I must read Gibson’s history of Cork when I have time. Dr. Scannell read extracts from it to-day which were very interesting. – It is funny how jokes run in cycles at school. A great joke runs for about 2 weeks, then it goes stale, and is not heard for half a year. After that time it is revived again, dropped for a year, and then it usually is lost for ever. – Heard the story of ‘Denkmal’ Wilhelm ((Literally: ‘Monument Wilhelm’ – a reference no doubt to the innumerable monuments erected in Germany in honour of Kaiser Wilhelm I.)) and ‘Bischofin’ Wilhelmine ((This may refer to Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), sister of Friedrich ‘the Great’. In 1920, Annette Kolb (Mrs Stockley´s sister) had translated her memoires into German – they had been written in French, the language of the German courts and aristocracy in the 18th century. Wilhelmine corresponded with Voltaire; she was an excellent musician, a composer, director of the Opera House in Bayreuth. Her account of the misery of her childhood at the Prussian court caused a sensation when the manuscript was first discovered in 1848. If this is indeed the Wilhelmine referred to, and if the epithet ‘Bischofin’ [female bishop] has been correctly deciphered, the reference is puzzling.)) to-day at German. Scannie showed me how interesting the origin of words is, taking as example the word ‘Tarantel’ from Eichendorff’s ‘Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts’. ((A novel by the romantic writer German Joseph von Eichendorff, From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing (1826).)) We are doing the latter at present. Am enjoying every word. – Went to town after school to try on new suit. Got no. 6 ‘Lands and Peoples’. Concerns Istanbul and Turkey. It is great. Mammie went to Arthur, who has a nasty gland and is being treated, but seems quite well. I went up too for ½ hour. Poor Pappie got a bad stroke of rheumatism or lumbago or something, and could not work. He had to sit in armchair all the evening, and had great pain whenever he moved his leg. I hope he will get rid of it quickly.
