BR TO ROLLO RUSSELL, 7 AUG. 1887
BRACERS 53646. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 1: #4
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

Breslin’s Hotel
<Ireland>
August  7. 1887

Dear Uncle Rollo

I have just got Granny’s letter; please thank her very much for it. I think Auntie is going to write to her to-day.

We have had most lovely weather ever since we came, and it has never been too hot because of the sea. Yesterday we drove to Powerscourt, which is a most lovely place. It began by a few drops of rain in the morning, but our usual driver was perfectly certain it would be fine, so we risked it, and it turned out a perfect day. There is a most splendid waterfall, where the Dargle falls a tremendous height over the rocks. We had our luncheon close to the waterfall, and were immediately surrounded by wasps, which didn’t prevent our enjoying it immensely. Powerscourt is an immense place, that took us about an hour to drive through. It is full of most beautiful trees, with high hills, wooded right up to the top. On our way home, I got out and walked by a short cut through a most lovely wood, with the Dargle flowing at the bottom of it. There is a great deal of fine scenery about here, and it changes very suddenly from woods to wild rocky precipices, which is quite a different kind of beauty.

Granny says Caractacus1 has grown very savage, which I am very sorry for; I wonder why he should take to biting, as he never used to. I suppose he isn’t ridable now, is he?

We daren’t talk Home Rule in the Hotel, as everybody, especially Mrs. Breslin, seems to be very much against it. Auntie would like to play the Wearing of the Green, as we have a Piano here, only she is too much afraid of Mrs. Breslin. She makes up for it by talks with our driver, who quite forgets about his horse and everything when he’s having a conversation. Luckily it’s a very quiet horse, that goes on quite steadily by itself. He doesn’t think Home Rule will ever pass, but he has curious ideas of the good it will do if it does. All the pigs, cattle, etc. are to stay in the country, instead of being exported to England and America. He seems to think that the chief advantage of it.

Your letter to Port Rush arrived some days ago, but Granny’s never came, though Auntie wrote to Port Rush to forward letters. Auntie thinks Granny must have left it in her blotting-book, or done something like that.

This is a splendid place for bathing; they don’t have bathing-machines all along the sand, but special places where one gets a box, and where they have planking all out into the sea to dive off. The men’s place is in a little bay, where one is sheltered from the wind and the waves, and can swim very easily.

I have got a good way into Castle Daly,2 which I like more and more. I have been reading Midsummer Night’s Dream over again too; I don’t think I like it quite as well as Julius Caesar.

Auntie wants to know if you have read of the meeting of the Landlords at Omagh; there is a lot about it in the Irish Papers.3

Auntie says, once for all, that she is as well as possible. If she’d thought you wanted to know how she looked, she would have had her photograph taken at the waterfall. I think she does look very well.

Your loving
Bertie.

• 1

  Caractacus Caractacus was a donkey which had been Russell’s pet at Pembroke Lodge. There is a picture in the Russell Archives of Russell as a small boy riding him.

• 2

  Castle Daly A novel set in Ireland by the popular Victorian novelist Annie Keary.

• 3

  meeting of the Landlords at Omagh … Irish PapersThe Times, at any rate, did not report it. In all probability it was a meeting called to protest the passage in July 1887 of an Irish Land bill that made a number of concessions to the nationalists.