 | Lady Layard’s Journal Go to a Date Search the Journal |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |
16 November 1899 — Trent | |
Thursday. 16th [November 1899]. I woke this morning a good deal better & got up for 9 o’cl breakfast. Afterwards H.M. took me into the drawing room alone & made me sit by her side & after making me promise that what she told me would never never pass my lips—she told me the real truth about her illness. She spoke so simply & calmly about it that it helped me to hear it the better. I had feared instinctively that something was very wrong & had been relieved when she had only spoken last night of rheumatism. She said she had wished to tell me but had confided to none of her own family but the Queen. She said that rheumatism gave her a very good excuse to be quiet this winter in Italy wh she was told was the best thing for her, & that she knew I would feel for her & sympathise & with tears in our eyes we kissed each other. Then she turned cheerfully to other things & began to read to me from the papers the news from the Transvaal. After a short time she retired to her room & sent for me there to sit with her & showed me the pictures of her grandchildren & she took her knitting while I read to her from the Times about the War. I said something about the insolence of the Boers at their “ultimatum” & the behaviour of the Germans. She said “What do you think I did when Ct Seckendorff was reading to me the telegrams in the papers? It put me into such a rage I seized the paper out of his hand & tore it to bits!” At 11 she said she would like to walk so we went out. It was a fine day & warm but a horrid wind blew the dust in clouds. We returned to the hotel at 12.20 & at 1 assembled at lunch, at wh the Dr also appeared. At 2.30 we set out for a drive—but the wind was so high & the dust so choking that we had to turn back from the mountain road & then find the road in the valley but it got rougher & rougher & finally H.M. decided to give up the attempt & we returned to the hotel at 3.30 & rested till 5 in our rooms when we went down to tea for ½ hour & then retired to our rooms till dinner at 8. The household played whist & I sat & talked to H.M. while she knitted till nearly ten when we retired for the night. I played patience & went to bed at 11 but slept very badly. | |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |