Dear Folks,

Thanks for the letter. The trip down was all right, but rather hurried. We didn’t get off Monday until after 4:30 and what with stopping for a meal didn’t have a chance to even call Ham and Edie. It was rather too late and Phil wanted to push on. Washington was too far, so we stopped at a cabin near Wilmington. We reached “His Lordship’s Kindness” in plenty of time for lunch next day. It’s a lovely old place, rare in fact — built in 1725 by the 14th Earl of Shrewsbury as a wedding gift for his niece — hence the name; house probably by Wren, gardens by L’Enfant. The house is Georgian and in good shape. The trees are magnificent — hollys, tulips, osage oranges, tremendous red and other cedars, etc. It cost 50¢ for non-guests or non-friends to see it!. Mrs. Denham (sp?) is very nice and Mr., the lieutenant commander, pleasant.

The second night we spent there and the next in Atlanta, in town. Most of Thursday we spent sleeping then wandering about — beautiful girls everywhere. We got to the base after “one last good meal,” some of us perhaps to get no liberty at all while here. I say this because a new rule very unreasonable expects all to make not even one mistake in the weekly Morse Code tests, at designed speeds. Since the senders are mostly very bad, I gather, this appears impossible. Mistakes mean no liberty. The sender today was almost hopeless. Shefflin gave us the toughest fight talk I ever heard, today. Earlier he called me in, shook hands then said that Mrs. McGee wanted me for lunch Sunday. No cigar-code trouble! [?]

Love to all

Toots

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