Mon. 27. [27 January 1902] In the morning we went to see the
Monderaggio which is a network of tiny streets and very tall houses
down by Sliema harbour. Father gave the children sweets and we
were a great success. As we stood on the top of a roof looking down
on it all the children caught sight of us and clapped us. They were
wonderfully quick at taking the joke. There was a nice fountain in one
of the narrow streets. The quarter was built by the Knights for their
poor people. After lunch we went by train to Birchicara [Birkirkara]
and called on Margaret Pollen who is Captain la Primandie's niece
and is keeping house for him. A charming old house (Casa Leoni) full
of lovely things and a most lovely orange garden - court after court
walled with fine old walls pierced by carved gateways - it was made
by the Grand Master Vilhena. It was a horrible day - the Grigale[?]
blowing, cold and disgusting. Captain la P. came in to tea, a
charming person who talked about the Maltese and said they were
the easiest people in the world to govern - you just need to
understand how to let them alone. They have no method and hate it -
why insist on it when they are perfectly law abiding? "They pull down
the old bastions and put up a lamppost with Keep to the Left on it and
then they say isn't it a great improvement? I say No, not at all! I don't
care about keeping to the Left." He thinks if they had let the language
question alone, it would have come right of itself in a very few years.
Drove home from Hamran [Hamrun] and in the evening went to the
opera, Cavalleria, of which we could only endure half. Captain la P. is
Superintendant of Police.