Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Hodgkins
Date
05 Jun 1892
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Object Detail
Date
05 Jun 1892
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge June 5 1892
My dearest Old Girlie
I am afraid I have been treating you rather badly this last week, but I have been so busy I have scarcely had a moment to myself. Bert has been very unwell with an attack of jaundice but is better now but still very weak and thin. Phemie went home for her usual holiday on Friday, and to make matters worse, Jenny Gilk turned up evidently on the cadge for a bed. We didn’t ask her however & she departed but came back almost immediately and asked for a bed as she was frightened to go thro’ the bush and she is here still and there seems to be every likelihood of her remaining another week.
I have had to stop here to get supper. Young Grummitt came up. He is a very good looking boy and much jollier than Lily. I feel in a frightfully bad temper. Jenny has been playing the fool the whole evening, one never knows what she is going to say next. Never was a girl so unwelcome, & I only hope she will make herself scarce tomorrow.
I went to the Savage on Tuesday, it was fairly good but on the whole was a very disappointing performance. Fanny Sise made a fool of herself reciting a comic piece of poetry. She certainly paid the penalty of unpopularity for nobody even smiled and she sat down amid dead silence. I don’t think I will trouble it very often. I have had plenty of offers of beds but I don’t think the game will be worth the candle. They say it will die a natural death before very long. Mrs McKenzie has withdrawn her patronage & that will make a great difference.
I am so tired but I don’t want to go to bed with that wretch. I have taken a sudden repulsion to her and my civility is on the strain, but perhaps a talk with you dearie will calm me down a little. Do write to me soon dearie. I am longing for a letter from you.
Mother is sorry to have left you so long without a letter but she has so much sewing to do in the evenings and when that is finished she is always too tired to write but she promised you a letter next week, and in the meantime she sends her best love.
Percy and Ernest McDonald have rented a cottage between them at Broad Bay and spend their Saturdays & Sundays down there, but what pleasure they can find in the country in winter I fail to see. Percy has been foraging round the house for some pictures to take down with him. All the almanacs & those somewhat indecent photographs have disappeared I am glad to say, and tonight he asked Father for one of Gully’s pictures to hang over the mantelpiece. Father refused the Gully but offered one of yours instead, a worthy substitute?
No more tonight dearest with best love from us all to yourself & Aunt Bell. Ever yours very lovingly Fanny.
Jack Wright brought up Mr Greenwood to see me one day. That looks rather like business carting the old man round doesn’t it?
My dearest Old Girlie
I am afraid I have been treating you rather badly this last week, but I have been so busy I have scarcely had a moment to myself. Bert has been very unwell with an attack of jaundice but is better now but still very weak and thin. Phemie went home for her usual holiday on Friday, and to make matters worse, Jenny Gilk turned up evidently on the cadge for a bed. We didn’t ask her however & she departed but came back almost immediately and asked for a bed as she was frightened to go thro’ the bush and she is here still and there seems to be every likelihood of her remaining another week.
I have had to stop here to get supper. Young Grummitt came up. He is a very good looking boy and much jollier than Lily. I feel in a frightfully bad temper. Jenny has been playing the fool the whole evening, one never knows what she is going to say next. Never was a girl so unwelcome, & I only hope she will make herself scarce tomorrow.
I went to the Savage on Tuesday, it was fairly good but on the whole was a very disappointing performance. Fanny Sise made a fool of herself reciting a comic piece of poetry. She certainly paid the penalty of unpopularity for nobody even smiled and she sat down amid dead silence. I don’t think I will trouble it very often. I have had plenty of offers of beds but I don’t think the game will be worth the candle. They say it will die a natural death before very long. Mrs McKenzie has withdrawn her patronage & that will make a great difference.
I am so tired but I don’t want to go to bed with that wretch. I have taken a sudden repulsion to her and my civility is on the strain, but perhaps a talk with you dearie will calm me down a little. Do write to me soon dearie. I am longing for a letter from you.
Mother is sorry to have left you so long without a letter but she has so much sewing to do in the evenings and when that is finished she is always too tired to write but she promised you a letter next week, and in the meantime she sends her best love.
Percy and Ernest McDonald have rented a cottage between them at Broad Bay and spend their Saturdays & Sundays down there, but what pleasure they can find in the country in winter I fail to see. Percy has been foraging round the house for some pictures to take down with him. All the almanacs & those somewhat indecent photographs have disappeared I am glad to say, and tonight he asked Father for one of Gully’s pictures to hang over the mantelpiece. Father refused the Gully but offered one of yours instead, a worthy substitute?
No more tonight dearest with best love from us all to yourself & Aunt Bell. Ever yours very lovingly Fanny.
Jack Wright brought up Mr Greenwood to see me one day. That looks rather like business carting the old man round doesn’t it?
Pages
6 pages
Sender's address
Cranmore Lodge
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-01
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-01.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22561841
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22561841