Frances reads three letters; Wilfred's letter was written in August 1909, Enid's was written in October and Bernard writes his on Chrstmas Day

Wilfred writes from Montana in the USA, where he is working as a miner.

Enid and Cyril have had loads of people to stay, and they have been making lantern slides from their Swiss holiday photographs.

Then there is a tragedy – the whole of Budget No.23 is lost in the post.

The Budget letters jump straight from October 1909 to Christmas; Bernard starts Budget No.24 on Christmas morning at the family home in Longton Avenue in Sydenham; he has already been to church; Lizzie the cook is busy in the kitchen, and he can smell the turkey cooking as he writes. Bernard is recording his predictions in the Budget, so he can later find out if they came true or not.

Just realised I failed to notice something, about manure - Bernard says this -

"Why should the 'stink of this man -Ure' pervade the Budget?"

Mr Ure was a politican, this quote - 'stink of this man-Ure' was taken, by Bernard, from one of the "gentlemanly newspapers."

Machell Cox Budget Letters is on twitter @CoxLetters, or do email me if you have found this podcast interesting - machellcoxletters@gmail.com

All content is subject to copyright and belongs to Frances Thompson and the Bodleian Library.

Intro: 0:00
Wilfred's letter, August 1909: 03:06
Notes on Wilfred's letter: 06:36
Enid's letter, 26th October: 10:42
Notes on Enid's letter: 17:42
Bernard's letter, Christmas Day 1909: 23:22
Notes on Bernard's letter: 32:42