott from various family members, September 1913 - September 1930 - Part 13

[*It is nice to have 
these interesting 
postage stamps.
I must try to send
out some seeds for
your garden. some time.
I suppose they ought 
to be soldered up
in a tin.
Our garden is very full
of flowers now. Have you
grown any of the [[Primulina?]]
Hybrid Gladioli?
They can be easily grown 
from seed &
some flower 
the 1^st year!
They are lovely.*]
Trevor Hall
Trevor
Wrexham
Sept. 5^th.27.
My dear Harold.
I am afraid you must have thought 
I was dead or something worse, it is so
long since I have written to you. I have
lots of things to thank you for too. Interesting 
picture papers etc (by the way one was sent by
F. M. Elliott. Is that your sister? Please thank 
her very much for me.) You must all be thankful 
that all the functions are well over. I think
the Duke & Duchess of York must have thoroughly 
enjoyed being made so much of, & really
appreciated. How glad she must have been to 
get back to her baby! It was hard on her 
having to leave her at such an interesting 
age - Canberra must be a wonderful place.
Is the accent really on “Can” .  not Can-berr-a.
 

Your last letter was most interesting
and gave such a good idea of all that
has been going on. Much better than the

accounts in the papers. The ceremony at

Canberra must have been most interesting
& impressive. I like to think of all those
lovely horses - How lucky that you had such 
glorious weather & what a good omen that
the drought broke just after it was over.

I hope it rained enough there to save the
crops etc.
I am so glad Violet & Niel are doing so
well. I hope I shall still be [[alive?]] when
Violet comes to England & she must come &
stay with us - We shall be dreadfully

old ourselves but I hope I.C. & Dora will be 
here & perhaps Patty & Martin in England
again - I expect you & Katie will want to
come with her. & it will be very nice to

see you again & to make Katie's acquaintance.
I suppose you cannot very well take long

leave, while you ^ are still in the Senate -
I am glad you have not retired, as I  think
you must be doing a lot of good in the
Government -

What a good idea you & your brother
building shops & offices at Canberra
They will no doubt be more & more valuable
as time goes on -

By the way would Violet send me a copy
of her school newspapers if she can spare
one. I should be so interested in it.
 

2.
I think I should like a snapshot of your
Mother much better than a proper photograph.
The best picture I have of my Mother is an
enlargement of one Lloyd took when she was
sitting in the garden, knitting, at Bryn
[[Ocrog?]] -
We have not heard anything of your friend
NS McCall yet. I am afraid this horrible
wet summer has disgusted him & he has
quickly gone back to Australia. If not I hope
he will turn up here sme time & spend a
few days with us.
Martha has been with us for some weeks.
& I thought her particularly well at first.
She & I actually went up to the top of
[[?]] [[?]] about 10 days ago- and had our
tea by the cairn & walked all down over
the [[?]] to Lantysylis where the car met us.
It was a good climb & walk for 2 old ladies.
The gorse and heather were lovely up there & I found
a small bit of white heather. the first I ever
found on that mountain. Now Martha has a
cough & cold. & it has prevented her from returning
home as she intended to do some days ago
taking me with her for a return visit! However
she is better and we intend to go on Monday. 

A friend of ours Colonel Girdwood has been
appointed Military Commandant in Ceylon
& has lately gone out. They were very anxious 
that Lloyd & I should go out & pay them a
visit this winter, which I should love to do
They have a nice house in Colombo & one up

at Newer Elyria (sic) too, & they would have 
shown us all the beauties of the Island.

However Lloyd will not go. He thinks he ought

not leave his work - Everyone else thinks

he could easily do so & that the change would

do him no end of good & me also. We
get coughs almost every winter. We should

have stayed in Cyprus on the way back.

Lloyd is inclined to go out to Cyprus

with me next Spring. So I am hoping we
may manage that. Patty is very well
& very happy though the Summer has been very

hot & she has had a lot of hard work.

Now it is delightful there. cool evenings & nights
again. Her great friend Effie Ringrose
went out & spent a long time with her
last autumn. By the way I promised to
tell you that her only brother "Chris"(topher)

Ringrose Commander R.N. has been lent to

Australia & is in command of some

destroyers. I hope you will meet him.

We like him very much - I stayed up

in Yorkshire with Effie at the time of the
eclipse and we got up very early &

found a cloudy morning. We were exactly

on the centre line of totality. Breaks
came in the clouds now & then & we

3
saw parts of the eclipse very well but
at the exact moment of totality the clouds

obscured the sun & we did not see the corona
much to our disappointment. Four miles from us
it was seen perfectly! However Sir Frank Dyson
the Astronomer Royal, saw it beautifully 
at Giggleswick, and it mattered more that
he should do so than anyone else in the

Kingdom - It was extraordinary. the interest
that was taken in this eclipse - thousands
of motor cars were travelling all  night to get
to good places within the lines of totality

& it was such wretched weather!
The darkness for the few seconds was really
extraordinary & oppressive. You really could

feel it & a coldness that came with it.

Lloyd & [[Marlbut?]] send kind messages.

Australia feels much nearer now because

of wireless. I expect I shall hear you

broadcasting a speech sometime or other &

perhaps we shall soon see each other by
wireless too. Please give my love to your sister
Violet & kind regards to her husband.
It is very late & I must stop

Yr affcate cousin
Emily I. Lloyd Edwards.

useful, perhaps more so in some countries
than the bigger ones; but I have
an idea that it is not every army

expert that approves of any sort of tank,

though I cannot remember the objections.

There was [[nerve?]] some fuss lately [[here?]]
about some re-organisation in our

Army in in connection with the 
mechanical part of it - It is disapproved

by many officers and there are complaints
a to that the merits & demerits of the new

arrangements not having been properly
discussed before a decision was reached

but I don't know enough about it to 

knab form an opinion - The opposition
are using the Disarmament stick
to beat the Govt with just now -
They seem to think that  ther we have
only to strip ourselves of ships and
soldiers to produce a permanent
peace - or rather, most of them xxxx

don't take the time to think out

things, and the remainder want to
shear our locks and hand us over
to the Philistines - I think the Socialists
are very likely to get into power again

at the next Election, and we may [[?]]
[* Emily Edwards wanted to go & stay with friends in Ceylon this
winter but Lloyd won't

budge. Nurse is

very well at present.

I was very auxines

about her in the 
Spring & summer.

She is full of joy

because she is going 

to get the old age
pension on Jan, 1^st
she can't do much
gardening now
Kitty, the little maid,
is still with me -
She has had all

her teeth out and is
waiting for a new 
set, and in the 

meantime looks 

about 50. I am so 

sorry Violet has had
to take to glasses. They are 
such a nuisance - I had to*]

Cross-Park

Moretonhampstead,

Devon.

Nov. 13^th 1927,

Dear Cousin Harold,

I have had an envelope 

addressed to you for ages, but
since I returned from Wales in 
September have had v. little time
for writing or even reading - I was
rather poorly latterly while at Trevor`

and had to defer my return twice.

Then Emily Edwards came ^ home with me
and we had a busy time trying 
to get the garden a little tidy after
my absence - After she went I had
my sister Caroline for a visit, and

last week I had Alicia Carter for a
few days, wh I very much enjoyed.
Alicia says she feels very old and
depressed; but she is still full of
energy and is always longing to go
abroad and travel about - unfortunately

there is no one sufficiently congenial

as a travelling-companion to go 
with her, and she is not fit to

travel alone at her age. I wish I
could go with her, but was always
a bad traveller at the best of times.
I think she will soon have Martha
Hamersley and the children with
her again - Martha'a husband has
just been given a good appointment 

in India, and M. will not go out

with him at present. That will cheer

up Alicia as she hates being alone -

I spent 2 or 3 weeks with her in 
July and a week with Henry at
Camberley, before going to Trevor - I
had rather horrid weather every-where;
and v. little really warm
weather, for wh I was thankful. We
had glorious weather in October, more
summery than the summer and I
fancy it cheered the farmers.
I was so very interested in yr letter
to me written in August. Many thanks
for the photos &c, you sent at the same 
time, all most interesting especially
those of Naib & Violet - They look such

jolly children. You and your wife

must be very very proud of them.
I expect they are both very fond of
animals - what a queer pet the

kangaroo must be! I hope your

building venture will be a great
success - I like the look of the shopping
blocks - it is a splendid idea to
have the centre open; it will be so
much more healthy and no chance
of slums growing up - It must be 
v. interesting to an architect to
have a free hand in designing a 
city or part of it, and not be hampered
by existing buildings or private
rights. I must congratulate 
you very heartily on being promoted 
to Major General - I was the more
pleased as I fancied you had
practically retired and there was
no chance of yr getting another 
step. I don’t know what the military 
organisation is in Australia now,
do you have a standing army
as we have, or just reserves which
train part of the year? I am dreadfully 
ignorant on these matters.
I should think the one-man tanks
you mention would be exceedingly 
[*[[?]] [[?]] when about her age , too. I suppose this will reach you about
Xmas so best wishes to you all for Xmas & the New Year yr affcate
Cousin
[[?]].*]

(2
sure that they will do their best
to destroy the British Empire. Ignorance 
and malice combined have a terrible 
power for evil. As I have not been
able to study the papers lately I
did not see what happened in
N.S.W. in the October Election.
Your description of the xxx mischief the Labour
Govt. has done in Queensland shows
how short-sighted and unimaginative 
these people can be - I don’t suppose 
in that instance their intention 
was to ruin the squatters entirely.
One wonders if they are capable of 
learning by experience - if so there
would be some hope for them.
I hope there has [[been?]] more rain
lately in the dry parts of Australia,
and that your brother has not
suffered much from the drought.
I am thankful to say that we have
now got a proper supply of water
at this end of Morten - It is
delightful to be able to get water
whenever one turns a tap. I sincerely 
thought I should have to shut up 

the house and go elsewhere at one
time. I hope Melbourne water
supply will soon be improved in
the same way. What a pity about
your lawn. I heard this morning
^from Trevor the result of a great storm we had
a short time ago - It was not so bad
here - in fact I thought it rather a
mild gale compared with what we
have sometimes, but one of my 
nearest neighbours declared it
must have been over 80 miles per
hour. But further north it did no
end of damage. Emily Edwards said
the Hall rocked so that it made
her feel sea-sick, and 4 big limbs
were blown off the cedar in front
of the house and half the big
beech by the gate. Worse still, the
boiler chimney was blown down at
the works and did about £1,000 -worth
of damage besides stopping the
works - the man in charge of the 
boiler had just left to go to his
supper or would probably have been
killed - I have not heard from
Patty Whitworth very lately, but believe 
she and her husband are very well.

P.S. I was interested to hear that
you have a wireless set. I am
waiting till the portable ones 
are a little more perfect. Some
friends of mine have lately
got one & are very pleased
with it, but I haven’t heard
it yet. They say that we shall
have television as well very soon.
Nurse asks me to give you her best