Ramleh [Ramla (Ramle)] Feb 3. Friday Dearest Mother. I have not yet started on my travels, but I have come down here for a night to see some excavations - it is a few miles from Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] - and I will sieze the opportunity to write to you again before I leave civilization. First as to addresses: will you write until Feb 24 about (not later) to the British Consulate Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)], then till March 16 to the British Consulate, Aleppo [Halab], and after that I think my next address will be the German Consulate, Konia [Konya (Iconium)], Asia Minor, until further notice. Will you please inform Smith and Sons to send me papers to the same addresses - they have no instructions beyond Feb 17. I leave Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)] on Sunday next, 5th, and I expect to get to Damascus in about 4 weeks from then. I shall telegraph to you on my arrival and will you please reply by telegram - one word is enough just to let me know that all is well. I always have a moment of anxiety when I get in after a letterless month. I shall do the same at Aleppo and at Urfa [Sanliurfa (Edessa)] (if I go there - but anyway don't send letters there as I can't tell how long they take.) As soon as I touch the German line in Asia Minor, I shall have my Konia letters sent down to meet me. As regards the childrens' books: it is a pity to send them all away, I think. I remember what a joy yours were to us. Could not they be stored in a shelf in the Long Gallery? There are not so very many and I think they would be a joy to future children. I had a delightful mail yesterday with letters from you and Father and Elsa - yours the 20th and Fathers (a particularly fine long one) the 17th. He tells me all about the B.B. meeting - I am glad it is all settled. I am not writing to him as I do not think I shall catch him before he leaves England and you will forward this to him. I shall long to hear of his travels. I will write to Elsa with a few suggestions. Evelyn's letter really is unspeakable. What an offspring of the devil they are, upon my word. I have had a few very busy days in Jerusalem. First I have engaged a new cook. The last, though a good honest man, was not capable enough for me and moreover the cold knocked him up so completely that the last day he was no good at all and I was forced to fall back on my muleteers for all service. (One of them, Habib, who is about 25, is turning out an admirable servant, trustworthy and willing and intelligent. He is a Christian from the Lebanon. I have also his father, Ibrahim, who is a good old soul, and a Druse, Mahmud, who knows the country into which I am going. They are all good men and I am keeping them on.) The question of a cook was very serious and I had to set about looking for one with great care. Finally I hit on one who seemed satisfactory and learnt from him that he had accompanied Lord Sykes into Asia Minor. So I went off to Lord Sykes and lunched with him and heard a very good account of Mikha'il from him. He said he was trustworthy and extremely brave, so on these qualifications I engaged him at once. Mark Sykes also says he can't cook, but it's 5 years since he was with him and we will hope he has learnt. So far I am being well satisfied with him. He has taken over all the arrangements with great skill and I find he never has to be told a thing twice. I hope my camp is now in its final shape and quite complete. It always takes some time to get it absolutely into order, especially when one brings out a whole new equipment, but I really do believe it's done now and I look forward to being very comfortable in a modest way. Not like Lord Sykes! He, by the way, is not off for another 10 days, so I shall be well ahead. I've seen a great deal of the Sykeses and like them very much. I've also called on all the Consuls and dined with most of them, and I have found time to revisit most of the interesting places in Jerusalem. It has been horrible weather, cold and rainy, until yesterday when it was quite heavenly. I rode off to Bethlehem [(Beit Lahm)] in the afternoon; the country was looking exquisite with a wonderful light on the olive gardens and the bare red hills and I rejoiced again at the sight of Constantine's beautiful basilica. Today I left before 8 in the morning - another bright delightful day, but there had been a sharp frost in the night - and came down here by train. It's a sleepy sunny little place in the Jaffa plain. There is a good German hotel at which I dropped my baggage and engaged a donkey to take me out an hour and a half to Abu Shusheh where the Pal. Exploration Fund are digging. I found there Mr Macalister, who is an old acquaintance of mine; he made me welcome, gave me an excellent lunch in his tent and showed me all that had been done. It is extraordinarily interesting. Abu Shusheh is Gezer. It was inhabited for 4000 years and has lain desolate for 2000 - since the Maccabees. He has found a troglodyte town with a wall round it and a High Place with most curious sacrificial invasions[?] and above it 8 Semitic towns beginning about 2500 BC when Semitic people first came into this country. The Semitic town has 2 great walls and a High Place with 10 huge monoliths standing upright in it, something after the manner of Stonehenge, thus catching on to all the Pillar worship of the Mediterranean with which Crete [Kriti] has made us familiar. On top of all, it is the last thing that was built on the hill, is the palace of Simon Maccabaeus, with baths and gateways and drains and all kinds of interesting things. I rode back on my donkey over a plain covered with narcissus and scarlet anemones, and tomorrow afternoon I go back to Jerusalem. I can't get back earlier for there is only one train a day, but it's rather a comfort for it gives me a peaceful morning to write my final letters. I dine with the Russian Consul when I get back.
Do you remember Mrs Peak? I travelled out with her from Marseilles [Marseille] and her husband is Commandant of the Citadel at Cairo. When I arrived in Jerusalem this time I found waiting for me the most lovely camp lamps in the world, packed in a leather case all complete. They are a particular sort of lamp that the soldier people invented in Egypt and the Peaks sent them to me as a present. Wasn't it kind of them.

I have discovered in Jerusalem a German who has started a market garden and collected all the bulbs of the country. I have ordered from him 6 wonderful sorts of iris and a tulip which he is to send to Rounton in the summer. It will be most delightful if they grow. I know them nearly all for I have seen them flowering at different times. One is the black iris of Moab, and another a beautiful dark blue one, very sweet scented, which grows in Gilead.

Now goodbye. You will hear from me by telegram about a fortnight after you get this letter. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude

I hope you will be very happy all by yourself! Mr Townley has sent me letters to all the Turkish governors in Asia Minor almost