Wollongong, NS Wales, Australia, 14th August 1888

c/o Stanley Alexander Pepys
Wollongong
N.S. Wales
14 Aug. 1888

My dearest Mamie,

You see we have come down here and we like being here very much. We were to have left Manly last Wednesday, but it was a very bad day, blowing and raining and as Anna had toothache the day before, we decided to put off our journey.

I telegraphed to your Uncle Stanley that I had done so and wrote to make an appointment with a dentist in Sydney. I was not at all well the next day so I let Anna go to the dentist with the Christian girls. He stopped one tooth for her and said there were several others to be attended to, but there was not time then to do them.

The next day I received a telegram from your Uncle saying that we had better come by the train if the weather was to rough for the sea. Anna, of course, jumped at that idea, as she was dreading the sea voyage in a coasting steamer. The sea had been rough for several days and though the wind had gone down there would, of course, still be a great swell on the sea.

We left Manly on Saturday morning by the 10 o'clock boat, Anna had to go again to the dentist as her teeth were still troubling her. He found a hole in one of her front teeth which he stopped.

We then went and had some lunch and went to the station in time for the 2.5. train. it was rather a blowing day, but it was not cold. The journeying down here is rather a troublesome thing. We had to go by train for about an hour and then we had all to turn ut and get into coaches - there were two of them waiting for the trains. One coach was pointed out to us and we were packed up with it.

It was pretty much the same kind of affair we had to travel in going to the hot lakes, only there was a seat for these at the back. The luggage was strapped on the top. The coach was quite full of a lot of people and Anna and I were rather amused with the conversation of two of the people.

They were poor and the man was saying he thought people should rest on the day of the week. "If you choose to rest on the Sabbath then take the Sabbath, and if on Sunday let it be Sunday, but what I say is don't be altogether a Cannibal."

And he looked round the coach for approval. The road was fortunately very good. We had a 12 miles ride and then we stopped at a little station at the sie of the road and were told that we must take the train then.

It had become very cold and there was no waiting room of any kind. There was a little wooden ticket office in which there seemed only to be room for two peopole. We had to wait some little time before the train came up, right glad we were to see it.

We had an hour's drive from the little station. Your Uncle Stanley has made their home rather a good many miles of it and now is work for the ... is over. He was at the station to meet us, and your Aunt Marion was waiting for us. We like her very much. She is very friendly and kind and they have three nice little children.

The two little girls anna says are 8 and 6 and the youngest a boy of 15 months. He is the first and is somewhat spoiled, but he is a nice little fellow. Stanley is devoted to him.

Wollongong is a very scattered place and is rather primitive. There seems to be a greater difficulty here about servants than in Sydney or Manly. Your Aunt says that if she hints to the servant that things might be done differently she immediately says she will go.

Yesterday we went for a long drive up to some mountains and Anna and the two little girls walked up to the top of the mountain while your Aunt and I sat in our lunch place. We looked after the horses and made another fire and some more tea by the time the others came down.

It was a lovely day just like summer. We had some beautiful views when we were driving up the mountain. The ... is all dried up, but if it was ... the country would have looked lovely.

Two ladies came in last night and spent the evening and today we are going to lunch with some people who live a few miles out in the country. I must go now to put on my dress.