Manuscript letter from 'Mummie' to 'Babsie', consisting of a long description in English of Burma from a visiting mother to her daughter.

12mo, 15 pp. On watermarked laid paper. Very good, with slight wear to crease on first leaf damaging two words (both still legible). Otherwise text clear and complete. The item can be dated from a reference to 'a Dempsey-Tunney fight'. Although neatly written, the handwriting is so stylised that deciphering the text presents difficulties. Begins 'What a whirl since I wrote you on the boat before we landed in Rangoon [...] HOT. Yes! Right now it is 90 degrees in our room which has windows on three sides & there are two big fans going. [...] Here in Burma they are more like real old savages than anything we have seen. Huge men with heads <?> shaved - half naked - painted faces & rings & <?> in their noses'. 'We have seen <?> 1500 pagodas - <...> they are dotted almost everywhere. Nothing is ever repaired. It is a part of their religion. More merit is attached to building new. Their whole thought is that life - the old passes and the new comes - so that just pass along building new and let the old decay - and - as nothing is especially <?> it decays quickly and the entire country is falling to pieces except for the new pagodas on every side.' References to a timber yard and a drive into the country. 'In the hotel <?> a couple who interested us. They found to be French and are travelling about with a most extraordinary vaudeville act. 60 trained roosters. We went last night to see it, and it was as good as anything I have ever seen - in fact it is unique. [...] they did all sorts of things - tight rope walking bicycle riding - even a Dempsey-Tunney fight which was a knock-out! Referee - trainers & all the <?>'.