From Samuel Way at Montefiore, North Adelaide, Australia, to Lewis Court at Brendon, Salcombe Road, Plymouth, England.
The list of desiderata furnished by Court for inclusion in the proposed Conference Museum is suggestive, but Way is afraid that they will be unable to do a great deal towards accomplishing what Court wishes. Joseph Ashton, who has charge of the portraits and other collections accumulated by the Shebbear and Way College Old Scholars' Association has again suffered a break down in health and is therefore away on a trip to Ceylon. Way will try to see his brother James Ashton, who is a Registrar of the Insolvent Court and has also been away on sick leave, and [William Francis] James `the indefatigable scribe of the Methodist Union Movement'.
As for Way, he is so hard at work it is difficult to find the time even for this very welcome task. [Katherine] Thorne is also eager to help but is very old and feeble. He shall send a copy of Court's letter to her anyway. If her brother John Thorne were still a member of the `Church Militant' he would be able to give very effective help. He is sure that she would like to send herself a beautiful carte of James and Catherine Thorne in old age, of which there are several copies in existence. She is in fact anxious that they appear in the second and later editions of The Golden Chain.
Way is in no doubt that he can supply some of his dear father's letters [James Way] but it is unlikely that he can do so in time. Most of the documents of that kind are upstairs and he has to be very cautious in climbing stairs. It is simply impossible for him to go through the boxes in which those documents are arranged.
He is sure that [Katherine] Thorne would willingly provide such a letter as Court requested.
He has a complete set of the Bible Christian magazines, minutes and missionary reports. [Katherine] Thorne also has a fairly complete set for the period of her father's editorship, uniformly bound, but some of the later volumes have not been bound and are incomplete. This is the set which Way thinks should go to England as Thorne exercised his ministry there.
Way distributed his father's library soon after his death and gave the cream of the old editions to Revd. John Botheras. If Way is unable to supply a volume, he is sure that Mrs Botheras would be able to do so.
He is afraid that there will not be time to look up the photographs before Conference.
He does not remember when his letter to Court was written, but his opinion is that the South Australian centenary celebrations should be held about 9th October when the first Bryanite Society was formed at Lake Farm in Devon.
He is delighted with Court's enthusiasm. He remembers well the Conference at Greenbank Chapel in Exeter and it is delightful to think that a boy spectator on that occasion is now a minister of the Church. Court is however mistaken as to the presentation of the deeds of Lake Farm on that occasion; they were actually given some weeks later at the [Shebbear] College Speech Day.
The awful drought which has lasted for two years has happily ended. For the last week they have had old-fashioned winter weather with storms sweeping up the coast and rain descending in great abundance over the country. May the war soon come to an end also.