| Description | Particular entries include details about Sidney's health. At the beginning of the year, he is working as a curate at Haywards Heath. Charlotte and Mary visit him there on 15 April and he and Mary go to Brighton for the day on 19 April. After Charlotte and Mary have returned home, Charlotte receives letters from the vicar and from Dr Griffiths to say that 'Sidney had gone out of his mind!' Charlotte is very worried and on 23 April thanks God for sparing Fred 'this terrible trial'. She returns to Haywards Heath on 24 April and finds Sidney well, but 'full of strange delusions'. Sidney is removed to St Andrew's hospital the following day and she visits him there on 12 June and is encouraged by her interview with Dr Bailey. Sidney shows improvement throughout the summer.
Charlotte remains busy with her hospital visiting and other charitable work such as giving out stores and making donations, including one to the 'Central Victoria Clergy Relief' fund on 7 February. She also attends a devotional meeting at the Albert Hall on 13 October. Mary is involved much more than her mother in community work, which includes teaching, working on committees and, on 15 February, taking '2 boys for confirmation class'.
Leisure activities include a visit by Charlotte to the Rembrandt exhibition with Bennett on 9 January and a trip to the 'Natural Science Museum' on 5 July. She and Mary holiday in Folkestone in August where they visit Canterbury on 21 August, go to the 'Military Tournament' and to hear the Viennese band on 23 August and spend time sitting on the pier and the sands. They also spend time visiting friends at Tonbridge on their way back to London.
Charlotte gives details about her health. On 20 September, she reports that her eyes are so bad that she finds reading and working difficult. Mary is ill in bed over Christmas with influenza and bronchitis, and Charlotte also becomes unwell at the end of the year.
Charlotte refers to national events, giving details of the progress of the Boer War. She mentions a 'great battle, victory at Glencoe, about 40 miles north of Ladysmith' on 20 October and the 'terrible news in the paper of the capture of 2 of our battalions...before Ladysmith' on 31 October.
Reading matter includes 'Inheritance of the Saints', Liddon's 'Providence & Life', Carter's 'Life of Penitence', 'The Importance of the Resurrection', 'Life of the Empress of Austria', 'The Guided Life', 'The Hallowing of Sorrow', 'The Life Beyond' and 'Africa' by K. Little.
There are lists at the back of the volume of letters sent and received throughout the year |