Bonn
May 12th 1867
My Dear Alice
I hope you will write to me sometime or other when there is room in a letter; in the meantime I write to you. The Schaarschmidts have two little children, a boy called Fritz 4 years old and a girl called Hetta who is 2. Fritz I am sure is bigger than Bertie. I give you this information because you are fond of babies and Hetta is still counted a baby here.
Fritz has not begun to learn the letters yet so you can tell Bertie that there are some other people as far back as he is.[2]
I will send you and Lucy some stamps when I have room in my letter if you are still collecting.
How is your garden getting on?[3] Here there are lots of flowers already, but not at all prettier than ours except a beautiful Chinese creeper[4] with blue flowers that grows on the walls. The walls of the University quadrangle are quite blue with it.
Have you any monthly roses yet blown? I have seen some here. Yesterday the streets were full of girls dressed all in white without bonnets but with long white vails [veils]. They were Roman Catholics going to be confirmed; that is something like our young communicants. It was a very curious sight.
Tell Nellie that the singing in the Churches here is beautiful and every word is distinctly pronounced. Is Nellie teaching you Music? Who is keeping at the top in Geogaphy [sic]?
Give my love to Bertie Lucy Aunt[5] and every body else.
I am
your loving brother
Wm Robertson Smith
P.S. Ask Bella why she has not answered or even acknowledged my letter from Brussels. Did she get it?
W.R.S.
[1] Thiele family papers, MS.
[2] This remark shows how early education began for the Smith children. The basics were taught by their mother, Jane and then WPS continued with science, mathematics and languages. Unfortunately Bertie, at that time 5 years old and youngest of the 11 siblings, was neither fond nor capable of the kind of demanding instruction his father preferred. [COTM]
[3] All the Smith children were obliged to help with the garden work, and Alice was particularly fond of gardening. [COTM]
[4] Probably Wisteria sinensis, called in German Blauregen (“blue rain”). It grows up to 15 metres tall and is very common as a wall plant in Germany.
[5] Aunt Mattie: Martha Smith (1809–1896) was the unmarried sister of WPS. After their mother’s death, she lived for two years at the Manse of Keig, an arrangement which proved burdensome for everyone. Thereafter she returned to Aberdeen to be with her “old cronies”. [COTM]