On board the Cunard R.M.S. "Andania"Wednesday
June 28Honey dear :-
We've passed Plymouth and are now crossing the Channel obliquely on the way to Cherbourg. 'Twas interesting today. At breakfast time we could see Lands End dimly - then later the Lizard. Folks were all excited, of course, for about a third were to land at Plymouth. It rained next and then, very dimly, we made out the obelisk of the Eddystone Light. About half past eleven we saw the headland of Plymouth Harbor, Mt. Edgecomb, and a mildly interesting English girl we've met told us just where there is a charming little shore village of Downderry, too small for any map. The next excitement was the pilot. He put off in a little rowboat from a tug which pitched shockingly in water where we lay with scarce perceptible rolling. Oh, this is a good ship! He was rowed up to us in a small-sized rowboat and scrambled up a rope ladder most informally. Then we went in up a lovely harbor, whose shores we could see only occasionally. Maybe we saw the M.B.L. - the biggest in this country - but we couldn't be sure. Next came the sturdy tender, and the immigration officers came aboard - very lordly persons indeed. The British and non-British were herded separately, but we could speak to our Wisconsin friends at intervals. There were easy formalities about passports &c - but strictly individual, quite difficult in a library full on a rainy day. Then the inspected were fed and put on the tender and we waved them farewell. It has been such a nice party we've connected with! One, sort of a trailer, ass't to the Dean of Women at Wis. is left to play 500 tonight with a Mr. Low, of the Penn. Ed. dep't, and us. He's not profound, but pleasant.
Today I fell in with Prof. & Mrs. McCoy of the Univ. of Chicago. They are both in the Chem. dept. and know our girls. Sonja Waller Lawrence goes to Cincinnati (or somewhere else) next year where she and her husband can be together. Marguerite Wilcox goes to the Oklahoma College for Women at some heathen town, after getting her degree this summer. Maude Martin has done finely, has met a man named Hanky (sp?), a university fellow, who takes the second year of some elaborate fellowship at the U. of Cal. They're to be married in Sept. and go there!
Miss Williamson, Wis. dean's ass't, says Mary Jane Taylor, '20, was there this year, and bothered them. She chose to be put out of a boarding house rather than give up smoking, which is not encouraged at Wis. Some of those who keep the houses will not allow it, as in this case. Mary Jane was not at all esteemed by Prof. Commons at first, but got him to value her work before the end of the year. She is a queer one.
We shall not get to London until well along in the day tomorrow, to our regret. We are anxious to get to Oxford before Sunday and several things must be attened to first, such as French visé and lessons in the etiquette of presenting letters of introduction. These last I hope to gain from the Int. Fed. of Univ. Women. I've paid 2.00 for a fee to the A.C.A. (as was) and plan to get my money's worth.
London, July 1
We passed Cherbourg at 10 p.m. and saw the Majestic in the harbor - and go away into the first clear sunset since the U.S. Dover Cliffs were wonderful in bright sunlight, and the red-sailed Dutch fishing boats picturesque all the way to Tilbury. Awful mess of customs on board, but we survived, though the sudden showers were hard on the clothes. We landed from a tender and went up by a train, half an hour to London. A sweet Englishman - Bill Steggles - had played with a girl we knew, an English friend of a friend of Charlotte's, Miss Buttanshaw. After she left at Plymouth he took us on and was most helpful, particularly as a regular Bardeker to the coast near Dover, where he was during the war. It's amazing how suggestive it all is of those war days - and how different. He helped us land too, very sweetly. He'd be probably in the mechanic group, skilled and intelligent, but not the university kind. However he was much nicer than Mr. Low, head of the dep't of English in the Penn. state board of ed. who thought he was a wise man, and helpful to the ladies! He goes for a summer term as Oxford.
Charlotte certainly takes in all she can. She was absolutely crazy that Plymouth-London day - began by using my tooth-brush, forgot to throw away her underclothes which Scroogan neatly folded and laid by our luggage, &c. She's a good travelling companion, though she does treat me - as indeed she has all the year - like an elderly person. She had a window seat up from Tilbury, a horrid line, really, and squealed over everything from chimney pots and double-decker trams to English elms. The compartment had only folks we had met in it - a special boat train.
Our lodgings have been fine in London - we go back with great pleasure. We've met G. Bacon & her party (lunched with them) and Miss Snell - also some steamer folks. The folks at our table were a man and wife just up from South Africa, very delightful.
We landed Thurs. about 4 - got up in time for dinner. In the evening we walked and chanced in on a most remarkable Gregorian service - whole cathedral full - a long procession with wonderful banners, of choir and clergy, clear to the back of the nave - oh, quite unusual.
Yesterday we got money & mail - mostly about lodgings, though I was glad to have your Seattle letter about plans for Paradise Valley. I'm glad to hear of them and about Emma Pierce &c. Have I mentioned seeing D. Waldo pleasantly on board?
Also I bought a rain coat effect for about 32.00. I hope it will be the weight of coat I have needed s much. The color seems to me a mixture - greenish, bluish, brownish - which I can wear with anything. I have it with me. Selfridge's. We "bussed" some, but did not try to "do" anything. Got the lay of the land a good deal - I took no responsibility before. Then in the evening we went to a ground theatre - Sir Charles Hawtrey in Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure. A most interesting & exciting coedy, quite worthwhile. Today we've done more necessaries and are now starting to Oxford. I have to put on my other glasses!
Lots of love to you, honey dear -