Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Field
Date
15 Apr 1894
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Object Detail
Date
15 Apr 1894
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge Sunday afternoon
My dearest Sis
It is raining as if it never meant to stop and I have settled down by the kitchen fire to have a yarn with you. Winter weather has set in with a vengeance – it will be horribly damp here in the winter if we don’t get something done to the roof. Scoular refuses to spend a penny on the place so I expect our only remedy is to move into another house as soon as we can, but of course that is quite out of the question till Mother comes back again. Mother has really made up her mind to start next week on her travels, she is quite ready & has done all her sewing and is only waiting for a good boat. She told me to tell you on no account to send down the rug, as it would only give her the trouble of looking after it and she really doesn’t want it for she has bought herself a very warm sealette mantle and a fur boa so she will be quite warm enough. Thanks all the same for your kind offer. I have become most domesticated and haven’t as much as looked at a brush for months. Aunt Bella sent me a £1 for a birthday present the other day. She is good to her impecunious nieces & no mistake. Ethel brought down a long and lankey youth last night who on close inspection turned out to be Lennie who has come over from Australia in search of work. He is staying with Joe and Clara in that most elastic house of theirs. I went into the dining room a minute ago to get another pen and found Mother & Willie arguing in the most spirited manner over Frank’s affection for Percy. Mother asserted that Frank would go thro’ fire and water to save Percy so great was his love for him!! Willie said he didn’t doubt he would go thro fire but he didn’t believe Frank would go near water for any one. Frank came in at this opportune moment in time to defend himself and then the argument got lost in general abuse, so I retired.
I went to All Saints Bazaar one night to see May dance the Gavotte, it was a very pretty sight: they wore powdered hair and ball dresses. Mr Mitchell of your fair City (I think he is Mrs Elliot’s brother) was there and treated me to side shows. Willie brought him up last Sunday to supper. Prof. Gibbons won my picture which went for £2.10. The White Art Union still drags drearily on and the tickets are not going off very well. Mrs Scott has bought some of their white table cloths so you see they are selling everything they can to raise the wind. We are going to part with the cow this week. We haven’t so much ground as formerly, so it is just as well to part with her. Two ugly little tin roofed houses are springing up, one at the back and the other just below the tennis lawn so our privacy is invaded at last. I wish I had more news to tell you dear old girl. Keep up your spirits, and don’t fret darling. With heaps of love from Mother and my self to you both ever your loving sister Fanny
My dearest Sis
It is raining as if it never meant to stop and I have settled down by the kitchen fire to have a yarn with you. Winter weather has set in with a vengeance – it will be horribly damp here in the winter if we don’t get something done to the roof. Scoular refuses to spend a penny on the place so I expect our only remedy is to move into another house as soon as we can, but of course that is quite out of the question till Mother comes back again. Mother has really made up her mind to start next week on her travels, she is quite ready & has done all her sewing and is only waiting for a good boat. She told me to tell you on no account to send down the rug, as it would only give her the trouble of looking after it and she really doesn’t want it for she has bought herself a very warm sealette mantle and a fur boa so she will be quite warm enough. Thanks all the same for your kind offer. I have become most domesticated and haven’t as much as looked at a brush for months. Aunt Bella sent me a £1 for a birthday present the other day. She is good to her impecunious nieces & no mistake. Ethel brought down a long and lankey youth last night who on close inspection turned out to be Lennie who has come over from Australia in search of work. He is staying with Joe and Clara in that most elastic house of theirs. I went into the dining room a minute ago to get another pen and found Mother & Willie arguing in the most spirited manner over Frank’s affection for Percy. Mother asserted that Frank would go thro’ fire and water to save Percy so great was his love for him!! Willie said he didn’t doubt he would go thro fire but he didn’t believe Frank would go near water for any one. Frank came in at this opportune moment in time to defend himself and then the argument got lost in general abuse, so I retired.
I went to All Saints Bazaar one night to see May dance the Gavotte, it was a very pretty sight: they wore powdered hair and ball dresses. Mr Mitchell of your fair City (I think he is Mrs Elliot’s brother) was there and treated me to side shows. Willie brought him up last Sunday to supper. Prof. Gibbons won my picture which went for £2.10. The White Art Union still drags drearily on and the tickets are not going off very well. Mrs Scott has bought some of their white table cloths so you see they are selling everything they can to raise the wind. We are going to part with the cow this week. We haven’t so much ground as formerly, so it is just as well to part with her. Two ugly little tin roofed houses are springing up, one at the back and the other just below the tennis lawn so our privacy is invaded at last. I wish I had more news to tell you dear old girl. Keep up your spirits, and don’t fret darling. With heaps of love from Mother and my self to you both ever your loving sister Fanny
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Cranmore Lodge
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-02
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-02.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23212975
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23212975