BR TO ROLLO RUSSELL, 25 DEC. 1886
BRACERS 53648. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 1: #3
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Pembroke Lodge.
Richmond Park.
Christmas 1886

Dear Uncle Rollo

My letter will be too late to wish you a merry Christmas, but I will wish you a happy New Year. I am very sorry I never saw you to say goodbye; I did not know you were going till I was at Dover Street.

I suppose it is very warm at Nice, isn’t it? We have had skating here; to-day it is a splendid morning with a west wind and a hoar frost on the ground.

Jemmie1 has gone home to Yorkshire for his holidays, and Ernest2 stayed here a few days. Mr Ewen3 has gone to Plymouth for a fortnight’s holiday, so I am alone in the schoolroom. Auntie has given me a splendid book, called A child of the Revolution, by the author of the Atelier du Lys.4 She and I have begun reading it together.^a Grandmamma Stanley gave me a Shakespeare, one in small volumes in a case; about as fine an edition as possible. Wasn’t that a magnificent present?

Neither Granny nor Auntie has caught cold, in spite of the cold weather.

My examination finished on Friday,5 and I have holidays now till Mr Ewen comes home, which is a very pleasant change.

It is curious how few holly-berries there are this year; I don’t think I have seen one about the place. There are very few decorations about the house this year; I haven’t even decorated the schoolroom, I didn’t think about doing it till this morning.

It is a pity they are so slow telling one about the result of the Exam; they don’t let one know till March; by that time all the excitement is over. It is time to get ready for church now, so goodbye

Your loving
Bertrand Russell.

P.S. Baby is very flourishing, and has learnt a lot of tricks, such as blowing the candle when he’s told, clapping his hands, and a lot of things like that. I think blowing the candle is quite a new thing.

• 1

  Jemmie James Hugh (“Jimmie”) Baillie (1872–1956), one of Russell’s few childhood friends. He used to stay at Pembroke Lodge, where he attended classes with Russell. Russell kept in touch with him in later years, visiting him in Vancouver in 1929 and corresponding with his family into the 1960s.

• 2

  Ernest Ernest Logan, another friend who had attended Russell’s kindergarten at Pembroke Lodge. Russell had learnt the facts of life from him a few years earlier.

• 3

  Mr Ewen John F. Ewen was the most sympathetic of Russell’s tutors. From him Russell learnt for the first time of Karl Marx and non-Euclidean geometry. He had left by 1888, probably because he was thought to be undermining Russell’s religious faith.

• 4

  author of the Atelier du Lys Margaret Roberts, a popular novelist of the time.

• 5

  My examination finished on Friday It is not clear what examinations these were.

• a

  She and I have begun reading it together. Omitted in SLBR.