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Convalescing, Celia had sent him pheasants, no substitute for her presence. His book, Void of War - she regards well, as do others - he likes the praise.

Not heard from Celia. Describes being in no man's land, a wild sparse wilderness and the overmastering romance of China & Tibet. Going to spend the winter in the golden palaces of Mandalay - invites her to join him there. ‘Stand as it were in exile, looking out over the infinite smiling distances of Szechuan. The freedom is divine.’

Describes about to leave his camp to winter in Mandalay. Accepts Cynthia might marry another not him. Enthuses about the merits of women but no understanding at all of men. ‘Men, they are a perpetual puzzle, contradiction & delight.’

Box 5: 1919-1920; includes correspondence to family and Aubrey Herbert, 1919 - includes references to Frank Kingdon Ward and George Forrest; telegrams from RJF to his mother, 1919; correspondence to family, 1920; letter from Farrer to Sir Francis Younghusband, 13/09/1920; correspondence from Isaac Bayley Balfour and William Wright Smith of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to Farrer and family, 1917-1924; general correspondence, 1920, correspondents include Lionel de Rothschild, Postmaster Gye? J.T.O. Barnard, and William Purdom; folder of ephemera including telegram, ticket to Rangoon, diary entry and Burmese travelling times and Regulations for dealing with tribes; copy of Gardener's Chronicle including article by Farrer, 1921-22; notes written by Farrer's mother regarding instructions and dispatches from Farrer; plant / seed lists, including identifications from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; Farrer's supply lists; information relating to E.H.M. Cox, including, copies of few diary pages, maps and letters from Farrer to Cox; and various maps of various dates relating to Farrer's collecting localities.

Writing to "Sweet Poison" [Ernest Gye] as resting after a ten days' trek searching for a hypothetical Rhododendron during which it rained relentlessly. Feels rudderless and needing the anchor of wedlock then swings away from this idea. Fed up with some Captain staying with Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] and him who talks endlessly -Farrer states his ages makes him less tolerant, loses patience and ridicules him for being five-foot-nothing. Soon to go down to Htawgaw then a month's camping in a high-alpine valley which he hopes will be profitable and amusing. Complains of lack of art, architecture and antiquity in this country. Writes of the beauty of Nomocharis pardanthina, like a pink lily with a spotted Odontoglossum all over the alpine meadows, asks Ernest Gye to experiment with its seed.

States he has lost Ernest's last letter and is in low spirits, refers again to his age, 40 years & lack of being anchored by marriage. Discusses merits of English literature - unsettled by the Times' review of his book, ‘The English Rock Garden’. Describes his relationship with Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox], 25 years, as not intimate just cordially pleasant. When Jumps has left, he is going to rest in Mandalay until February. Speaks of a possible conflagration between the Chinese & aborigines which would close the frontier to further expeditions. ‘In low spirits these days, what with windings up & endings with a crushing sense of my own worthlessness & inadequacy. His book, The Rock Garden, 6 years old, wears its vast erudition (2nd hand) with an affectation of jocosity or preciousness that nowadays would make me feel quite sick. Of Jumps [Euan M. Cox], especially when 40 & 25 have not quite a common ground of breeding, training & traditions.’