“We went to Enniscorthy by the 2 train, en route for Dublin, & had a very hot crowded journey, with a change at Macmine to make it worse. W. W. met us with the vehicle that’s like a dogcart in front and a trap behind. The drive was a great pleasure, it was so cool after the train & the country was lovely with the cornfields and the mountains and the wooded bits of road.”
NLI Call Number: MS 32582/34
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: August 10th – 26th October 1918
WEEK 45: 10th – 11th August
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Saturday 10th Aug. – We went to Enniscorthy by the 2 train, en route for Dublin, & had a very hot crowded journey, with a change at Macmine to make it worse. W. W. met us with the vehicle that’s like a dogcart in front and a trap behind. The drive was a great pleasure, it was so cool after the train & the country was lovely with the cornfields and the mountains and the wooded bits of road. Anna and Edith Waring were both at Sville; we had a slight tea when we got there & a big one afterwards with mushrooms. They have the old time there, confound them. Fionn was looking thin &
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rather melancholy & languid; they never let him into the house now, & say he is better for it; he must have been bad before. I read the Conquest of Canaan & walked down through the lawn & a hayfield to the woody place where the swampy pond is, after tea.
Sunday 11th. – Cloudy morning. We went to meeting at Ballintore in the dogcart vehicle; a beautiful drive. The horse’s name is Bobby. Cousin W. was quite a conversational companion. Meeting was of course very dull & all about the love of Jesus & he being the Light, Mrs Poole of Ballybeg preached, & J.J. Haughton (he was the nicest) & Edith Waring in a terrible long drawn weeping voice that women are very apt to use for
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public prayer. It was more J.J. H’s manner than his matter that put him above them. Little Anne Haughton was just behind me with her mother; she is a very plain heavy lumpish child, lifeless & stolid looking. E. Waring went to Rock-Spring with them. Milly Haughton had just come back from a cycle trip to Roscrea & was resting at home. In the afternoon all the Robertses came down from Avonbeg, plus a school friend of Elizabeth’s, Evelyn Hammond, a fat rather pretty girl with very fuzzy dark hair. Why are all girls of 14 – 18 or so fat now? Elizabeth is rather fat too. I went back with them to see Avonbeg. Their dog Toby is a
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very attractive curly foolish looking creature; he is great friends with Jacky, but I’m told they won’t play with Fionn. Avonbeg, two fields & a half beyond the back gate of Sville, is a very pretty place, rather high, with a great view over to Vinegar hill on one side & Mt Leinster & Blackstairs on the other, & plenty of trees round, & a tennis court & flowers. They have a handsome cat, a lovely Persian kitten called Harriet, & tame hen belonging to Molly, a tree with seats fixed in it, and a remarkable pair of 2 storeyed stilts on which Eleanor walked very expertly. I succeeded in toddling about on them pretty well; the higher steps have to be
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mounted from a seat or something. Eleanor is very pretty & refined looking, with all the Haughton timidity & ill assuredness of manner. I’m told she helps her father with the farm. I went home pretty soon, & Eileen & Hubert came to tea. E. is shortly going up to Dublin to train as a nurse. If anyone must do so, she is a good one, for she looks equal to anything. I think Hubert is the best looking of the young male Haughtons, though that’s not saying much, & he is certainly more conversational & less sheepish than my recollection of Morrisons & Edward Haughton & Norman Davis. When they were gone we had a lot of music with the pianola.
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a fantasia on Il Trovatore which was lovely, & something called Gloria by Mozart which I couldn’t appreciate & the Barcarolle – called Belle Nuit – & the Pilgrim’s March from Tannhauser which I didn’t care for either, & several others.