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Pleased to get letter from Ernest Gye, nickname Poison - shared letter with Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox]. Speaks of the restless desire to impress & seeks gossip of English friends. Ernest writing of going to Tangiers. Describes at length he and Jumps picking raspberries to make jam, concoction insipid. Then reverted to making better jam with wild white strawberries. Writes of Jumps as youthful, unlike him who is becoming of crabbed age. Describes how a brace of young boys, Gurkhas have joined their camp. Painting primula in a tent, through a dense fog of midges and smoke. Requests from Ernest to purchase 2 or 3 Everyman volumes of Floris's Montaigne, delights in the first one. This letter is signed your loving Poppet. Jumps cooking until the Chinese cook has recovered from his cliff fall. ps Gossipy enquiries and comments. Encouraging E. Gye when writing, to be thoroughly indiscreet and viscous. Speaks of his own return to a de-Poisoned London. [Poison = E. Gye] Describes the place abounding in the most preposterous brambles - titanic wilderness of thorns, beset with raspberries in almost every colour & degree of nastiness. Wondering if Jumps [Euan M. Cox] is like all Scotch lower (or middle) class minds, are alike in a sort of Jackdawish unassimilating appetitiveness.

Fond banter between R. Farrer and E. Gye and saying he will seek his company when he returns from the dripping Aquarium, Burma in 1921. Likes the colours of the landscape but not much else here. Using mules to transport and has had a successful season of collecting. Has been injured by the scrub and bamboo and these injuries have taken a long time to heal. Describes how a red panda, a tiny bear with a banded ginger & orange bottle-brush tail has joined their camp and has become tame. He is going down to Myitkyina in a fortnight, by cargo boat slowly to Bhamo, Mandalay and Rangoon where he and Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] will spend Christmas. Will say farewell to Jumps then and welcome the Beautiful Boy [Milner]. Sends his and Jump's love to Ernest and other friends. Signed the Master. ‘I've cut or scratched myself (as one is forever doing in the scrub & the bamboos) my sumptuous flesh, instead of promptly healing as its habit is, has developed large & perpetually pussiferous sores till now, I'm a perfect Lazarus, with my lovely legs like a professional beggar's.’ (this letter, 3 pages long in foolscap polypockets)

Has sent seeds of Nomocharis pardanthina to Ernest which the cat [the red panda?] has defecated on, which they are both are certain will affect its germination & describes at length its beauty. Reports Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] has left and the Beautiful Boy [Milner] has slain his sister and is not coming to join him. Rented a bungalow in Maymyo to have a place of his own. Proposes to visit pagodas, but unrest with a new Burma movement may affect this. Intends to visit the Buddha's relics the Arakan Pagoda. Had some firework celebrations & received books from Bain. Describes the beauties of Nomocharis pardanthina, as ‘quite singular, being those of a little pink Lily that has had an affair with a naughty spotted Odontoglossum, & produced a child that bears several shamefaced flat pendant flowers of softest pink, which have an eye of deep chocolate, surrounded by a ring of yellow in three crested fringes, while three of the segments are very broadly oval, fringed & spotted with deep purple.’

States he disliked Mandalay & its Club - too hot & its many Pagodas, roofs covered with red corrugated iron on the hill dominating the city. Mandalay, a holy place where in awe, he held the mortal remains of Gautama Buddha in his own hands. Writes warmly of his friendship with E. Gye and describes the Oaks being like Ascot but sad as he is living alone. Hopes to go North in 2 days, concerned if mules will be available, states he will be alone without Derrick [Milner] and his money. Long rambling gossipy section regarding different women? friendships and more, of Amelia with E. Gye. Speaks of a fiction book he is writing, he wants E. Gye to make comment. Speaks negatively of Russian literature and Virginia Woolf's first book. Mentions letter written after a good bottle of Hock. ‘Going North, away over the Back of Beyond, out across the last lone edge of Nowhere.’

Responds to Ernest's sense of being slighted, not receiving as many letters as others, saying that his gaps in letter writing due to being in camp and nothing of interest happening. He gives advice regarding Amelia, a possible liason of Ernest's, to forget her. Looks forward to having parties with Ernest, maybe at Ingleborough with him and Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] unpacking items he's brought from Peking. Although wonders if Ernest may be in Britain as talking of going to Persia. Tells Ernest he has written to Jumps regarding weeds & weather which he is sure he will get to read. Suggests that this country is rather boring and does not generate a creative impulse. Spent one last fortnight in the Alps, seed collecting and now resting for a month in Nyitadi. Rambles about Greek and other characters and of his own writings. Again remonstrates that he has been a regular correspondent to E. Gye as regular as to his Mommer.