Sunday
Sep
September
- 22 1855
Greenock
My dearest Ben
Yesterday – coming in from Belfast I found your letter of
Sep
September
. 3rd – It grieves me so to think you
have had no letters – I have sent you four – (this being No 5 –) all I have posted myself – The first was written either the end of
July or the first few days of
Augst
August
– from Lynover –
2nd & 3rd from
Pmalder – (2nd went on to Minna who posted it in London) 4th I posted last week in Belfast – You have had Lloyds regularly since I knew you were at
Balaklava. – I have
addressed all like this letter – as you told me - &
each letter has had 3 stamps – each newspaper one (& stamped besides) as they
told me at the Post-Office – My 1st letter ought to have
met you at Balaklava – you
must inquire particularly – Allan made enquiries yesterday of the postmaster here – who gave him
the printed form for “missing letters” – but it will do no good for I can’t remember
the day & hour I posted them – They must be lying somewhere at Balaklava – Can they have gone to
the other branch of the AWC –
Bentsy? – Or perhaps the next mail may have brought them all in
a heap – I do earnestly hope so – To think of you not hearing for two months. – Did
you fancy Sister was forgetting you – or that I had gone to the other world where
there isn’t a post office – which would be indeed the likeliest reason of the two. –
Of course I did not write till about three weeks after you sailed – lest if you were
not come it might miss you. – I counted about a fortnight for the post – which I see
takes 20 days – so if Minna
delayed posting letter No 2 – it is just possible it may
have reached you after this one of yours was posted – But I fear we must give up No 1 as a hopeless case. However never mind –
it was only one of Sister’s usual
– & a note also from May.
– The remainder will likely have reached you safe – if you are on the spot to seize
the mail – I can’t tell you how much I feel my Ben’s writing so good &
regularly – though not a line comes from me – but you must know well that as long as
Sister is in this world
nothing would keep her from writing – & Minna and Marian the same – if I were out of
it. – No one can be surer of the faithfulness of your few belongings & friends
than you ought to be. – Your hard work – & the cholera all about – makes me very
uneasy – especially as I know getting no letters must have made you feel so dull –
& so inclined you to illness – But I trust you are safe in spite of all – & –
take all precautions for yourself – If anything of the like happens – never mind
however long you may be in getting letters – be sure they are written regularly –
with rarely more than a fortnights interval, in this last fortnight I have written
thrice. – May & Minna I heard from after I posted
the last – they both send love but “can’t find anything to say important enough for
one of the takers of Sebastopol” – I dare say they will write next time – They will be so
glad of this last – which I send to Lynover tomorrow – Minna & her
mama came home yesterday, I believe, from their country cousins – &
May & her mother will be at home
yesterda tomorrow – For me – I am having my last
Sunday in the wee
Cottage – Weirie & I
being sitting in the parlour – while Allan is writing his novel in
the next room. – Maggie is
away to St
Andrews – so the household is diminished to the three – Allan – Weirie & Jamie – some day this week I leave –
& go direct to the Chambers – who are living in the habitable part of Roslin Castle – It will be
pleasanter & better than going to stay in Glasgow – as I am not strong – &
the close air would soon pull me down again. – Perhaps I may come back round by
Glasgow – & so per
Grasmer to Liverpool – I quite like the transit by water – have now made three
passages & never been sick at all – have learned to sleep as cosily in a berth as
in a bed. – I left the Craiks – the
girls starting off magnificent in pink not to Lady Dufferin’s – who by the bye
wrote me such a kind note asking me to put off my going a day & come to dinner –
but I didn’t – for a Cottage Sunday was never far like a dinner at Clandeboye – & besides I had
promised to see Maggie
before she left. – So off I came – Annette seeing me to the boat. – Mr Craik took down your address
& will send you newspapers when he can. Poor Mrs Craik is I fancy worse – She
was very much excited more than once during the week I stayed. – What a terrible
thing for Min & the
girls! –
Yesterday I read in the Greenock paper – (by-the bye Allan couldn’t send you last
Saturday’s Lloyd – there being not one in the town! – but I know May sent it you from London – ) I read Simpson’s dispatch
about Sebastopol – I
wonder where you were that wonderful Sunday – the Sunday after you were writing to me
quietly in your cabin. – Tis a strange world – The repost of the Russians quitting
the Crimea has not been
confirmed – but I should think they wouldn’t hold on long –
If peace comes – what will they do with the litof? – But you are
safe to get on anyhow. – You have put your foot in the ladder & up you’ll climb –
I think from what you say that the litof work must be out of
harm’s way – for all but sickness – & sickness – please God – you will stand
against – unless you are too hard worked – No fear of your
falling ill through love of “beer” – I shall long so for your next – with news of
Sebastopol – They are
still wild about the victory – The Lacin sent £50 to the man who transmitted the telegraph message to
Balmoral with the news –
Your friend Mr Reynolds has
come out to the loyal line – he travelled with the Queen north – & she being too soon
at
Edin
Edinburgh
– there were no preparations & he spread his plaid for
her to walk on. – There was a man killed close to her carriage – & Mr Reynolds had to go & tell
her – & ask her Majesty to change her carriage – he says
she spoke so kind & has given £30 per week to
the man’s widow. – Mr
Reynolds enquired so cordially after you – wished he had seen more of
you – one of the engineers he sent you to was enquiring for you lately – I
conclude about war – So even if the AWC is disbanded – you need not mind –
& I shall get my boy
safe home – & the war over. –
Now I haven’t anything more to say – as indeed it isn’t five days since I wrote last
– But I feel so troubled about your getting no letters that I write again – surely
some one of them will have reached you. – Goodbye again. – You need never fear being
forgotten here at home – I will try & get a Lloyd – at all events a paper of some
sort to send with this. No letters have come from Australia – God bless my Ben –
Your
affec
affectionate
Sister –