Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)]. March 6. Dearest Mother. It is now 8 days since I had a letter from my family! but I received your telegram from Florence [Firenze], for which thank you, and also my terai hat has come and my thin skirt, for all of which I am most grateful. The hat is exactly right and it arrives zu rechter zeit for the sun is very hot and one wants a real good sun hat riding. On Sunday Dr R. [Rosen] Charlotte and I made a picnic expedition to a place called Abu Ghosh on the Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] road. It is one of the many Emauses and has a Crusader church in consequence, built over a spring which was supposed to be the place where Christ met the Apostles. It is however too far from Jerusalem to tally with the New Testament account. The church is interesting - bad scamped work as all the Crusader things are, but rather fine all the same. The Franciscans are going to build it up again and add a monastery and a hospital which will entirely spoil what is now a charming Arab village. The people there are delightful. The cousin of the reigning sheikh of the village brought us cups of coffee and subsequently conducted us to the top of the hill which was a place worth seeing. The foreground was one scarlet mass of anemones, then the rolling foothills, then the great Plain of Sharon, itself like a blue far stretching sea, then the white line of sand of the coast and finally the sea itself. Most wonderfully beautiful. Nina couldn't come, which was a great pity. She was expecting her incognito dukes to dinner, but when we got in we found that they had fallen ill and couldn't come. We were much pleased. Tuesday wasn't nice. We had a dust storm combined with very hot close weather so we went to see a model of the Temple made by a German archaeologist which was very interesting. He seemed, however, to us to have drawn a great deal upon his imagination which was a most fertile one. The model was beautifully made, all in pieces, and as he went on with his story, he destroyed it and built it up new so that by the time he had come to the end of his discourse we had seen all that ever was built upon that bit of ground. Yesterday was lovely. Charlotte and I rode to a valley I had discovered and gathered cyclamen which were growing in extraordinary profusion. By the way, I hope Elsa clung to the M.C. [Monthly Cousin] article and did not allow it to be published elsewhere. The style of it was only suited to that journal, but I'm glad it pleased. It's a gorgeous day. I'm going riding - in my new hat!
I had no place on the other sheet to tell you that I am ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.

I do pine for war news.