We did not return to Brighton when we left Italy but to very nice lodgings on the edge of Southsea Common, from which we could see all interesting doings of ships. Poor Grandmother Jauncey came to stay, and her mourning was an interesting study. The exact width of the crape cuffs, the amount of crape on the skirt, the widow's cap, and the gradual diminution of these signs of mourning, at a fixed rate of time, were all curious.
Another great excitement of early days was Bill Peyton's wedding; for which we had to go to Folkestone. Me in bridesmaid's frock and hat, and Jack a quite uncomfortable hot suit and dark hat. Bill was the youngest of the three who were left to the care of their father (a Colonel of Hussars) by their mother's early death. When their Mother died, the father pushed them out of his way, and, when Bill failed his exam for Sandhurst, his father cruelly said "You'd better to and enlist," which Bill did. Mother told me how she and Aunt Nell went more than once to Folkestone to walk with him conspicuously in places to show that they were proud of him. He very soon got his command and never looked back.
While in our lodgings, we met Lina Wilbraham, a widow and her two children, who came often to tea, which gave us as much enjoyment as the tea did to the small boy. His mother told how he often tried to persuade her to call about tea time. One day, when they had been asked, he found that there was no jam pot on the table, so he exclaimed loudly, "I know where the jam is – Lost!" The jam was never again forgotten. The last time I saw him was at a dance given by Evelyn Mason in the house she had bought to bring her girls out but had turned into an Officer Hospital for the 1st war. Of course, I did not recognise him but was delighted to meet him again. A few years ago, he sent me an article about a lovely garden that had been made at Ninfa. I think he had succeeded to the title of Lord Skelmersdale.
There was a cousin living near our lodgings who had taken another surname for a legacy. (I cannot remember what it was, but I think it was superceding Wilbraham.) Unfortunately, his wife attempted patronage, so relations remained cool. This cousin at Southsea I never saw again. Later, I was told that, when an old aunt of Mother's died, she left in her will her money to be divided among her nieces and £3,000 to Mother. The other nieces said that this cancelled her share, and not one stood up for her. Rather than go to law against cousins whom she loved, she (Mother) gave up this part of her legacy. Of much more importance to her than to the better-off cousins, she never held it against them. I believe that this man (her cousin) was at the bottom of the claim.
Their recommendation, however, of their former governess gave me a lasting friend. Amy Ellen Coates was at once a friend (and became a lifelong one). She was the daughter of the Master Gunner of H.M.S. Excellent (in other words, Whale Island), and her old Aunt had seen Nelson's embarking for Trafalgar. She saw the people pressing waist deep into the water, following his boat into the water, calling, "Goodbye, Nelson!" and "Come back safe, Nelson!" and cheering him on his way. This Aunt had been engaged to a young Naval Officer, but either he was killed at Trafalgar or did not mean to come back to her, as she never heard of him again.
One evening, we all saw from our windows the Royal yacht carrying Queen Victoria's coffin into Portsmouth. It was a cloudy evening, but, at one moment, the clouds lifted, and the Yacht was lit by a gentle sunlight. Most lovely and touching. One other naval occasion was when the Ophir sailed with the Duke & Duchess of York on board, on their way to visit India and other eastern points of the Empire.
At the end of our time here, when we were contemplating moving to a new home, Arthur Pringle, son of Uncle Lion and Aunt Lottie, was at Whale Island (the great Gunnery School). 
We all went with Uncle Eliot to see him and were allowed to fire some of the big guns. (I remember that I had been to a dance at Whale Island on one wet night in later years. When waiting and getting very wet, the driver came and sat down inside the cab and ruined my new white silk evening coat.)
Arthur had out distanced Jellicoe in many exams, and then he was killed in an accident, just as he reached the deck on coming up. It was a terrible loss to all the family and the Navy. Aunt Lottie, widow of Uncle Lion, was very retiring, but we often stayed with her at Richmond and had a great affection for her. Her elder son was a not-very-successful electrical engineer who married an Irish girl who died young, leaving my dearest cousin, Kathleen, to be a very dear friend all my life (and who writes to me once a week).
I don't remember at what age Jack went to the local Dame school, but it was good, for he began well at St. Neot's, where he followed Lindsay and Kennedy cousins, and invariably won the summer holiday prize (given for an exam on the book given for reading). Mother read their books, and it was never a burden on the holiday. She had begun to teach me French and, as I later heard her claimed for a Frenchwoman by a Frenchman in a train, I was well taught.
Jack liked St. Neot's School and did well, but he had to have one term at a Grammar and then passed into the Britannia. Mother and I went down to him at Dartmouth. While the HMS Britannia, being built of oak, had to keep men pumping all the time, the Old Hindustan, moored behind her, was built of teak and needed no pumping. On shore, there were the beginnings of the college.
LODGINGS
While in Portsmouth, EV and her mother lived in three rooms in a small lodging house at 29 Western Parade. Jack was already living at St. Neot's School, so it was just the two of them at home.
GRANDMOTHER JAUNCEY
Sophia (Hubbard) Jauncey, whose husband, Henry John Jauncey, died in 1899.
BILL PEYTON
William Eliot Peyton, one of three sons born to John Peyton & Emily Georgiana Violet Pringle — William, Ivor, and Guy — and first cousin to EV. Bill's mother, known to everyone as Violet, had died shortly after Bill's birth, due to childbed complications. His father, although brilliant in the military, was anything but paternal. Bill's marriage took place on April 27, 1899, when Jack and EV were 10 and 9 years old, respectively.
SANDHURST
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the British Army's initial officer training centre, located in Berkshire, England.
AUNT NELL
Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle, London-born daughter of Lt-Colonel John Henry Pringle & Georgiana Ramsbottom, wife of Serge Plaoutine, and sister of EV's mother.
LINA WILBRAHAM
Lovinia Wilson Bootle-Wilbraham , wife of Lt-Colonel Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham (son of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham & Emily Ramsbottom). She was not, however, a widow. At the time of this meeting, she was still married to Lionel, EV's mother's cousin, albeit miserably. In 1913, Lina would divorce her husband for unusually cruel and adulterous behavior, winning a suit which was never defended. Lionel would commit suicide in January 1914, but it still did not make a widow of Lina. It was probably just easier to explain things by referring to her as a widow. The little boy from the "jam pot" episode was her son, Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, later a well-known military figure and 6th Lord Skelmersdale. The other child was Lionel's sister, Yvonne Bootle-Wilbraham, who never married.
SOUTHSEA COUSIN
We believe this to be Arthur Bootle-Wilbraham, brother to the Lt-Colonel Lionel (husband of Lina) just mentioned. He was one of a family of five Bootle-Wilbraham cousins of EV's mother: Lionel, Arthur, Ada, Emily and Evelyn. It's a shame about the legacy, because Blanche and EV could have used the money much more than any of these cousins. His patronizing wife would have been Elizabeth Jane Jardine. The Aunt who had died was probably Emma Ramsbottom, wife of Baron Bernard Ernest Jule de Koetteritz (a colonel in the Russian Imperial Guard).
AMY ELLEN COATES
Mary Amy Ellen Coates, unmarried daughter of Robert & Sarah Coates. Some 28 years older than EV, their lifelong relationship was severed only by the death of Amy Ellen.
QUEEN VICTORIA
On February 1, 1901, the Royal Yacht, Alberta, came into Portsmouth Harbour, bearing the body of Queen Victoria. She had died at her estate on the Isle of Wight, and her coffin was switched from her yacht to a train car at Portsmouth.
ARTHUR PRINGLE
Lieutenant Arthur Pringle, son of Alfred Lionel Pringle & Charlotte Ellen Atkinson and cousin of EV, died in 1902 aboard the HMS Formidable.
JELLICOE
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe (1st Earl Jellicoe) was a much-respected figure in British Naval history.
AUNT LOTTIE
Charlotte Ellen Atkinson, wife of Alfred Lionel Pringle and aunt of EV.
KATHLEEN NORAH PRINGLE
Daughter of Eliot Charles Pringle & Flora Elizabeth Doman. Kathleen, daughter of EV's cousin, would forever remain a very dear friend to EV, sharing a lifetime of weekly correspondence and annual holidays.
ST. NEOT'S SCHOOL
Jack was at St. Neot's School, in Eversley (Hampshire), by 1901, taught by Mr. Cyril Calliphronas (Locke), founder and headmaster. We don't know which Dame or Grammar school he attended.
THE BRITANNIA
The Britannia Royal Naval College, the Dartmouth officer training school of the British Royal Navy. Jack was a cadet during the days when the moored hulks of the Britannia and Hindustan were the actual school "buildings". He was following in his father's footsteps, who had attended Britannia more than thirty years earlier. Jack's Uncle Eliot (John Eliot Pringle) had graduated in 1855, some twenty-two years before the future King George V and his brother, Albert Victor, had been cadets there. You'll notice that EV mentions the "beginnings of the college" on shore. Jack was appointed midshipman in September 1905, the same month as the opening of the new onshore College buildings.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) William Eliot Peyton and Mabel Maria Gage
2) Funeral of Queen Victoria: Royal Yacht in Portsmouth Harbour
3) Lieut. Arthur Pringle, R.N. (1899)
4) HMS Britannia and the Old Hindustan (Dartsmouth, 1914)
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