Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Hodgkins
Date
11 Jul 1892
See full details
See transcription
Object Detail
Date
11 Jul 1892
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge Monday Evening (11 July 1892)
My dearest old Girl
I feel as if I hadn’t done my duty by you this week, but I will make up all arrears in this letter.
First of all when are you coming home. Your sorrowing parents ask for news. I bear Will an undying grudge for keeping you up there so long for indirectly it is his fault. We have long ago voted you what Prof. Ulrich calls a “bum hug” (no translation needed I hope) and will not expect you home until we see you. Seriously tho’ I am wearying for your return, & hope it will not be long delayed. Between our selves, May rather hopes you will stay on till after the 19th. at any rate so that she can run up and see you on her way thro’. She is raking up friends all along the coast and is particularly desirous that I should send something to Miss Holmes by her. I wonder how the innocent little pea-blossom will get on over in Sydney. If she is as flighty over there as she has been here lately she is sure to make an impression. Mrs Kenyon talks of going Home and taking all the children and leaving May to follow from Sydney if she cares to!
I braved the elements today & went up the Rattrays for a final rehearsal of the famous Ten. It is a most inane performance. The ten consist of a plentiful supply of Rattrays & Cargills, Gwen Roberts, Maudie Butterworth, myself and Alice Spence & Rosy Webster and I am sure the performance isn’t worthy our illustrious names. May is going to recite tomorrow night one of Moore’s odes – something sentimental you may be sure. Some of the items lately have been anything but successful. Last Tuesday Maudie Butterworth & Aggie & Lulu Roberts got up a dramatized edition of Tennyson’s Lady Claire. Maudie was Lady Claire and gabbled thro’ her part with an hysterical giggle. Then Lulu came on in her father’s pants and looked so frightfully conscious of the trousers and so completely indifferent to Lady Claire that the audience was nearly convulsed. I have done a good many programmes it is a thankless task and as often as not your handiwork is scribbled over by some aggressive fist. I heard all your pretty programmes were spoilt last year in the same way. However, I suppose you must do something for your membership. I have got such a lot of painting on hand just at present that I look on Tuesday evening in the light of an interruption – it is always such a work getting to and from the Savage. After tomorrow I think I will give it up for a bit. I have got a nasty cold I can’t get rid of. I had a note from Mrs Woodhouse this morning asking me to go to dinner with them tomorrow night but I have promised to go to the Spences and will stay all night there. Maggie Gilk came up yesterday to see us, her travels don’t seem to have improved her much. Daisy Ross is going to leave Dunedin and is going to her Father in Sydney. She seems to think there is a better opening for her over there, in fact she has several pupils already guaranteed. Dunedin is all agog just at present over Mr & Mrs Ferriers return to dispute the will. It seems very brazen faced of them doesn’t it? People are wondering how Grace Rose will deport herself as friend of the old & the new wife, a position requiring a good deal of finesse I should think. Alice Spence’s love affair seems to have had a sudden check & is never spoken about now, and whether it will ever run smoothly again I don’t know.
Mrs Scott & Mrs Davidson are going to Brighton for a week to recruit Frankie’s health, who has had a bad cold. No more tonight dearest old girl. I think Mother is going to add a line so will close with best love to Aunt Bella & yourself, ever your loving sister Fanny
The enclosed letter arrived for you a fortnight ago, but I forgot to send it on. I am sorry it has been opened.
My dearest old Girl
I feel as if I hadn’t done my duty by you this week, but I will make up all arrears in this letter.
First of all when are you coming home. Your sorrowing parents ask for news. I bear Will an undying grudge for keeping you up there so long for indirectly it is his fault. We have long ago voted you what Prof. Ulrich calls a “bum hug” (no translation needed I hope) and will not expect you home until we see you. Seriously tho’ I am wearying for your return, & hope it will not be long delayed. Between our selves, May rather hopes you will stay on till after the 19th. at any rate so that she can run up and see you on her way thro’. She is raking up friends all along the coast and is particularly desirous that I should send something to Miss Holmes by her. I wonder how the innocent little pea-blossom will get on over in Sydney. If she is as flighty over there as she has been here lately she is sure to make an impression. Mrs Kenyon talks of going Home and taking all the children and leaving May to follow from Sydney if she cares to!
I braved the elements today & went up the Rattrays for a final rehearsal of the famous Ten. It is a most inane performance. The ten consist of a plentiful supply of Rattrays & Cargills, Gwen Roberts, Maudie Butterworth, myself and Alice Spence & Rosy Webster and I am sure the performance isn’t worthy our illustrious names. May is going to recite tomorrow night one of Moore’s odes – something sentimental you may be sure. Some of the items lately have been anything but successful. Last Tuesday Maudie Butterworth & Aggie & Lulu Roberts got up a dramatized edition of Tennyson’s Lady Claire. Maudie was Lady Claire and gabbled thro’ her part with an hysterical giggle. Then Lulu came on in her father’s pants and looked so frightfully conscious of the trousers and so completely indifferent to Lady Claire that the audience was nearly convulsed. I have done a good many programmes it is a thankless task and as often as not your handiwork is scribbled over by some aggressive fist. I heard all your pretty programmes were spoilt last year in the same way. However, I suppose you must do something for your membership. I have got such a lot of painting on hand just at present that I look on Tuesday evening in the light of an interruption – it is always such a work getting to and from the Savage. After tomorrow I think I will give it up for a bit. I have got a nasty cold I can’t get rid of. I had a note from Mrs Woodhouse this morning asking me to go to dinner with them tomorrow night but I have promised to go to the Spences and will stay all night there. Maggie Gilk came up yesterday to see us, her travels don’t seem to have improved her much. Daisy Ross is going to leave Dunedin and is going to her Father in Sydney. She seems to think there is a better opening for her over there, in fact she has several pupils already guaranteed. Dunedin is all agog just at present over Mr & Mrs Ferriers return to dispute the will. It seems very brazen faced of them doesn’t it? People are wondering how Grace Rose will deport herself as friend of the old & the new wife, a position requiring a good deal of finesse I should think. Alice Spence’s love affair seems to have had a sudden check & is never spoken about now, and whether it will ever run smoothly again I don’t know.
Mrs Scott & Mrs Davidson are going to Brighton for a week to recruit Frankie’s health, who has had a bad cold. No more tonight dearest old girl. I think Mother is going to add a line so will close with best love to Aunt Bella & yourself, ever your loving sister Fanny
The enclosed letter arrived for you a fortnight ago, but I forgot to send it on. I am sorry it has been opened.
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