19 1 2] Miss Frances Jennings 3^7 



" 30th April. — Miss Frances Jennings appeared here this morning 

 with her donkey and van in which she has been travelling since the 

 beginning of the month, and I have established her and them in the goat 

 field. Hers is a forlorn and uncomfortable existence, though being 

 entirely out of doors she is happy, and though she is still partly para- 

 lyzed, and unable to walk or stand up except on crutches, she manages 

 to harness her donkey, and lift herself into the cart, and she travels 

 absolutely alone. She is naturally of a very fair complexion, and she 

 is much sunburnt, going bare-headed and wearing her hair in long 

 plaits. Her dress is of coarse green woollen stuff, her legs cased in 

 huge pilot boots. She has no mattress to lie on, or other bed than some 

 sheep skins, and a bit of eider-down quilt, but she says she can sleep 

 all night and more, twelve hours at a stretch. It is difficult to say 

 whether she is in her right mind or not. One would say not, except 

 that her talk, though strange, is quite reasonable ; it ripples perpetually 

 on in a very sweet voice, broken with little waves of laughter, describing 

 things she has seen and the small adventures of her life. We had our 

 tea with her in the meadow, and have lent her books, for she has none 

 with her. She lies all day on the ground, or sits in her van, which is 

 very small and low, with an oil cloth hood. For her meals she crawls 

 about gathering sticks to make a fire and hang a little pot for cocoa, 

 but she cooks nothing in the way of meat, eating bread and herbs, 

 docks, and nettles, which she finds close by. Hers is an entirely de- 

 fenceless life, except for her power of talk and her appearance of utter 

 guilelessness, but she is only twenty-six, and sufficiently attractive I 

 should say to run some risk at the hands of drunken roughs. Her 

 chief fear, however, she tells us is of slugs, and possible snakes crawl- 

 ing over her at night. I have advised her, since she intends to travel 

 all through the summer, to go north to Holywell, and bathe at St. 

 Winifred's shrine, but she says she has too little faith, though she be- 

 came a Catholic some few years ago, but I have told her that faith is 

 not necessary there for a cure, witness my own. 1 



" 2nd May. — Drove with Miss Lawrence to Reigate Priory, where 

 we lunched with the Somersets. Lady Katherine is pleasant and very 

 like her brother Osborne Beauclerk, with just his way of talking and 

 asking questions. (I had not seen them since they came to see us at 

 Sheykh Obeyd on their honeymoon tour.) I like both of them, and 

 found the house most interesting, with gardens, and grounds, the pret- 

 tiest in Surrey. 



" yd May. — The ' Times ' announces that our paper ' Egypt,' has 

 been forbidden entrance circulation and sale at Cairo, its articles ' dis- 

 turbing public order.' This is doubtless Kitchener's doing. I have 

 protested in a letter to the ' Times,' and am also writing to Grey. 



1 See Appendix VII, p. 458. 



