The Goldings
Hertford
June 25., '17

My dear Lulu

The great event has happened. My father & little niece have been & gone. We had a fine time & the people at the house here saw very little of me at that time. It is great fun, Lulu, getting to know your own father. To fine little ways & manners that you never suspected to lie in your ancestor is very fine. Picture an old man with white hair, & with beard -neatly trimmed to a point - of the same color; dressed in black suit, scrupulously clean & pressed faultlessly, carrying a gold headed walking-stick, & wearing a black felt hat. It put me to shame to see him carefully combing his hair, brushing every little bit of lint from his clothes & arranging his moustache & whiskers before he would leave the house.

And when he did leave the house we walked together along the village street & in my blue hospital clothes & my arm in a white sling, it was he who was the young man & I the old man. I would say little, but he would be smiling & exchanging cheery words with nearly everyone he met. He would chat & joke with the women he met in the most daring fashion, but every one seemed to enjoy it, until towards the end of his visit they would actually seem to be waiting for his little joke as we came along in the mornings.

The soldiers at the 'Goldings', whenever I took him up there, would gather around to here him talk learnedly about how the war should be conducted, or as he he hurled anathemas on the frightened Germans. They were delighted to hear him tell the important work he was doing on aeroplanes, & several told me how they roared to hear him tell solemnly of the way he tried to get into the army & of his surprise & disappointment when they gave him no answer. He thought he could at least carry rations to the men in the front line.

He was here from Thursday till yesterday - Sunday - & I got permission to go on one of the finest trips I have ever been. It was a great surprise when the nurse said I might go to London with him so as to see him safely into the Manchester train. How I longed to have you with me on that day! To see all the great historic buildings and places, & to hear the splendid music! It was Sunday you see & the huge city was fast asleep for the most part. I took a car to Trafalgar Square, saw the great Nelson monument & was just walking past the terrible 'War Office' & 'Admiralty Buildings' when I heard a band playing, & walking past some House Guards under an arch of the old war office, I found myself in a great square where the band of the Grenadier Guards were playing. I had a splendid half hour listening to them, & after the National anthem, I continued my walk past the Treasury building & other government buildings whose names I did not know, until I came to the offices of the Privy Council & to the famous Downing St.. I was surprised to find the latter but a little narrow street a few rods in length, & the house of the Premier - the great Lloyd George - but an old brick house of the plainest & commonest variety. The only guards for most of these great buildings were a very few scattered policemen.

Then came the great sight - the Parliament Buildings & Westminster Abbey on the Thames. They were very beautiful but I will not attempt to describe them for they are more wonerfull both for architectural beauty & historic interest than anything I have yet to see. Being Sunday I could not go inside either the 'Lords' or 'Commons' nor the Abbey.

Leaving these I took a car along the Thames Embankment to St Paul's Cathedral. I have exhausted all my adjectives so I cannot describe the dome & the mosaics & the Nave & Chancel & Transcepts. I was just in time for a service to which the Lord Mayor, the judges & corporation came in state. What an old world pagent it was! Then the service began & I shall never forget Handel's "Comfort ye" from the choir. If you had been sitting by my side instead of thousands of miles away, my joy would have been complete. Such music seemed wasted on me.

I have no news about myself, dear Lulu except that I am making good progress, & my arm is gaining in movement.

With best love, Yours as ever

Tom.