Yesterday Ellis & I dug up the potatoes (see April 29) they were a good crop although some diseased, all through the country, there has been a great outburst of gardening, everyone having allotments & growing vegetables. Consequently there is almost a glut of potatoes, which is a good thing in a way. I hope to keep mine until the Spring & then send them to a hospital. Some pilgrims sisters arrived here yesterday & are spending a few days in the parish going round visiting the people & holding prayer meetings, one is a Mrs Rouse be who has...

Corel ski has made himself commander-in-chief & means to fight Korniloff for power. These generals are not to be trusted, they will do all in their power to get the country back again into the hands of the autocracy, in the meantime the feeling in England would with a very little impetus turn against Russia.

Another fine day, but cold. Hilda Clarke came over from the afternoon, from Mount Teide where she is working as a house made. It is a convalescent hospital for nerve cases. News today from Russia is that Kerensky is making a hard fight for authority, it all depends now upon the army. If Korniloff gets hold of it, there will be civil war.

There is now another revolution in Russia. General Korniloff has put himself at the head of the faction & wants to be dictator in opposition to Kerensky. It is difficult to know the true state of affairs, but from what we can gather from the papers, Kerensky is a true patriot, & ought to succeed. It is a terrible model out there. This morning I drove Arthur’s car into Tavistock all alone, & managed fairly well. I left it there to have its cylinders cleaned, came back in the Buick with father who had come in to have his hair...

A lovely day, bright Sun, Rhona Elzie D & I went down to the river for the day will stop we had to take Nicholas as he would have been a nuisance at home. We had lunch at Gatenby Ford, & then walked up the river & had a brave. It was glorious, sunning ourselves after the bait. We saw a Kingfisher, also a pair of buzzards, & heard a water ouzel sing. We came back by the Lyd & Gatherley Woods. Russia is in a fearful state of confusion, & the Germans are marching onto Petrograd. Riga has fallen,...

At last we have had a whole day without rain, & we hope that now the weather will get better, it has been a fearful August, & sad sites are the cornfields all beaten with a violent rain & wind. On Saturday Elzie came bringing back Elizabeth, Betty went away. Rhona came on Thursday. This morning I took Elzie to Lifton in Arthur’s car to see the Dr as she had a piece of smut from the engine in her eye. The Stockholm conference is postponed. The Labour Party in England is so divided in opinion on all subjects connected...

Betty Wyberg, Nicholas & I set off for Endsleigh this morning. The sky was grey & overcast, but the wind was in, & the glass rising so we started. The car took us to the Lodge, & we walked down by the Swiss cottage went up the dairy Dell & down to the river & walked all along to Greystone bridge. The river was a raging brown torrent like a winter stream, we had lunch in the boat by the ferry & gradually the sky cleared & actually the Sun came out. By Cartha Martha we saw two Buzzards at...

All our visitors except Betty Wyberg have gone. Mr big old & Mr Coleridge went yesterday, Mr C was unable to finish owing to the River being so full & dirty. Every day the rain descends & the wind blows, the corn is rotting & the prospects of harvest very bad. Today Mary & Giuliana departed, we miss Giuliana she is a most attractive little person, so calm & composed. Very different from Philippa who is such a flighty little soul. As regards the war, Italy has done great things in the captured of Monte Santo which is a position...

Fearful storms of wind & rain it is a bad lookout for the harvest. Yesterday Mr Coleridge came, also a Mr Creswell. Betty Wyberg’s godfather. He is one of these Labour leaders & a great man in S African politics. His conversation is most interesting, & this evening we have all been sitting in the library listening to him. He stood in front of the fireplace & talked at great length on the questions of the day.

A fine day at last, the weather has been very bad lately. Yesterday we went with the Newmans to Looe, motoring all the way. This morning Reginald celebrated at 8 AM, father went to the service for the first time since his accident. In the afternoon Mary & I went over to Hurlditch, Arminel, Ruth, Mrs M being at home.

Reginald came home on Monday Mr Bignall came also. Yesterday D & I went to Milton to attend a meeting called by Dr Musgrave for the purpose of discussing the question of a district nurse. Mary came home that evening, she had come from London via Bournemouth where she spent the night, in a sidecar of guy Newman’s motor bicycle. The outcome of all the agitation about the Stockholm conference, & the vote at the Labour conference is that Mr Henderson has resigned from the Cabinet. In the meantime the fighting in Flanders is raging, we are making terrific attacks...

Last week Ursula Frank & I went to Tintagel, with the Drews from St Stephens. We stayed there four days at King Arthur’s hotel. We had a lovely time, Beijing & walking along the cliffs & thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, although the weather was not always fine. Dorothea Lethbridge came back with us & stayed until Thursday, Mr and Mrs Willey Gibbs have also been here. Ursula left for Wimbledon today. Saddened leaving, especially as it is a lovely day. Juliana she has left here for August as it is too hot in Wimb. For her just now. In the meantime...

Frank, Ursula & Juliana are here, also a friend of Franks Mr Bonnet, a medical student at St Thomas. Last Saturday there was a fearful air raid in London. 30 enemy aeroplanes came over & dropped bombs on the city, Mary saw it all from her office. Yesterday the Bishop came here to visit the church, he was going around in the deanery. He told the Newmans that he thought the war would end in September as it could not last financially any longer. We had a letter from Mr Bateman saying that his brother had been told by some...

The longest day, & certainly does seem long, for since the new arrangement of the time, the evenings are so light. It is very convenient, for we have no need of any lamps. All is going well. Father gain strength each day, he comes into the dining room for lunch & dinner, wheeling himself about in the wheelchair. On Sunday he was carried into church & returned thanks publicly for his recovery. Mr Moore went off today to Scarborough. He came in last night to say goodbye, wearing his uniform. It is absurd to dress the clergy up as if...

There was a fearful air raid over London yesterday morning, 100 deaths & many injured. Bombs were dropped from aeroplanes on the east of London & the city, I had a letter from Ursula saying she was safe, which sounds rather as if they came her way. A lovely day, father went out again in the donkey carriage up to the lodge, along Torre Lane & home by Bradstone. My potatoes are looking splendid, I banked them up yesterday evening.

Last Wednesday morning at 4 AM we began on the big offensive on the Western front, by exploding 9 miles of mines in the neighbourhood of Ypres. The noise of the explosion was heard in London. Mary came here on Tuesday & left today will stop father has been out each day in the bath chair, & today went out in the old pony carriage that grandfather used to go in. He is carried downstairs each morning & spends the day in the drawing room, & gets out of doors from there through the window and stop the nurse left...

Yesterday we got farther up for the first time into a chair, it was not very successful as he found the position uncomfortable so today we bought in the sofa & he lay on that, and afterwards he went back into his own big bed & was much happier, free from pain. Yesterday we had a letter from aunt Sophie describing the air raid. Gen Smuts* has made a fine speech in which he says that the whole character of the war has been changed by the Russian Revolution & the coming in of America. It is now no longer...

A letter came yesterday from the Red Cross enquiry office. In it was a statement by Private Loder of the fifth Dorsets who was with Bob on January 11, to the effect that he saw Bob fall during the attack & he went on to say that a friend of his lance Cpl Parsey said he saw him dead. Now all this D & I don’t believe, as the Private’s do make up such tales. However I have written to the adjutant of the regiment to ask him what he thinks about it. We must try & keep this away...

Very warm day, thundery in evening. Father is getting on slowly, but has more pain & this afternoon it was extra bad. Mr Bush came to see him, which cheered him up & helped him to forget it. We heard yesterday that Mary has measles. Lloyd George in the house yesterday made a cheery speech in which he said that the number of ships sunk this month was fewer than those sunk in April, & that we hoped through the help of America to overcome the submarine danger. This coincides with something that cousin Addy wrote & told us of...

A lovely warm day. Father continues to improve, but it is weary work for him. It is such a pity he cannot get out & see the apple blossom stop never has it been so wonderful. Not only our orchard, but all the orchards around about are one sheet of blossom. The azaleas to our full of bloom & everything glorious & beauteous, a joy after all the long cold winter & spring. The submarines are doing a great deal of damage, sinking numbers of ships consequently our food supply is running short. We do not feel it here, but...