Busby
July 16/62
Dear Alexr
I hope that by the
time this note arrives your father will be safely landed from his third long
voyage and that he has found you all well and prosperous. I had no time after
the arrival of your last favor (with so many newspapers) to answer it in form
but I was so far glad to find that what I had just written to you had, so far,
anticipated the subjects treated in your own.
Both Mrs Moodie and I
were highly pleased with yours, and she requests me to state that she valued
hers very much indeed, both for the kind regards it conveyed and the warm
encouragement it gave to cultivate
p.2) such friendship.
A night or two after
I posted my last, we had Mr and Mrs Robertson to tea. Our John & “friend”
of his were with us & between the new & the old we had a very happy
evening. Mrs R. is very reserved, but I attributed it in some measure to her
inability to follow our Scotch tongues. I noticed Peter had to translate
several parts of the dialogues to her. They are away back to Portsmouth now.
I had very bad fortune
at both Edinburgh and Wimbledon this year. The weather was very squally at
Edin., and I was thrown out of two separate prizes by an awkward miss - barring
these mishaps having scored well in both. I was a little disappointed but not
discouraged, and they having hopes that I would
p.3) redeem myself at
Wimbledon sent me off.
The first day there
too was very windy; right in our faces, and in spite of all my caution I was
blown off there again, however I had hopes that I would pull up at the next
ranges but, as fate had ordered, I was objected to, first - for holding my
rifle too far back; and next, with pulling my trigger in a way not taught at
“Hythe”, trying to remedy which faults quite upset me and I missed right and
left.
I got to within one
point of my last year's score by close hitting, when I did hit, but more than
that was wanted for the “Queen’s”.
I was thrown out of
the competition for the St George’s
p.4) challenge vase”(?)
owing to the neglect of our adjutant in not looking to it in time.
So there was nothing
for it then but off to the “Exhibition” before setting my face Northwards. I
was much edified by two short days’ study of the wonders stored there. I could
scarcely convey my impressions of it in a letter or I would gladly make the
attempt. I signed myself a member of the “Lanarkshire Vol. Rifle Ass’n” at the
foot of the Victoria Column and took my departure from the World's Fair, London
scarcely knowing whether I had been there or not.
So glad was I to be
speeding home again.
I hope to be excused
from a longer letter this time, promising to let you hear from me again soon,
meantime dear Alex, we send our warmest wishes and regards to you and yours. I
hope you liked the portraits. I forgot to say that our James has got a fine
school in Kilmaurs. All the best well and glad to hear from you.
I am ever
Wm Moodie
This
letter has been transcribed using Google voice typing (apologies for any
inaccuracies or grammatical oddities). I am also having trouble with the text
formatting in the posts, so apologies if the fonts look odd!
I have
inserted some extra paragraph breaks for ease of reading, and the numbers at
the start of lines show the start of a new page, e.g. p.2).
Scans of the original letter are
included below the text.
Scans of the original letter (click
on the thumbnail below for a larger image; note the order of the pages p.4-1,
then p.2-3.):
p.4,1
p.2,3
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