May 5. Tairen Maru - off Taku Bar. Dearest Father. Tomorrow with luck, we shall be at Chifu [Yantai (Chefoo)] where we shall find a mail, but I will bring my diary to you up to date and answer your possible correspondence between Chifu and Dalny [Dalian (Lüda, Dairen)] where this letter will be posted. On Thursday morning, after I wrote to you, H [Hugo] and I went to Sir Robert Hart's and I photographed him. He was extremely friendly, asked us to dinner, kept us talking, assuring us that he was a man busy enough always to have time to give people. Month after month, year after year, for the last 50 years has found him always at work; for 25 years he has had no holiday; he never goes away and has never been even to the Great Wall. "My wife used to do my sightseeing and my visiting for me" he said. "She was very useful to me. It's difficult to live alone." I didn't know what to answer as Lady Hart seems to find it more difficult not to live alone. He has not seen his children for 21 years - they have grown up and married since he knew them. H. danced with one of his daughters at Govt. House Calcutta. Sir R.H. was much interested to hear this and asked eagerly whether she danced well. This over, I went to Dr Morrison's to return some books he had lent me. While I was talking to his boy, he came out, brought me in and we sat in his library talking for the rest of the morning. I don't think I have told you nearly enough about him. He is A Person. You feel no doubt about that from the first moment you see him. He has a big, calm manner; he speaks softly - softlee, as he would say, for he has what I take to be a slightly Australian accent - and with an exactitude which you think at first is that of an acquired gentility and come later to look on as essential to the man. He never says "it isn't" or "I can't" but always "it is not" and "I can not." He says sharp and witty things all in the same calm soft tones; you could not guess more of his mind than he wanted you to know but he is not in the least afraid of letting you know as much as you like. He has a sledgehammer judgement that comes crashing down on every form of incapacity and an equally strong appreciation of every kind of "capacitee". He is often extreme in his speech, but not unmeasured, for whatever opinion he may be expressing you know is the result of mature deliberation. He works very slowly and with great difficulty, takes 4 or 5 hours over a single telegram, writes and rewrites before he is satisfied; and finally, Peking [Beijing] rings with his praises, not loud but deep; for thoughtful and gentle kindness there must be few people like this big quiet man and I should think when he makes a friend he never loses him. And you would wish to have him in an emergency. We lunched with the Russells and I went sightseeing with them afterwards. I had one tea with the wife of the French 1st Secretary and another with Mrs Cockburn whom I rather particularly like. She was thrilled to find that we belonged to Mrs Hugh Bell. Conversational Openings is extremely popular in Peking. Mr Cockburn and Dr Morrison swear by it, and moreover she haad just read the leader in the Spectator about the Minor Moralist - she lent it to me - I in return lent her the book with which she was enchanted. The Cockburns were dining with Sir Robert Hart that night - by the way my photographs of him are too ridiculously good, everyone came begging me for a copy! - I was amused that evening! Dr Morrison took me in to dinner and I sat next Sir Robert. There was an enormous party, 16, Sir Robert's invariable number. Everything is done according to an established order which has lasted 50 years. Mr and Mrs Archibald Little were there - she is a truly awful lady. She wore a mustard yellow dress which was exactly the same colour as her skin, so that for some time I did not notice she had a low gown on and Hugo never observed it at all! She has a very vivacious manner and a heavy black moustache. Her husband doesn't count. Dr Morrison says her books are pretty feeble, but as they are popular he hopes she will write a great many more, for he rejoices to see any interest roused about China. Mr Hillier, the blind manager of the Hong Kong bank, was also there. He has lived a long long time in China, and lost his eyesight in Peking dust. I talked a long time to him after dinner and liked him very much. Also the Dutch chargé, Oudendyk, whom I don't like much though he is a most useful and intelligent guide to Peking. At dinner I made Sir Robert tell the story of his relations with Gordon - Morrison told me to ask him and the two leant across me and talked of Gordon, Li and the Taipings. It was fascinating. Sir R. also told me of his last interview with the Empress, after the troubles, a story so curious that I must repeat it to you. He had seen her once in his life before. He was ushered in to a pavilion in the palace where she and the Emperor were sitting on thrones, motionless, looking straight before them, expressionless, like wooden figures. He made his bow and the Empress came to life and talked briskly "Like anyone else, I interrupting her and she interrupting me. And I said to myself: What a beautiful woman you must have been when you were young." Presently she asked him where he lived. Prince Ching, who was there too, said "His house was burnt down." "I'm ashamed to look you in the face" said she. Then they talked of a recent customs edict with which she was perfectly acquainted. "She knows everything that goes on and keeps her hand on everything." She had just come back from her flight west, part of the way by train. He asked her how she had enjoyed travelling by train. She put her hand to her cheek and looked down coyly - Sir Robert imitated the gesture, but didn't succeed in lending it much charm. "I liked it so much" she said "that I think I should enjoy a trip to Europe." Presently there was a moment's silence and Sir Robert looking up, saw that she and the Emperor were again sitting motionless, expressionless, like painted wooden figures. The interview was over. He didn't think much of Gordon. "A brilliant soldier" he said. "His men would follow him everywhere - him and his bible, for he was never without it. But not a statesman, not in any sense. His judgment was quite unbalanced." Sir Robert has more foreign orders than any living man, but everything was destroyed with his house; autograph letters from Queen Victoria, his red button, his peacock's feather. You know he is one of the highest sorts of mandarin, and the titular guardian of the Heir Apparent? Morrison said Sir Robert's talk had been so interesting that evening that he had written it all down in his diary; but - did I tell you? - he more than bore out my private impression of Sir Robert. He says his feebleness has done an immense amount of harm. Also he hasn't words forcible enough for Sir Cyprian Bridge, who is the Admiral of these seas. He says he belongs to the bow and arrow period. After dinner, Sir Robert's private band played, his Chinese band. He has a string band and a brass band and he trained them himself. He plays the cello and the violin - not in the band, but for an hour every morning before breakfast. It was funny to see the gnomes playing away for dear life, not badly at all. Presently we danced; it was all very spontaneous and friendly, I thought, and our host beamed upon us so kindly. Altogether it was a most interesting evening. On Friday we breakfasted with Dr Morrison and he held forth on the kind of men the Govt. sends out to govern Australia: "Lord Brassey was never sober, Lord Lamington the greatest ass that ever slept, Lord Beauchamp - why, you've heard how he congratulated us on the stain of our birth? Lord Tennyson a perfect nonentitee [sic], no one recognises him when they see him in the street; Lord Hopetoun used to burst into tears before his Council." It was a forcible indictment. After breakfast H and I went miles in rickshaws to the Pei Tang, the Northern Cathedral, which was defended from the Boxers - and I fancy the defence of the Pei Tang was a far more remarkable achievement than the defence of the Legations. Dubail had given us a letter to Favier, who received us. He is a very old and a very sick man. He had a stroke last winter, brought on, they say, by all the hardships of the siege. He was lying on a chaise longue in his bedroom, wrapped in wadded Chinese robes, though it was a bright hot day and outside, in the quiet court onto which his windows looked, the yellow rose bushes were in full flower. We didn't have a very memorable talk - chiefly about a chain of turquoises I was wearing! I gather it wasn't really Monsignor Favier to whom the success of the defence was due, but to his second in command. Still I'm glad to have seen him: he is a historic figure. He sent a Chinese servant with us to show us his collection of Chinese things, which is very beautiful, and the Cathedral, a great splendid ugly place; he took us, finally, across to the nuns where we were made welcome by a charming little Austrian mother superior, 5 ft high. She wasn't there at the time of the siege, but it is she who has planned the reconstruction. She took us to see the hole made by the great mine, which she has carefully preserved, and a hideous rockery which she has made to commemorate the spot where 80 people were blown up. The Boxers were standing in masses, looking through the breach in the wall - Heaven knows why they didn't burst in and massacre everyone. We saw some Chinese nuns, charming in their white coifs. The Catholics are the only people who have finished their rebuilding. It's an enormous establishment, courts and courts of convent and monastery and the big cathedral. We lunched with the Townleys. Mr Townley was very much pleased at the turn events have taken. "Well, there's to be no war" he said as we came in. He says the American protest was more than Russia expected. Morrison says he is wrong, for Conger didn't want to protest at all and protested quite feebly under pressure. Moreover that Mr Townley underestimates the Russian achievement. As a matter of fact she has got everything she wanted, laid down a line of action from which the Chinese wouldn't dare to depart, and can now safely repudiate, Ö l'usage des Anglais. He says what we ought to do is at once to demand the opening of 3 new treaty ports in Manchuria and insist upon it. H and I dined with Flora and Diana at the Legation. Lady A. [Arthur] and Claud were out. We played Bridge and had a very merry evening. On Saturday I went sightseeing with Oudendyk. He took me to se a big mosque in the Chinese city. We went along the Executive Ground which is in the middle of a crowded street. Oudendyk remarked cheerfully that he was glad they weren't cutting off heads that morning, he had been afraid they would be. They had cut off six yesterday - and looking round we saw 6 heads in little cages lying on the ground in the street. Not very nice to see, but they scarcely looked human. Also we saw a dead beggar lying in the street not far off, waiting till the authorities found time to bury him. No one payed any attention, any more than they did to the heads. The mosque was most interesting, a regular Chinese building with Chinese screens before the doors to perplex any evil spirit who might think of coming in, and inside a regular mosque all complete. The imams talked Persian and Arabic and I had rather a success with them. They had learnt in Peking. They were very anxious to know whether I were Muhammadan and would scarcely Bellieve when I said I was not. Then we went to see a Buddhist temple, not a Lama temple, you understand. I didn't know there was such a thing, but Oudendyk said there were many. It was a nice place. A charming old monk took us through the many courts to show us his peonies, beautiful dusty Chinese peonies just coming out. Oudendyk talks Chinese beautifully. Morrison took him with him as his interpreter in Manchuria, and they say in Peking that the Russians bought him to spy on Morrison! that's the sort of man he is, anyway. It was a horrible dusty day, but nevertheless I went sightseeing again in the afternoon, far away outside the Western walls to see the Altar of the Moon. H. wouldn't come. I went into many temples, some splendid and some half ruined, and the Moon Altar was delightful, courts full of pines, and the great open air altar, and wild flowers growing everywhere between the stones. Mr Kidstone had a bad accident that day, his horse threw him and dragged him and if it hadn't been for Claud, who was riding with him, he would certainly have been killed. Claud held the horse with one hand and took off the saddle with the other, for Mr K.'s foot was caught in the stirrup and he could not get him free. The Chinese stood round in crowds and didn't lift a finger to help, horrible Claud said it was. That's what they always do. They will see a man dying in the street and leave him all day, not one passer by stopping to help him. We dined with the Townleys. The Lonsdales were there. Vastly entertaining he is. I sat by Mr Cockburn, whom I like very much. In the middle of dinner there came in a letter from a Chinese prince with whom Mr Townley and Lord Lonsdale were going to lunch next day. It was written on scarlet paper; Mr Cockburn read and interpreted. The prince said he was very glad to hear that the Marquis Lün was coming to lunch and on the strength of it he had ordered 4 extra dishes! I talked to the Marquis Lün all the evening after dinner. He has chartered a boat and is going to navigate the north of the Gulf of Chilli [Bo Hai] and explore all possible ports. He produced a chart and talked with enthusiasm of fathoms and bars and the suck of the tide. It was most entertaining. He is desperately serious about it, though I don't know whether he will accomplish much. He says he took the boat he came up on over Taku bar where the Captain didn't dare to venture. Dr Morrison says he would like to hear the Captain's side of that story. We spent most of Sunday packing. Dr Morrison came to see me in the morning and stayed a long time; we lunched with the Russells and I went to tea with Mrs Cockburn to say goodbye to her. Prince Mirsky, who is very amusing, was lunching, and Mr Norris the Legation Chaplain with whom Hugo dined that night. Oudendyk also came to see me between tea and dinner and stayed ages. We left by the seven o'clock train on Monday. Dr Morrison came to see us off and sent his admirable boy to help us with our luggage. Our last word to him, as he was standing square and calm on the platform under the Tartar Wall, was to wish him a good war. He smiled blandly: "Why, I hope Japan may declare war still" said he. "She ought to, surelee [sic]." That is a favourite word of his. When I asked him once whether he knew where I could buy furs he replied with complete gravity: "Surelee. I know everything." I Bellieve he does. He certainlee knew about the furs. I came straight down to Tongku [Tanggu] with the luggage and Hugo stopped at Tientsin [Tianjin], where he had to go to the bank, and came on 2 hours later. The launch didn't go till 4 in the afternoon so we had a long time to wait. Tongku is a God forsaken hole. We had a shocking bad time coming out in the boat; Taku bar wasn't going to let us off without a taste of its quality. We were 2 hours and a half snailing over it, a hard wind and scarcely any water (but what there was extremely rough). We had the satisfaction of seeing a slightly bigger launch which had started before us, stuck in the mud. The water broke over us and washed round our feet and our luggage, and the boat bucketed like anything. Fortunately no one was sick, but H. wouldn't have held out much longer and I'm not sure I should. It was a horrible choppy sea. We got to the Tairen Maru at 7.30 and they gave us some dinner about 8.30 - I had had nothing to eat since 12.
We did not however get off last night and we are now (midday) still taking on cargo. They say we shall get off this afternoon. It's quite tolerably comfortable. I have a cabin to myself, H. [Hugo] shares his with the ubiquitous Monroe. Our fellow passengers are a large number of very uninteresting bourgeois Americans, and two old English women, Misses Warchopes [i.e. Wanchope], Cousins of the hapless general. Mrs Cockburn knew them and asked me to make friends with them. They are harmless old parties. The Japanese stewards are most obliging and give indrawn kisses through their teeth whenever you ask them for anything to show how ready they are to please. They also bring the thing. The Captain and the Chief Officer are two kind gnomes who talk English a little. I wish I talked Japanese. It's an unspeakable joy to be out of dust - you can't think what it's like never to take up anything without finding it covered with dust, to come in every day choked and blinded with dust, one's hair grey with it. And then you can't wash in Peking [Beijing] for the water is so hard. My hands and face are all chaffed.

May 6. [6 May 1903] We got off last night at 8 and arrived at Chefu [Yantai (Chefoo)] at 12. Imagine our joy, having been without letters for 3 weeks, when a kind Japanese gnome came on with a pile of papers, a long letter from you and one from Elsa to H and a scrappy one from Mother, finished by Elsa. You seem to have had a delightful time in Sicily [Sicilia]. We are so glad to hear you went to, and enjoyed, Eoyx. It is a charming place. Also the news about Aunt F. [Florence] is very satisfactory. We wish we had been with you at Castrogiovanni. What swells you must have been with your Carabinieri! After we had read our letters and lunched, we went on shore and walked about the Chinese town, which is certainly the dirtiest place in Asia. We got ourselves outside it at last and skirted round between it and the charming amphitheatre of mountains which surrounds it - something like the Conea d'oro in miniature - climbed a little hill where there was a much frequented temple and a delightful view of the town and bay. There a kind old monk gave us tea and took us into his pretty garden full of flowering shrubs. I thought the teacups were too dirty to allow of the tea being really enjoyable, but Hugo liked it. So we came back through the unspeakable town, had a real tea at the hotel and walked round the promontory on which the consulates are, extremely pretty. We leave tonight and get to Dalny [Dalian (Lüda, Dairen)] at dawn tomorrow where I post this letter. Our next mail we shall send by the Empress boat and H says you will get it on June 18th. We expect to find 2 mails at Nagasaki and one at least at Kobe. I am so much grieved to learn that Maclagan is dead - what shall we do without him! I don't wonder you were puzzled by our Buitenzorg [Bogor]-Java [Jawa] - telegram. We're glad to hear you got it. We are much amused by Elsa's intimacy with Gilbert. We think him particularly nice. And amusing.
I have returned to my customary length of letter, I fear! I hope you like having such volumes. I generally have to restrain myself from saying a great deal more! Ever, dearest Belloved Father, your affectionate daughter Gertrude.