| Description | Charlotte continues to carry out occasional hospital visiting when she is able to leave the house; otherwise, she spends her time reading and writing letters. She is visited frequently by Cecil, Ethel, the children, who are described as 'well mannered', and by her friends. She also sees her brother Arty, although he is frail and often 'ailing'.
Her own health is not good. She suffers from gout, and on 5 January she notes that she finds walking painful so forcing her to take taxis. She also suffers from a bad cough on 3 February and stays in her bedroom, having a fire there. Her cough is still troublesome on 24 February and she writes that her side is 'very painful at every cough'. Dr Bland prescribes medicine. The chiropodist visits on 25 May,and she continues to be treated for her prolapsed uterus. Dr Bland prescribes champagne for her gouty hand on 14 October and she suffers from bad headaches during December and is unable to leave the house between 8 and 22 December.
On 23 November her brother Arty suffers a stroke, 'affecting his speech but not his head'. He is cared for by nurses both night and day, but becomes weaker and dies in his sleep on 3 December. He is buried at Hoddington on 7 December. Sidney takes the funeral service, and Cecil attends. A memorial service is held at St James's Piccadilly the following day. Charlotte also records the death of her friend, Ena Duckworth, on 21 December.
Charlotte takes a holiday in Brighton beginning on 29 April and visits Hove on 5 May. She also takes a vacation in Eastbourne with Alice Field and other friends in August She travels in a bath chair to the Lawns and sits and watches the sea on 11 August and on other days goes out in a bath chair by the pier and along the front.
She occasionally reports on the progress of the war, and on other events: '3000 French taken prisoner', 8 March; 'The Irish revolt subsiding', 1 May; 'sadness of Lord Kitchener being drowned on his way to Russia', 6 June; and 'the papers full of the advance of the British & French on Sat.', 3 July. She also reports the deaths of friends' sons and nephews 'in the trenches in France'.
Reading matter includes 'Kaiser W. II's Life', 'Beyond the Gate', 'book on Royal marriage', 'Life's Journey', 'book on Portugal', 'Mrs Gaskell's Life', 'England's Effort' and 'Queen Victoria's widowhood'. |