Item 4 - Letter from F. W. Lawrence to Edith Jane Durning-Lawrence

Bombay.—Sends part of an ‘encyclical’ (part of 5/30b), and responds to her news of family members and neighbours. The plague at Bombay presents no danger to Europeans.

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Transcript

Bombay.
Feb 23. 98

My dear Tante

I am sending you with this the conclusion of my second encyclical {1} which gives all my movements up to date so that there is very little to add.

I think it is a capital plan of yours taking the name of Durning-Lawrence, and I, for one, thoroughly approve. (Not that my lordly approval was in the least required!)

I am glad you think Harry getting on a bit but one is always so afraid that it is only a case of up & down; from a letter which I have from him this week I understand that he is now at Cannes & is going on to Nice.

You seem to have been losing several Ascot neighbours Sir R Mead &, old Dean Liddell; it was strange that he should have died so shortly after Lewis Carroll; I think you used to say Alice in Wonderland was written for one of the Dean’s children.

Out at Fatehpur Sikri I met 2 Cambridge men, brothers, of the name of Reckitt {2}; I did not know them before, but I understand the elder is MP of N. Lincolnshire & knows Uncle E a little bit.

You will probably have seen that Bombay is somewhat stricken with plague just now, but there is not the smallest danger for Europeans. Even among those brought into close contact with plague stricken people it is exceedingly rarely that anyone is affected at all.

With best love to all, hoping Uncle E is in great form in the House.

Ever Your affte Neffe
Fredk W Lawrence.

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{1} PETH 5/30b, probably pp. 91–106.

{2} Harold James and Philip Bealby Reckitt. The former was the MP.