Edgehill

I spent the night at Trafalgar and then we were taken by car to Elmwood where we had a delicious lunch. I had three helpings of strawberries. 50 of us went by bus to Montreal station where again we were met by a lot of photographers, before we boarded the train. I was photographed on the engine of the train. The scenery from the train was quite different from anything I have seen before.

We woken at 4.30 in our bunks as we had to catch the ferry boat across the Bay of Fundy. … At Digby we disembarked and caught the train to Windsor. I spent most of the time in the observation car. I was fourth in the relay for lunch and by then the train had run out of strawberries, but more were procured.

We arrived at Windsor about three. There more photos were taken. Some say that nearly all the town was out to see us.

I had my first night at Edgehill. We went to church and everyone seemed to stare at us – the girls from the battlefield fortress of England. The service was very difficult to follow because it was communion and different from ours. The sermon was very patriotic and both King George and God were put on the same footing. It was odd to sing ‘God Save the King’ in the middle.

In the afternoon Judge Sangster drove us across the bridge in the direction of Hartsport where we saw a pulp mill and bales of pulp waiting to be shipped or loaded into a freight car. ‘Uncle’ as Judge Sangster wished to be called, took to us to see a doctor friend where at the bottom of his garden was the river Avon. A tidal river the difference between high and low tide being 70 feet.

Then came the great thrill. We went to see an Indian Reservation. The government had built houses for the “Red Indians” who lived a feeble existence on Government money. One, a John Knockwoot put on his wardress for our benefit complete with a headdress of feathers. I asked him to speak some ‘Indian’ and he said “Au Revoir”

We spent the morning at Egdehill and then went into the town. One of our party asked what the sign to the museum was and then we were very kindly taken to the place itself. It is a called Clifton belonged to Judge Haliburton, a writer if I am not mistaken

(Haliburton was well-known in the nineteenth century for his comic writings, which first appeared in book form in The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville of 1836 where the expression ‘Mad as a Hatter’ may have emanated.)

In the after we went for a picnic. We climbed a hill and gathered wild strawberries. Here we seem to eat nothing but strawberries.

In the evening we had been asked by the manager to go and see ‘Abraham Lincoln in Illinois’. We saw the film. The trains in the film had not changed much from the train we travelled in to Windsor. (Known as the Blueberry Express they were so slow that it was said it was possible to get out and pick blueberries?)

This afternoon, Mr Stephens, the churchwarden organised an expedition to Grand Pre to see Evangeline.1 We saw the well, the church and Evangeline herself, a statue with large feet out of all proportion to the figure. The little ornamental pond had water lilies of all kinds and colours growing in it and little blue dragonflies flitted over the water. We went to Kentville where we had a polar ice and an ‘Oh Henry’, which was peanuts in toffee covered with chocolate.

Having packed our luggage, Jacquie, Renee, Pat and myself carried our luggage outside and packed it into the cars of Mr Hunt, the minister and Miss Roeckling. (the headmistress) Miss Roeckling in the lead, drove us out of Edgehill. We did not drive far on pavement, but soon turned on to a washboard road, so-called because of the ridges made by the cars. The scenery was extremely pretty. There were quite a number of natural rock gardens, much better than the Chelsea Flower Show. The trees were mostly fir trees and we drove through a forest without seeing any sign of human habitation. The only bit of life I saw was a deer, a lovely red creature standing upright against, a tree watching us pass. The journey was only 36 miles, but seemed much longer because of the very hilly and winding road.. We stopped for lunch and again had strawberries and cream

We arrived at Dr and Mrs Woodroofe (in Chester) at about half past two. They live in a dear little Dutch house quite near to the sea. We were taken round the shores and saw the water at high tide.

We breakfasted at half past nine having gone to bed at twenty to one, day light time. At Windsor they have daylight time and at Chester standard. We have changed our watches about eight times since we left England.

We watched Jacquie and Renee play tennis and in the afternoon eleven us went out in a motor boat and a rowing boat to Birch Island. There we bathed in the clear water. One of the boys showed us a sea gulls nest with a baby bird in it. Then we sat down in a bed of masses of strawberries and picked them by the handful. They were simply delicious. Then we went back. This time I was in the rowing boat being towed. The water was slightly choppy and the water came in every now and then. We passed through a shoal of jellyfish. I have never seen so many in my life.

The summer continued, idyllic in every sense. The Canadian’s showered us with invitations. I stayed at first with Dr and Mrs Woodroofe with Patricia Hollis. Each day we seem to play anything up to five sets of tennis with Renee and Jacquie who stay across the road with the dentist and his wife, Dr and Mrs Croft. We appeared from my diary to be continually making sandwiches either for picnics, the yacht club teas or perhaps a local fete. I described a picnic on the beach at Hubbard’s where the sands on the beach were white and silvery. After the picnic “I went in for a “glorious bathe. The best I have had this year. It was quite cold getting in, but once in it was lovely. I could have stayed in forever almost. We swam out to a raft with a diving board on it The water was beautifully clear, and we could see the bottom of the sea, but it was impossible to dive from it as the waves were rocking the raft up and down.”

We went by motorboat towing a rowboat to Birch Island. We anchored outside Birch Island and were rowed to the shore. Settling down on a chosen spot we gathered wood for the fire. Then we piled up stones from the beach both to sit on and for the fire. Phil (a local boy) brought the rowboat out and I tried to row. The attempt was not too successful. After coming out we found the ‘weenies’ (Vienna sausage) were frying and nearly ready. They were good and after that came the clams. I had quite a few of them. At dusk we lit the bonfire and sat round it and talked and sang a bit and told stories. I was teased a lot about the number of clams I ate.

The days went by with numerous games of tennis each day, swimming off the wharf, many invitations, and visits to Lunenburg, Bridgewater, Fox Cove and Deep Cove. “A kind of fiord with very steep side and fir trees growing on the banks. The water was a beautiful deep green and reflected from the trees.

We decided to go to Marriott’s Cove. We packed sandwiches and pat concocted a butterfly net. Just before we started, Colonel and Mrs Laurie with their married daughter called. They are very talkative and I should think a very merry family. Mrs Laurie’s eyelids flapped all the time and the married daughter lisped and stuttered a bit. Colonel Laurie’s voice was very deep and Mrs Laurie2 and her daughter had – high-pitched voices. (Mrs Laurie is English and lived in Blackheath for a time before coming out here.)

We went to the Yacht Club for tea. We have been given many privileges of the Yacht Club. I don’t know who is the kind person in authority there. We were introduced to lots of new people, but I hardly caught anyone’s name. Many of the people there were Americans spending their summer vacation in the North. One old man whose name seemed to have appeared on Dollar notes told us of the ignorance of Americans. He said quite lately they heard of some who arrived with skis thinking that Nova Scotia was cold in summer! I much prefer the Canadians to the Americans.

Mr Kaseby took us for a sail in his boat in Chester basin. (It was reckoned that there were 365 islands in the bay.) Although there was no breeze in the bay, out among the islands there was quite a wind. We took it in turns to sit on the bow and the waves which broke by the boat, splashed over us. That was a lovely sensation. After supper we went to a Canadian Legion garden party and I had clam chowder for the first time.

That evening Dorothy (Dora) and [Fabian Pease] arrived about 11.30 having just come over from England.3

The whole family were woken at 5.30 by the children singing and talking. In the evening Pat and I put the children to bed. I looked after Fabian, gave him a bath and put him to bed in his cot. Then I read from Mr Toolledoo to them and then told them a story.

Friday is the day of the Red Cross Garden Party. In the morning we decorated the Red Cross stall with red, white and blue paper and posted flags everywhere and it looked quite nice till the wind sprung up and blew the flags out of place. The whole garden part collected about 1000 dollars.

26 years ago war was declared in 1914. It is dreadful to think we in the midst of another World War.

Instead of going to church I looked after the children. … Later their sister, Chenda came round with a Japanese doll for Dora and a book and a wheelbarrow for Fabian. In the afternoon we went out on the motor yacht ‘Oh Yeah’ with Mrs Wortz and the ‘girls’. The girls were all over 50 years of age. We went round the island and came back in time for tea at Mrs Chenalls. Dora and Fabian were there.

In the morning we finished the doll for the church sale which was to take place in the afternoon. As the tide was high the children, Mrs Woodroofe, the children, Pat and I went swimming off Miller’s wharf. There were quite a lot of jellyfish in too.

Mrs Bell came for the children to go to tea with her. Pat stayed behind but I went. Mrs Bell has a lovely house looking over the back harbour. At the bottom of her garden is the water where she has a wharf. To get there one has to go through small wood. The children had brought their sailing small boats and lost them many a time in the water.

Yesterday I visited Halifax for the first time. Mrs Bell took Pat and myself. Mrs Bell had to see the American Consul and as it was 2 o’clock by standard time by our time we had to hurry. Later we went to see the Citadel and Bedford Basin where there some oil tankers waiting. Mrs Bell asked a streetcar driver where the jail was and a soldier was very amused.

Miss Doughie, the ‘girls, Mrs Woodroofe, the children and myself went to Oak Island. We went by motorboat and disembarked at the wharf. We went to see the excavations. (Oak Island was famous and still is, as a site for buried treasure. Numerous excavations have been carried out with the hope of finding the treasure. Some theories suggest that it could be Pirate plunder, Spanish gold or the lost fortunes of the holy warriors, the Templar Knights. I was told it might be Captain Kidds’s hoard.)

This morning I started my letter home, but had to discontinue on account of the sandwiches we had to make for the picnic in the afternoon. At about 1.15 we congregated at the Government wharf. About 30 of us got on the motorboat while the rest got in a smaller one. We went to Winters Island near Mrs Finney’s Hat. Some of us bathed in the little sheltered bay diving off the motorboat. Then we played or tried to play softball. It was dreadful as I was the first girl to go in and I had neither held a softball bat or stick before in my life. Then we trailed down the beach to have the salad supper and sandwiches. We sat round the fire and toasted marshmallows before we went home. En route I saw about 5 shooting stars.

Mrs Bell came this morning and asked Pat and I to go on a picnic. Later when she arrived she asked the children to go too. We went in to cars first to Deep Cove and stopped for a while picking wild raspberries and seeing a blue coloured kingfisher. We drove on to New Harbour and Mr Mcmann, Pat and myself went round to the point to the lighthouse which was being repainted. We threw stones into the water that was beautifully clear and a lovely blue out to the sea though the sun was slightly hidden by a haze. We drove home through Hubbards. The scenery was beautiful and we stopped at one point to see a tuna fishing boat trailing some rowing boats towards some fishnets.

The days went by with many games of tennis and with swimming often of Millers wharf or that of the Yacht Club. We were regularly invited out by kind Canadians to tea, to sail in their yachts, to tea or to drive in their cars when going to places of interest. We were fortunate to meet the Wimbledon tennis champion, Dorothy Round, Mrs Little. We often went to the cinema. One film was about Albert Ball, an air hero of the Great War Air, who shot down 43 German planes. [Some years later we were to live in a house owned by his father in Nottingham.]

Today we went to Halifax with Mrs Bell. We had to take Bubbles, her Airedale. Pat had an appointment to with Prof. Bennett about her next term at Dalhousie College. Later we went to the Stanleys. And had tea there. Pat is to stay there during her term at Dalhousie. We drove round the Citadel and saw some quite large ships in the harbour including a destroyer.

Phil asked if Pat and I could go out in the motorboat for an hour. We arrived at Bingham’s wharf and in a few minutes the boat arrived. Phil seemed prepared to out tuna fishing hoping he would catch nothing. In the middle of the expedition the motor broke down and I went in for a dip. After supper I went canoeing in the back and front harbour. The phosphorescence was superb and the paddle made a path of fire in the water. I never knew that phosphorescence could be as strange as that.

I had a super day today. In the morning we played tennis. After lunch Mrs Bell called and presented me with a lovely invitation. She is going to adopt me and pay for my fees. I now not only feel dependent, but my parents will be pleased. After going to the Flicks in the evening there was a phone call from Halifax from Mrs Balders asking me to stay a week there.

I got up at 6.30 to pack my belongings so that I could play tennis before breakfast. I telephoned Mrs Balders and said “I would love to come”. At half past two Renee and Jacq drove up from Crescent Beach at and arrived a the same time as Mrs Balders. The Balders had a chauffeur who had been a cowboy on the Prince of Wales Ranch. We boarded our luggage on the cars and then ourselves. We had a picnic on the road halfway back. After we had deposited our luggage we changed for tennis and then we changed again for dinner.

After dinner we went out in the canoe and then bathed of the wharf in the (North West Arm). In the evening Mrs Balders had a cocktail party. We played tennis till the guests had arrived and then went up and changed. One of the guests, a Commander Layton knew my father and had an explosion in the Labs with him. Another Admiral Bonham-Carter was President of the College for a time. (Royal Naval College, Greenwich).

As Renee was stuck in a book I went off gaily for a canoe ride till I found that I could not get round further abreast with the wind. I once turned round was on my way back when the wind swivelled me round. The only thing for me was to tie the canoe up and get the Major to help me get it back.

The next few days continued at Mrs Balders with frequent games of tennis, swimming and diving in the water and canoeing in the North West Arm.

On this day a year ago War was declared at 11 o’clock by Mr Chamberlain on Germany. During that time the world has completely changed and many countries France, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Luxemburg, Denmark, Norway have been annihilated. The only country to stand on it own was Finland. Now after a year of war we stand with our backs to the wall resisting air attack after air attack left with no ally and only the British Empire to back us up. The colonies and Dominions have been marvellous sending over men and machinery for a cause, which is theirs, seems thousands of miles away. It seems dreadful that these kind people should suffer too although they have to put up with a thousandth less than every single person in England.

Now the adventure of coming here is over, I turn and think whether I should enjoy an air-raid or two. I don’t think I would, as it is only fair to others to do is to shelter and in that way there would be no excitement in it.

In the afternoon we went on the Seaborne. We walked in the sultry hot weather to the ferry and went across the Arm (North West Arm) that way. On the other side the staff car was waiting for us driven by a naval rating. Collecting Mrs Leighton on the way we drove right to the gangway beside the Seaborne. We had tea on the stern on board ship in the open. Except that the cakes were stale and the dust and the smells of the dockyard blew about and by the time we left we were almost black with grime, we enjoyed ourselves.

This morning I got up at 7.30 daylight time with Renee in order that we should get to Chester by 9 o’clock. When I arrived there I found a letter from Mrs Bell asking me to go and stay with her till the end of the holidays. I did not go immediately as to day we were going to visit Phil’s camp.

This morning I played tennis with Pat. At a quarter to twelve Mrs Bell came over and fetched Pat and myself and we then drove over to the Woodroofes where we dropped Pat and I picked up my luggage. In the afternoon I unpacked and then went to see Chenda’s bic. and pumped the tyres up so that I could drive down to see Pat. I helped Pat put the children to be and read to them. Of course Fabian never listens but he misses the reading.

We went to New Ross with Mrs Bell who had business with some branches of the Red Cross. It is surprising the number of garments and socks that people living in the small houses in such a small district could produce. Pat came too and so did Bubbles. Mrs Bell took us to see the views. The view I liked immensely was the one at the New Ross crossroads looking down on to a lake with its feeders running thorough some verdant fields. The view reminded me of the Avon or perhaps the source of the Thames and it made me feel quite homesick.

I cycled down to the Woodroofes. Miss Fowkes asked us to go sailing. It was a marvellous sail. Usually I don’t like it but this time it was really worth it. The wind changed its direction many times and after a while the sea came quite rough - sometimes the waves would rise 40 feet high. We did not arrive at our destination because a squall blew up a round Mrs Finney’s Hat.

This morning I went fishing for the first time in my life and really enjoyed myself although I got pretty cold, partly because I went bathing first. I sat in the little rowing boat behind the motor boat and started well by catching a perch. But next I caught five codfish. One after the other, but poor Philip did nothing but put them on the boat. The next day I caught quite a variety and more than anyone. I started with a small codfish, then to scalpins, a skate , 2 flat fish and a conger eel which was a nasty looking object. In the afternoon I went on a picnic to Winter’s Island where I bathed again and picked mushrooms.

Back to school. How dreadful! We went back in the foulest of weather of weather to Edgehill. It was supposed to be a tornado. I found I was over at the K.C.S. building (King’s College School) and sharing a room with Averil and Betty.

Kings College Annexe

Continued on part two.

1 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), the well known American poet upon hearing of the story of the Expulsion of the Acadians wrote an epic tragic poem called Evangeline in 1847, immortalizing the event.

2 Pat (Patricia Hollis) stayed at the house called Oakfield. It was owned by Colonel Laurie whose distant grandfather had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria’s father, Colonel Laurie and his Oakfield estate were fascinating. He was one of the finest men I have even met. Oakfield had its own station – the railway from Halifax to Montreal and we could flag train to stop if we wished to catch it. Colonel Laurie had a big black Buick car and as we went over the line in it he would say ‘one look and we are over’. Before the family had the house fire it was full of precious family possessions and the whole experience was a step back in time to be there. Each morning we all, including the staff, gathered for round the breakfast table for morning prayers and bible reading. ’ I believe Colonel Laurie’s father had been Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire)

Once by the lake, he told the story of an eagle flying away with a baby - relative. if you can believe it! I remember he and his wife discussing how they would be buried in the grounds of the family church, and how the rock would have to be blasted away. The estate is now called Laurie Park

3 Dora and Fabian were the youngest children of the Michael and Helen Pease and aged about 3 or 4 and 5 or 6 respectively years. They were a Quaker family and the Edward Pease, the children’s grandfather, had been a founder member of the Fabian Society. They had come with Richenda, their sister. Richenda stayed with Mrs Winthrop Bell. Michael Pease and Winthrop Bell knew each other from their enforced stay at the German internment camp, Ruhleben where academics who had studying in Germany were interned in the First World War. Their maternal grandfather was Josiah Wedgewood VI. Richenda married Andrew F. Huxley (The Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine in 1963.)

Sunday 30th June

Monday 1st July

Tuesday 2nd July

Wednesday- 3rd July