Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)] Wed Feb 28. Dearest Mother. I hope my big sheets filled do not inspire you with the same feelings as your big sheets empty! I was delighted to get your long letter from Grasse and it's too nice to think you having such a good time. Poor Sue! tell Papa I quite agree that it seems a difficult prescription for her to follow - silence, I mean. I wrote to the family last on Sunday. Sunday was too many for me. I didn't go out at all but sat at home and read Aladdin and looked at the streaming rain. Monday was a little better and the big German party, whom I think I told you we were expecting, were able to land at Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)]. Charlotte and I put on short skirts and thick boots and went for a long walk to a lovely spring she knew of. We walked down a deep valley which as long as we have known it has been as dry as a bone and where to our surprise we found a deep swift stream. Ain Tulma, our object, was on the other side and as there are no bridges in this country (there being no rivers as a rule) there was nothing for it but to take off our shoes and stockings and wade. The water came above our knees. The other side was too lovely - the banks of the river were carpeted with red anemones, a sheet of them, and to walk by the side of a rushing stream is an unrivalled experience in this country. When we got to Ain Tulma we found the whole place covered with cyclamen and orchis and a white sort of garlic, very pretty, and the rocks out of which the water comes were draped in maidenhair. There were a lot of small boys, most amiable young gentlemen, who helped up to pick cyclamen and when I explained that I had no money, they said it was a bakhshish to me - the flowers. We had a very scrambly walk back, waded the stream again and when we got to Liftah, a little village at the foot of the hill, we hired some small boys to carry our flowers home for us. (In this village I lost my way and we found ourselves wandering over the flat roofs and jumping across the streets Bellow!) I hurried on, (as it was 5 and I had a lesson at 5.30) with 5 little ragged boys in my train. They were great fun, we had long conversations all the way home. It's such an amusement to be able to understand the speech of the animals. The differences of pronunciation are a little puzzling at the first to the foreigner. There are two ks in Arabic - the town people drop the hard k altogether and replace it by a gutteral for which we have no equivalent; the country people pronounce the hard k soft, and the soft k ch, but they say their gutterals beautifully and use a lot of words which belong to the more classical Arabic. The bedouins speak the best; they pronounce all their letters and get all the subtlest shades of meaning out of the words. On Tuesday it streamed. Some of the Germans came to lunch, one Schwartzkoppen of the F.O., a cousin of the real Sch., and a father and daughter called Hessenthal - he is a court official. Nice people. I went out afterwards and walked about in the bazaars which are always interesting and more or less dry. I also called on a wonderful underground cistern of Queen Helena's near the Church of the Sepulchre. I like pottering about by myself and talking to the people. Today it streamed all the morning and cleared a little after lunch so I flew out riding and got to Bethlehem [(Beit Lahm)] where it began to pour so hard that I turned back, thinking I should get wet enough without going further. And did. The roads were in some places swamps and the wretched tourists who were driving out to Bethlehem were sticking axel deep and leaving their wheels behind in the deep mud holes. We had a dinner party - Schwartzkoppen, Auzépy, Schafrath (the Austrian consul and a dull dog) the Governor - very successful. The Governor is a very nice Turk, with the beautiful grave manners of the Turk. He has a little of the French, but not much; you converse with him however, in that tongue.

March 1 [1 March 1900] and sun and a rising barometer, thank the Lord! I therefore hurried out after lunch, camera in hand, to go down to Bir Ayub, which I think I told you, has overflowed and formed the Brook Kedron. On my way I met an Arab who told me he had plants to sell, so I went with him to him garden and bought some for the Consulate. I must tell you this is a great day - a German post office has been opened and we expect marvels from it. There is a parcel post and all complete and I advise you to put German Post Office onto your letters to me. One of our kavasses has gone to be Post Office kavass and as I passed down the Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] street he rushed out open armed to greet me and begged me to come in. So in I went and retired behind the counter and shook hands warmly with the two post masters (they dined with us a few nights ago) and bought 6 stamps to celebrate the occasion - which I didn't pay for, as I had no money - the kavass saying all the time - 'Al! Ketear[?] 'al! which means "It is extremely high" and is the superlative of admiration in Arabic. The tourists who were sending off telegrams were rather surprised to see someone seemingly like themselves come in hand in hand with an old Arab and fall into the arms of the officials behind the counter! It was extremely high! The Bir Ayub was charming - crowded with people sitting and drinking coffee by the edge of the stream and children playing in the water. The Bedouins came down and bathed in the spring and then said their prayers by the river and all the little boys crowded round me and begged me to photograph them, which I did and they are coming up next week for copies of their pictures. They were mostly Jew boys and their native language was Spanish, but Arabic was our common tongue. Dr R. [Rosen] came down later and brought his Germans and I then flew home to Ferideh. The Hessenthals, Pastor Böttcher and the Hoppes [see also Hopper] dined (the last are the German pastor and his wife whom I met in Jericho first) and a Herr v. Schwerin, another Tourist. The dinner was enlivened by the servants having played the merry jest of filling all the salt cellars with sugar! not on purpose, we will hope. We had quite a pleasant evening and I'm going to see the Hessenthals in Berlin.

Friday 2. [2 March 1900] Today came the joyful news of the relief of Ladysmith. Mr Dunn told me - blessed be the fate of the bringers of good tidings. Dr R. is very glum over it. I was pleased to be able to tell him that we had captured a lot of Germans with Cronje's force. May their dwelling be destroyed! as we say in Arabic. All foreigners take the view of "hit a fellow your own size." I should like to see them fight a skilful foe in his own difficult country, 3 weeks' sea journey from their base. Roberts and Kitchener have done marvels and I fancy we have found a very able general in French. And then these people talk, not one of whose soldiers or generals has ever been under fire. It has been a delicious day - the tourists have gone and peace reigns in the hotel. I planted a lot of new plants in the Consulate garden and then rode my horse round by Bethany ['Eizariya] and the Mount of Olives. He was charmed to be out and as for me, I could have stood rain and a lame beast after the news I had just heard. I then took out one of the Rosens' horses, who had been ill and in the stable for 3 weeks so that he wasn't to be trusted to a kavass, and rode him for an hour and met some fellaheen who gave me lovely trails of white clematis - nice people, they are! - and then I came in to my lesson, well pleased. The Arabs are delighted at the war news - all their sympathies are with us, a feeling which is much enhanced by the spreading of German influence in the Levant. They one and all hate the Germans - colonists, tourists, there is no exception; and the Emperor's visit did a good deal to strengthen their hatred. The amount of ill feeling he left behind him is almost incredible, but you may begin to understand it when I tell you that he presented all the Mohammidan [sic] officials at the Haram with imitation silver medals stamped with the cross! They look upon it as an insult.

Sat. 3. [3 March 1900] The first really warm day - warm enough to be without a fire and to go out to dinner without a fur coat. After lunch Ferideh and I started off, I on my horse and she on the Rosens' donkey, and had a long cross country ride and gathered lots of flowers. They are a dream. Every broken down vineyard wall is a garden, covered with cyclamen, irises, anemones and orchis [sic]. I have seen a stock or two but it's rather early for them. The fields are carpeted with sheets of gold and purple, tiny flowers which I don't know. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. 300 American tourists arrived yesterday, 500 Russian pilgrims today and 80 Germans arrive on Monday! It's awful. There is also a Duke of sorts, a Wurtemberger, with his wife. They dine with us tomorrow. My horse is extremely well - he's such a dear! We are going for a long ride tomorrow. The R [Rosen]s and I have been planning expeditions. We mean to go for 10 days into Moab about the 18th. It will be lovely. We shall take tents, Dr R. Nina and I. Our great travel is not till the end of April, but I shall go to Hebron some time early in April. Goodbye. I hope Italy is being delicious. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.
Tell Papa my monthly expenses average ú20, but of course the Moab journey this month will make it a little more. We mean to be extremely simple and it will be interesting to see how much it costs with a view to the future. If I'm being too expensive you will mention the fact but I can't live cheaper here. I have no expenses at all outside my hotel bill and my lessons, except one or two quite small necessaries of life, like toothbrushes!