| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, thanking for letters; Mr. Cotterill's letter, and his request for information about a building near the Vatican, possibly S. Uffizio; he is at Viareggio and his daughter is studying in Florence; Miss Kemp's congratulations on Uncle's jubilee; she and her sister are at Melrose; Bordes is pleased with the anatomical drawings Amelia has sent him; she is eager for an answer from Dr. Jacod regarding summer work; he may be away at the front; Mlle. Pautex is now at Lyon, at the University; she is glad to have left Aix-les-Bains; there is no possibility for Aunt and Amelia to go home this summer as the crossing of women and children is forbidden - except in the case of Mrs. Brock and her daughter; Muriel Brock and Gloria Rodd are to go to Udine as they will then be able to travel home under the Red Cross; Miss Jazdowska will probably join Mrs. Brock at Turin[There were Jazdowskis associated with teaching and art in Aberdeen: James Bronislas Jazdowski, son of John, teacher in Aberdeen, graduated from Marischal College in 1856 and according to an annotation of the Search Room student list died in Rome in 1902]; Mrs. Brock and Muriel went to Naples with Lady Rodd's neice and nephew, but they were not invited to stay at Lady Rodd's villa, and so left for Amalfi; Dr. Brock has also been to Naples, but is now back in the north; Aunt has been visiting Mrs. Cardinali, who is very feeble and dying, though the doctor is trying to make the most of it by keeping her alive longer; she has been prescribed milk and injections of camphorated oil; the Italian doctors order injections for everything; she is too thin to take it, and has bedsores as well; her cousin is paying for everything; some notes on her family background and reasons for the cousin's generosity; her influence at the Trinity church and fights with people there; her affairs have been sorted out as far as possible so that things should go smoothly when she does die; Mrs. Courtenay is the clergyman's wife there and throws herself into parish duties but with no sympathetic feelings; she has tea meetings as ploys, and though she rather looks down on Mrs. Polkinghorne she is happy to avail herself of her drawing room for these events; she spoke at a mothers' meeting recently on children, but her own son's marriage was announced to them through a friend; Mrs. Polkinghorne's foot is improving; Amelia's lessons with Mr. Green have finished; the final stages of her learning; the advantages and drawbacks of his teaching; comments on Macdonald Smith's method of piano teaching; criticism of English teaching methods; renewed appreciation of Herr Pfannstiehl; busy with Mrs. Fleming's belongings and taking an inventory of her trunks, changing the camphor, etc.; trouble with new passport photographs and a lazy photographer; visit of Mr. Irving and Uncle's forthcoming trip to Florence for the Presbytery; Aunt and Amelia will clean the dining room in his absence. |