The Steam Yacht Victoria
Monday Evening 9 Oclk July 19th, 1897
We arrived here in “Loen” (sp?) at 8 Oclk this morning, it is nothing more than a small hamlet but situated in a most picturesque spot amongst the mountains, English people come here to spend their summers there are no shops or stores but there is a very good hotel ~ Most of the passengers went ashore where we took carriages and drove some few miles away to an inland lake where we went on boarrd a small steamer and then down the lake some miles to a landing where we got off and organized quite a picnic party eatables having been brought along from the yacht, we had a pleasant time and the day was just perfect it was rustic in the extreme but everyone was sociable and the thing was a success ~ We sail in one hour for “Bolhomen” (sp?), arriving there tomorrow at noon and remaining over until Wednesday morning the 21st, then we start on a 40 mile carriage drive, remain at some Hotel over night and the following morning take the railway for “Bergen” arriving there about noon on Thursday the 22nd where we go aboard the yacht again, it having been brought around from where we left it on Wednesday ~ Further movement I will give you in detail later on I will try also to give you an idea of what we may see tomorrow and Wednesday ~ I popose mailing this tomorrow morning therefore this letter will be brief. Everyone continues well but we have a few who grumble, the world would stand still provided we had none of these people I am thinking I find things quite to my mind and nothing to kick about. I hope you are all well and enjoying yourselves as well as I am. Shant I be pleased to hear from you once more.
With much love I remain all ever Affectionately Yours Father and Brother
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My Own Thoughts:
In order for me to get these letters copied properly I have to copy them onto paper by hand before inputting them into this diary. As I was trying to explain to my sister, it’s impossible for me to get the full reading value out of them until I have input them, edited them, and then go back and re-read them. It’s then that I can read it with the flow of the intention, and I can sit back and picture what he is doing.
I only wish he had been taking photographs (which I’m sure were quite expensive at the time). I don’t even know if photographs exist from this trip. I do know that I have some photographs of the family during this period, but they of course are clearly studio taken. I do however have one odd one. It is of a steam locomotive pulling only one or two passenger cars. It was taken in a very rustic place, very tree lined and wooded heavily. There are no markings on either the front or back which is highly unusual given that nearly all the photographs I have of people are marked up on the back in pencil by my grandmother, listing dates, the full names of people, their immediate family etc. Once when giving me some of these (and she never gave me the entire lot in one go, it was given to me over years only a few at a time) she told me that she had done these write ups on the pictures so a full history could be gleaned from them years from now. In my childish head (pre-teen, early teen) I was thinking how silly, she of course would be able to “tell” those stories, no need to sit and write and write and write. My how I’ve grown up!
These letters came from my Auntie (Augusta Flagg Sisk) whose grandfather is Cassander Flagg. She is the one who had all of this in one place. Including the picture of the train. I can only assume that the train must have been something he either saw or traveled on, but unlike my Grandmother (Hazel Sarah Elizabeth Hodgman Flagg), she didn’t keep the notes on the backs of pictures. The only thing I can do is assume or guess.
