Most Excellent McQuesten,

In view of an approaching wedding, I write you in your point of vantage in t¹ Muskoka Lakes, to enquire if you know any hotel that wd be an ideal place for a honeymoon for a fortnight or so foll'g the 15^th of Sept. And now I wl bet that you have a totally erroneous idea of t name of t approaching Benedict, and wd not get it right in 3 guesses. So I wl explain at once that it is Mr. Frank Grey Robinson! He hs views on honeymooning that are so much in accordance with mine that I shd like to assist him: he wants to get off somewhere in t peaceful woods, away from t madding crowd but not altogether away from t comforts of civilization. If you can recommend a good place (I understand that t Royal Muskoka wl be closed by that time) drop him a congratulatory line at t Thiel Agency. The girl is an Ottawa beauty, but I hv not met her.

I need hardly say that I was delighted to hear from you, and that no power less than t attractions of Miss Street herself cd hv prevented me from coming up to spend a week in your delightful parish. Brer Jamieson and I spent a very agreeable evng together soon after I heard from you and as he seems to be a bright and very decent all-round fellow I hope we shl spend many more. I ws rather pleasingly surprised to find that he ws not "Junius," as I had prepared myself for a man with a tremendous sense of his own responsibility to his own convictions. I had one of our nicest new men up to meet him, one Somerville, news ed and literary critic, and an Ontario man too, and we got along finely.

By next Saturday we shl hv sd farewell to t palatial rooms where you first introduced me to t inner Arcana of t Herald's editing; and moved over to our new (and not a bit more palatial, tho first floor and slightly loftier) quarters at t foot of Victoria Sq. I hv a kind of sneaking regret for t old place, and for t old gang that wr associated with it. However we hv some fine boys now, and I am extremely comfortable. I hv started doing light verse for t Sieve; it really needed help of some kind after Murray Williams left and it was cast upon t shoulders of t sporting ed! And the theatrical season is quite promising, and we hv no less than three first class French theatres. Wh reminds me of Madame, whom I never see, and hence by natural associatn of Trigge,² whom I saw t other day, and who is somewhat saner by degrees and seems to hv a fair job. However, he is even less of a total abstainer than he ws when we dwelt on Sherbrooke. He is still there and still more or less infatuated.

Lewis and I are alone of t old guard in still sticking together. Burnside is, as you are doubtless aware doing t Sporting Comment for t Toronto News, and Frank has rooms in Dorchester, just round t corner flat, and wl take his bride there. By t way, Duperrault hs sold t flats and is building more on Dorchester, just as badly, with t money; and Lordly, whom I met yesty, is a full major in t Corps of Guides and hs just bought a house in Montreal West! Roe, who went to Ottawa for t Toronto World and got a gold watch from t Star staff for going, was there only two months, and is now back, gold watch and all, on t Star again as news ed; and is gradually paying up under process of law t three months rent that he owes me for not being fired out of t flat.

Thus doth t world wag. I ws in New York in May; saw Holme, for a minute working for a news syndicate and not prosperous. Saw also McEntree, but he of course comes periodic.

R. Emmett Cox is vastly improved by married life, and I find myself on t verge of a fairly intimate relationship with him. Alex Dewar is exactly t same as ever, and there is practically no-one else left. I suppose you saw that Haddon Taylor ws out of t Ottawa Free Press; I know nothing more. Kindest regards to you and family.

[letter terminates, but context and style suggests B. K. Sandwell]

¹ The writer, using a typewriter, employs this type of abbreviation as a kind of shorthand throughout.

² Kenelm Trigge had previously been engaged to Hilda McQuesten but she eventually rejected him because of his "intemperance." For more details, see W4635, W4647, W4651.