Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Hodgkins
Date
01 Jul 1892
See full details
See transcription
Object Detail
Date
01 Jul 1892
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge Friday evening
My dearest Sissie
I am afraid I am rather behindhand with my letter this week, but I must make up for it tonight with an extra sheet. I am so glad dearest you have made up your mind to come home, we are prepared to kill the fatted calf at a moment’s notice. How frightfully disappointed you must have been at Will’s hurried return. It did seem cruel after all these delays and worries, but cheer up dearie and remember that worse things happen at sea. According to Miss Holmes in a letter to Father, this is the last time you will see each other for six months, it does seem hard doesn’t it. Kate Rattray has returned and asked after you at the Savage on Tuesday. It was a very good meeting in spite of the Reynolds having a very big finger in the pie. There was a vast deal of amusement created by Manie posing as Helen of Troy, while Mrs Melland spouted Tennyson’s Dream of Fair Women, and then Rachel came on as Iphigenia, and I felt that my ideas of classical beauty had sustained a severe shock. Miss Annie Cargill made a buxom and countrified Cleopatra and frolicked thro’ her part successfully, and Lulu Roberts as Joan of Arc looked splendid in tinsel and silver paper. Our little niggers come on next Tuesday, I had a dress rehearsal the other night for the boys’ benefit and they voted me better looking as a nigger than as a white woman, so you see there are some occasions when a big mouth has an advantage over a small mouth. I went to lunch at the Scotts’ yesterday. Mrs S. said she would have written to you before but you told her you would be home almost immediately. She is quite well again & walks about quite energetically. Dr Scott has given me a £2.2 commission to copy an old picture, or rather print. He won’t hear of my doing it as a “labour of love” as I wished, so I have consented to accept a “slight remuneration”. It is a gruesome subject or a surgical operation for his dissecting room. I went to lunch with Mrs Woodhouse on Monday. She seemed very pleased with the sketch. I have seen Miss Jeannie and have promised to go for a walk with her on Monday. Miss Fanny gave her an afternoon tea today but it was too wet to think of going. Dolly Neill gave one yesterday and I think that will do for one week.
Mrs Spooner is still with us but departs tomorrow for the Wood abode. I don’t know if there is any more news to tell you dearest. Jeannie Scott is to be married early next week, but the exact date is not known. Joe and Clara are having an evening on Friday. They asked me, but I told Clara I was going to spend the evening at Joachims, and all she said was “Hem Hm-hm!” in that odious way of hers and I know she didn’t believe me. May I think starts on the 11th but I expect you will be back by that time, at least I hope so.
The new Academy Notes have just come in and I have promptly sat upon them to prevent them being rushed by the rest of the family so I must stop and have a look at them before Father comes in.
Mother sends her very best love, but I have refused to make any more apologies for her not writing. With best love to Aunt Bella and your dear old self, ever your loving sister Fanny.
PS Tell Will when you write that I hope his next visit will be to Dunedin.
My dearest Sissie
I am afraid I am rather behindhand with my letter this week, but I must make up for it tonight with an extra sheet. I am so glad dearest you have made up your mind to come home, we are prepared to kill the fatted calf at a moment’s notice. How frightfully disappointed you must have been at Will’s hurried return. It did seem cruel after all these delays and worries, but cheer up dearie and remember that worse things happen at sea. According to Miss Holmes in a letter to Father, this is the last time you will see each other for six months, it does seem hard doesn’t it. Kate Rattray has returned and asked after you at the Savage on Tuesday. It was a very good meeting in spite of the Reynolds having a very big finger in the pie. There was a vast deal of amusement created by Manie posing as Helen of Troy, while Mrs Melland spouted Tennyson’s Dream of Fair Women, and then Rachel came on as Iphigenia, and I felt that my ideas of classical beauty had sustained a severe shock. Miss Annie Cargill made a buxom and countrified Cleopatra and frolicked thro’ her part successfully, and Lulu Roberts as Joan of Arc looked splendid in tinsel and silver paper. Our little niggers come on next Tuesday, I had a dress rehearsal the other night for the boys’ benefit and they voted me better looking as a nigger than as a white woman, so you see there are some occasions when a big mouth has an advantage over a small mouth. I went to lunch at the Scotts’ yesterday. Mrs S. said she would have written to you before but you told her you would be home almost immediately. She is quite well again & walks about quite energetically. Dr Scott has given me a £2.2 commission to copy an old picture, or rather print. He won’t hear of my doing it as a “labour of love” as I wished, so I have consented to accept a “slight remuneration”. It is a gruesome subject or a surgical operation for his dissecting room. I went to lunch with Mrs Woodhouse on Monday. She seemed very pleased with the sketch. I have seen Miss Jeannie and have promised to go for a walk with her on Monday. Miss Fanny gave her an afternoon tea today but it was too wet to think of going. Dolly Neill gave one yesterday and I think that will do for one week.
Mrs Spooner is still with us but departs tomorrow for the Wood abode. I don’t know if there is any more news to tell you dearest. Jeannie Scott is to be married early next week, but the exact date is not known. Joe and Clara are having an evening on Friday. They asked me, but I told Clara I was going to spend the evening at Joachims, and all she said was “Hem Hm-hm!” in that odious way of hers and I know she didn’t believe me. May I think starts on the 11th but I expect you will be back by that time, at least I hope so.
The new Academy Notes have just come in and I have promptly sat upon them to prevent them being rushed by the rest of the family so I must stop and have a look at them before Father comes in.
Mother sends her very best love, but I have refused to make any more apologies for her not writing. With best love to Aunt Bella and your dear old self, ever your loving sister Fanny.
PS Tell Will when you write that I hope his next visit will be to Dunedin.
Pages
8 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