Baghdad Ap. 22 Dearest Mother. Your letter of Ap 8 - I'm very glad about the solution of the Stanley title. It's good all round. And I am amused about Kathleen's skirt. Marie is always telling me I must wear my gowns shorter, but not as short as that.
I've just been writing to Father (to Ceylon [Sri Lanka], it is nice that he is on his way back) and telling him that I'm turning over in my mind whether I won't come home for Aug and Sep and spend them at Rounton. It's not much catch to come for the tail end of a London season. I rush about so and it is neither restful nor inexpensive. Whereas a quiet time at Rounton would be very pleasant.

We have had violent thunderstorms and the temp. has fallen with a bump and ought to last cool for a few days, which is nice. Also I have got a little dog on appro - kind Col. Prescott sent her. She is a funny little ugly creature; she should by rights have been a spaniel and is in fact very like the dog in the Bad Dog's Day. But she is remarkably intelligent and in two days has contracted a deep devotion for me - I believe I should end by liking to have the Minotaur for a pet if it did that. She is so engaging that I think I shall probably keep her. The servants all call her Peter, after my dear Peter, so I've named her Petra.

There has been another invasion of tourists - no, travellers. A certain Sir CampBell Rhodes lunched and spent the afternoon on Saturday - an interesting man, member of the Indian Legislative Council; he has met Elsa at Calcutta.

Then a French diplomat, a M. de St Hardouin with an introduction at second hand from Father and at first hand from Anthony Henley. He lunched on Sunday and was exceedingly pleasant. I could not do more for him as he was leaving that night for Tehran [(Teheran)]. There lunched also the Smarts (Consul at Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)]) and I subsequently heard from him curious accounts of the Balfour riots. He thinks the French winked at them, never dreaming they would go so far, and then were unable to control them. I shouldn't wonder.

I have just been up to Kirkuk. J.M. [Wilson] and I flew up there by air mail yesterday morning and came back today. We went up to inspect a little excavation which is being done under the auspices of the Museum by un nommé Chiera, an Italian who is professor of Assyriology at some American university. It is the home of some rich private person who lived about 800 B.C., very comfortable, with a nice big bathroom lined with bitumen so that you could splash about, and water laid on - we discovered the drain the afternoon we were there. It has fine big rooms and an open courtyard but it all came to a bad end for in every room the floor is covered with a thick layer of ashes, the remains of the wooden roof which fell in when the house was burnt down. Dr Chiera has found a great quantity of tablets and we hope when they are deciphered to get the history of the well to do family which built and lived in the house. There are other similar houses round, forming the suburbs of a town represented by a comparatively big mound a couple of hundred yards away or more. Nothing in this part of the world has been excavated ever; it is all full of unanswered questions and I hope this tiny trial dig may turn people's minds in this direction.

Sir Henry is away for a fortnight and at the end of this week falls the holiday which brings Ramadhan to a close. The King is going up to his farm and has asked me to go too for a couple of days. I think I probably shall, especially if this weather lasts. At Kirkuk the barley fields were full of scarlet ranunculus and other nice things which set me longing for the country - just as you rather pined for the Rounton daffodils. But I think you were wise not to go. It's very cold in April. Ever your loving daughter Gertrude.