Mother began to think of a new home in the spring and found a possible house near Uncle Eliot, in a new row of pleasant red-brick ones just built, in a quiet road which was at the edge of town. 
The bottom fence of the garden was between it and a farm field and a very old farm which had beautiful old trees where nightingales sang all through the spring. Ipswich was then a pleasant and interesting town, concerned chiefly by the trade in grain from America and a market for Suffolk cattle and sheep. The grain ships anchored in Butterman's Bay, almost opposite Broke House, and were lightened by smaller craft. I went aboard one once – very noisy.
We all liked Ashmead (Graham Road, Ipswich, Suffolk), and Mother bought the house. 
Our only regret was that Mother had not been early enough to take No. 1. It had a set of tennis courts on its one side, instead of a house on each side. Our neighbour in No. 1 was a Parson's widow, who had a Welsh cousin as a companion who became a dear friend to us. Mother found friends in the neighbourhood, and we were well content. It became a very happy and comfortable home with spare room enough to have visitors. We found the house and the country very much to our liking. Uncle Eliot gave us two peach or pear trees and a Cox's Orange Apple tree – which all flowered and gave us good fruit. We were none of us gardeners and, for a long time, the flat ground became a tennis court for us and our friends, until we found a good jobbing gardener in our washerwoman.
Soon after our settling into Graham Road, Mother broke the news to me that I was going to school and, as I had lived entirely with grown-ups, I wept and protested. But go I did. Early one morning, with an acquaintance – a Mrs. Cobbold of one of the offshoots of the family that was to be found all over Ipswich and its neighbourhood. This family, whose head was a lawyer, lived very near us and became great friends but have left no descendant.
I went, when I was just 11, to the Ipswich High School for girls and soon liked it. I walked a mile every morning but did not return to do the homework in the afternoon. Mother got me quickly into the habit of doing nothing amusing till all else was done. My dear old Nurse took me for no walks now, the to-and-from for school (and, in summer, tennis practice) were enough.
The teaching was good, and we remembered what we were taught. The only reason that I regretted leaving, when only just in the 6th form, was because we had gone such a little way into Latin. I have always been glad of that little, though. It was such a help, especially in Italy.
No more going abroad now. Summer holidays were bliss and not long enough. Autumn was much warmer than it seems now, the blackberries were plentiful in the hedges, and Nana made much jam.
UNCLE ELIOT
John Eliot Pringle, cherished brother of EV's mother. 1901 was the year in which he first leased Broke Hall in Ipswich, prompting his sister (Blanche) to search the nearby area for a home to purchase. Ashmead, at 27 Graham Road, was a newly-built delight – and available. This residence would be their "home base" for 38 years. Blanche would die there in 1939, after which EV would turn it into rented flats, ultimately selling it in 1949.
MRS COBBOLD
Lucy Maud, wife of Lucas Temple Cobbold, took EV in hand for the summer of 1901, preparing Eleanor for entering the Ipswich High School for Girls in the Autumn. The Cobbolds lived just down the road from EV and her mother, at 53 Graham Road.
DEAR OLD NURSE
French-born Elizabeth Sims, privately known as "Nana", dearly beloved Nursemaid and Governess to EV & Jack Jauncey for most (if not all) of their childhood years. We do not know when Nana left the family or where she went.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) Line Drawing of Butterman's Bay
2) Watercolour of ASHMEAD exterior by EV Jauncey.
3) 1899 Magazine Article, "The Right Way to Play Lawn Tennis"
4) Elizabeth "Nana" Sims, c. 1900
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