Wed. 16. Bayreuth. Dearest Mother. Papa will have forwarded you my letter to him so I will go on where I left off in it, which was Monday morning. We drove out to the Eremitage and lunched there - a most delicious little place, do you know it? We walked about his gardens and lunched under the trees. Mrs Earle was lunching there with two women. I went and discussed irises with her and made her come and talk to His Ex who had been very kind to a son of hers in Petersburg [Sankt-Peterburg (Saint Petersburg, Leningrad)]. One of her friends was a very nice Madame Grunelius, a cousin of the man in London. Florence Hugo and I went to Tovey's before the opera and had coffee and Sandkuchen. I like Miss Weisse; we had an agreeable party and it was pleasant to get into that atmosphere. The Rheingold was very splendid; Hugo was quite swept away by it - much more than by Parsifal, oddly enough. We had an excellent Wotan, Van Rooy. The Rhine act was most beautifully done - I think there are awful longeurs in NiBellheim, but there are magnificent moments in the last scene. Siegfried Wagner is conducting the Ring - the learned rather curse, I gather, and certainly the last act of the Walküre was singularly lacking in spirit. We dined at the Restaurant near the theatre after the play, the Moberly Bells and Lady Conway (wife of Sir Martin, she is travelling with them) joined us. F. and I feel that we have had enough of Moberly Bells and they apparently have had enough of us, for after settling to dine with us last night, they cried off at the last moment. The Harrachs are very much to the fore, however they are extremely agreeable. Lady Conway, on the other hand, is rather an awful woman, very intense, with floppy clothes and very floppy hair over which she wears a wreath of leaves so that she need not take anything off during the play! Oddly enough the Pollocks are sitting just behind us. Yesterday was blazing hot. Florence and I photographed in the morning and visited Wagner's grave. We met a great many people we knew including a Grand Duke of Hesse who stopped and talked to Florence - not our friend, tell Papa. The Harrachs paid us a morning call just before lunch, she and her unmarried daughter and her married daughter, Countess Witzthum, are here together. We lunched at the Restaurant Riebenstahl opposite Wahnfried where we met all the beau monde. There are such funny parties. Mrs Craigie is travelling with the Charles Beresfords; Mr George Moore is often to be seen in the offing there, and usually Mr Claud Phillips; the Harrachs have a very nice German party; Dhuleep Singh a party of blacks, as is only right, and Mr Schuster is of everyone's party. I took my camera up to the theatre in the afternoon and photographed the people arriving. It was blazing hot, too stuffy in the last act. We dined as usual between the acts. Uncle Frank met more princesses and was quite in his element - this time it was Princess Charlotte of Saxe Meiningen the Emperor's sister. The first act of Walküre was tremendously exciting - on the whole I like it better than anything in the whole Ring. Susher was Sieglinde, she is very old, but a wonderful singer and our Siegmund was Burgstaller, so we were well off. After the play Florence Hugo and I went into the Pollocks' to tea - we found a lot of men there among whom was Mr Dugdale. This morning about half past 8 came a message from the Grand Duke asking us whether we could be at the theatre at 9 as he would show us the stage. We bustled up and arrived only a few minutes late to find him waiting for us with a few German men and two Englishmen, one of whom, Mr Hart Davies, was an Eton acquaintance of Hugo's. It was most entertaining; we were taken into every corner, above and Bellow. We descended through trap doors and mounted into Valhalla. We saw all the properties, and all the mechanism of the Rhine maidens; we explored the dressing rooms, sat in the orchestra and rang the Parsifal Bells! The Grand Duke was extremely cheerful and agreeable - he's quite young - and of course everyone was hats off and anxious to show us all we wanted to see. It's a very extraordinary place the stage; the 3rd scene of Siegfried was set, we shall feel quite at home when we see it tonight. Hugo is delighted with it all. He was much impressed by the Walküre though he says he thinks it will take a greatdeal to make him a Wagnerian. He is going to Weimar on Monday for a day or two and then to Homburg for another few days. He says will you write to him at the Poste Restante, Homburg. I think we shall probably sleep at Nuremburg [Nürnberg] over Sunday night - perhaps Hugo and I shall stay on here and start Monday morning. I hope to reach the Lautaret on Tuesday night or Wednesday and shall be there two nights, I expect. Then La Grave will be the best address. I was much interested by Papa's letter. It seems very wise not to answer except through Munns.
I do hope you and Any are having fine weather. My dear love to her. I'll try and go to the Forsthaus if I can. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude