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Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Thanks for the two letters; is glad that Janet is coming to see Elizabeth and will be very pleased if they can be real friends; hopes Robert will like her too. Elizabeth need not go to Pen Moel if she does not want to; sure Aunt M[argaret Price] would understand. Sorry to hear about Dr Cacciola's illness; Florence will be 'much alarmed'; good the nephew Elizabeth mentions is nearby. Booa [Mary Prestwich] thinks the picture must be at Elizabeth's house. Very hot here. George is coming back on Monday, quite suddenly, so 'everyone can be told [about his engagement]'. Very glad Elizabeth is having music; 'fancy quartettes in Dorking!'. Mrs [Kate?] Courtney asked her to meet Mrs Pierson, but she could not go that afternoon ; Sir George met him there at breakfast. They return to town on 8 June; asks if Robert is coming to the [Apostles'] dinner on 17 June. Wants to have a family party with all the Wards; asks if they could come on the 15th or 16th.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Lord Wolseley and his daughter [Frances], 'one of the C. Booth girls [Imogen]', Henry James and 'the L Courteneys [sic: Leonard Courtney and his wife?] have been staying at Welcombe; the weather is glorious. Expects the next month will be trying for Bessie; hard to leave 'such a kind home'; everyone will try to make it up to her. The Trevelyans are 'not very demonstrative' but already feel that Bessie is one of them. Charles and George have spent some time at Welcombe, but left yesterday; Sir George goes to London on Tuesday; she herself is staying till the 26th as her sister Mrs Price and her boys are coming to see some of the Shakespearean plays. Charles and George both hope to come to the wedding. Robert will be in London before long to settle some 'law business'. Thinks Bessie will be able to get Robert 'gradually into more regular habits', and he will see that 'batchelor [sic] habits cannot be continued'. Wise to choose the long sofa; will tell Mrs Enticknap when the things are to be expected. Has had a 'nursing meeting' and bazaar opening this week. Sir George is writing to Bessie's uncle. Asks whether it will be hot in the Hague in June.

Writes on the death of Henry Sidgwick to express his sympathy and that of his wife with Nora on her loss. Assures her that she is not alone in her grief. States that he and his wife heard the news of Henry' death 'with the greatest sense of loss and of sympathy with' Nora. Claims that when he saw Henry 'off Langham Place' he thought 'the world might have the benefit of his clear wisdom for some years', but now regrets that it was not to be. Relates that the last time he had seen Henry before that encounter was at a meeting of the Political Economy Club; they walked to Downing Street together, but as their conversation was not finished, Henry accompanied him farther. Reports that they were both downhearted about public affairs, but realises now that Henry had problems of his own, and that it was just before the resignation of his Chair [of Moral Philosophy at Trinity College]. Remarks on the loss to Cambridge that has been caused by Henry's death. Adds that the thought that comforts him is the fact that Nora is not left without good and [ ] work to do, and that she may always remember that it was Henry's also.

The papers consist of correspondence, printed material, writings, personal papers, and photographs documenting the English life of Erskine Childers. The correspondence includes incoming letters to Erskine and to Molly Childers, copies of letters sent by Erskine, and a large number of letters written to others from others.

There are over 75 letters from Erskine to Molly dated 1903-1913; Erskine's other principal correspondents include Ian Hamilton, Field Marshal Frederick Roberts, and Basil Williams. Molly's principal correspondents include Benoît-Constant Coquelin, Kate Courtney, and John Singer Sargent. The collection includes letters from a variety of other correspondents, among them Edward Arnold, Julian Corbett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, William James, Lord Kitchener, J. Ellis McTaggart, Walter Runciman, George Bernard Shaw (to Emily Ford), and G. M. Trevelyan.

Printed material includes cuttings of reviews for 'The H.A.C. in South Africa', 'The Times History of the war in South Africa', 'War and the Arme Blanche', 'The Riddle of the Sands', and 'The German Influence on British Cavalry'; cuttings of articles on cruising printed in 'The Times' from 1907-1913; as well as two issues of 'Poblacht na hÉireann' from 21, 23 October, 1922.

The collection also includes a holograph poem apiece by Bronson Alcott and William Ellery Channing, photographs of Benoît-Constant Coquelin, and a signed photograph of Sarah Bernhardt.