| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding being short of time because it is Communion Sunday and because two soldiers are to call in the afternoon; one is a teacher from Inverness, 'an immense Highlander in kilts'; risen to Captain; they came to ask Uncle to help them find a hotel as the officers are always being fleeced; Uncle took them to the Massimo d'Azeglio Hotel near the Continental; Miss Senior said that her padrone had to dismiss the porter, who was receiving payment for opening the hotel door at night to men and women who then forced their way into soldiers' rooms; the two soldiers who visited were keen to hear Uncle's talk on St. Paul in Rome, which he has offered to give if they can find others interested, too; there is not enough food to give people tea so Aunt has asked Uncle to stop inviting them; Uncle is dissatisfied with breakfast as he has no sugar in his tea and only marmalade in his bread; Amelia told him that there was only one jar of marmalade left, anyway; she has turned from unsweetened cocoa to milk, but the milk is just coloured water and is still going up in price; 18 waggon loads of rice have been allowed to stand uncovered in rain at the station, so when that is sold it will also be bad; dreadful storm this week, with rain driven in even through closed windows and shutters; one bookcase was soaked and Uncle did nothing to help; visit of Mr. Scott, from Cardiff; he has had threatened bronchitis and has been laid up, though fretting over his work in Taranto; Aunt exhausted by a stream of visitors, Miss Jamieson, Mrs. Gibson, and the Deaconess; she has more work now that Ernesta has left and has gone to bed early; fortunately she has not been so busy since; more progress towards going to France; more difficulties in making sure that there will be an organist in her absence; she is to leave on the 12 June; arrangements for temporary accommodation with Mme. Guiguet who takes occasional guests to help with her son's college fees; visit to exhibition of war work at the Palazzo Chigi, the former Austrian Embassy; the orthopaedic part was no more interesting than all the rest; she has some ideas for more orthopaedic work after seeing some real mechanical devices; she is particularly interested in the facial treatments; there was also a display of beautiful work by the wounded, some of it very moving; the displays included models of radio ambulances and apparatus, photographs of stages of tuberculosis, fractures, negatives of pneumonia symptoms, presented in 'stands with electric light inside'; the two soldiers have gone to the Palatine with Uncle, who gave his lecture to eight. |