Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Field
Date
29 Apr 1894
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Object Detail
Date
29 Apr 1894
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge Sunday afternoon
My dearest Sis
I am so sorry to have left you so long without a letter but I must make up for it with a long chat with you today. Thank you so much for your dear letter and the stockings how thoughtful of you to remember my birthday, as you say it will save darning and you could not have sent me anything more acceptable and useful. I can’t realise that I am 25. After this you must cease to remember my birthdays. Last Thursday was the anniversary of your Wedding. I am so glad you have got safely over that date before the infant arrived. Poor old Alice isn’t half as lucky as you were. She has given up going out except for little strolls along the hill. The long climb up the hill has proved too much for her and she rather knocked herself up. I went up and sat with her last Tuesday and found her and Mrs Spence busily attacking a roll of Calico. Mrs Spence was very indignant at the persistent way in which the stall holders at the recent All Saints Bazaar followed her round with infants’ clothes and pestered her to buy them, extremely bad taste wasn’t it?
Willie went up with his camera yesterday and took the McGowan maison. He stayed to dinner and brought Mr Ramsden back with him in the evening. Dolly Murdoch has been staying with me from Friday and goes tomorrow. It is very nice having her for I am left pretty much to myself in the evenings. For several evenings Father has gone out ostensibly on business but has always returned with a large portfolio which he instantly secreted in the most mysterious manner in the study. I was most curious and yesterday I solved the mystery and I confess it gave me a bit of a shock. It turns out he is attending a nude class at Nerli’s Studio and he is much too ashamed to own it. His drawings were most angular and looked as if they have been drawn with a T square. He has quite made up his mind that he is a figure painter and I am terribly afraid he will exhibit a figure subject at the next exhibition.
Did you hear the result of the White Art Union, a very good one for the Holmes faction for they have drawn about 30 prizes between them. They managed to sell nearly 300 tickets which was much better than people expected. Dr Scott won a tall Japanese vase.
The town has been all agog with the Davidson cum Smith wedding. They were married very quietly last Tuesday morning and he went back to work and she received her usual Tuesday Callers. Nobody knew anything about it till they were married and now she is to be seen in her wedding finery trotting about just the same as usual. Father sent her a picture, and in thanking him she said that she thought they had a much greater chance of being happier than most people as they had no sharp corners to rub off since they had done that long ago, which was characteristic of Mrs Davidson wasn’t it. Mrs Finker and her cousin Mr Harris came in last night, I think curiosity to see how I was managing prompted the visit, she said she came down to say goodbye to Mother and brought her a “lovely bottle of scent” but when she found out she had gone, she said “ of course I took the scent away again,” and I rudely said, “yes for there was nobody here who would have accepted it”. She was perfectly insufferable the questions she asked.
I am asked to a small dance at Bishopscourt tomorrow night and to another at the Farquhar’s the next night but I don’t think I will go to either. There was a dance at Girton Hall the other night given by some of the batchelors and I believe 17 girls sat out each dance. May Kenyon went home after the 3rd dance. Alice Greenwood has come down to Totsie again and I am told there is a reason for it. I have not seen Totsie for some time. I expect you have seen Lucy Tolmie before this reaches you. I hope you felt well enough to see her. It would do you good to see an old friend.
Well, dear old Girlie, I must say goodbye for the present. Willie has asked Mr Mitchell to supper so I must fly round. I never realised how much there is to be done in this house till Mother went. The cooking is the hardest part. Agnes is after all a very primitive cook and savours a little too much of the boarding house, but otherwise she is a very nice girl.
I got those photos and am posting them to you with the one you sent down. You had better settle with me as I paid the bill, it was 5/- for half a doz. I have kept one for myself.
My dearest Sis
I am so sorry to have left you so long without a letter but I must make up for it with a long chat with you today. Thank you so much for your dear letter and the stockings how thoughtful of you to remember my birthday, as you say it will save darning and you could not have sent me anything more acceptable and useful. I can’t realise that I am 25. After this you must cease to remember my birthdays. Last Thursday was the anniversary of your Wedding. I am so glad you have got safely over that date before the infant arrived. Poor old Alice isn’t half as lucky as you were. She has given up going out except for little strolls along the hill. The long climb up the hill has proved too much for her and she rather knocked herself up. I went up and sat with her last Tuesday and found her and Mrs Spence busily attacking a roll of Calico. Mrs Spence was very indignant at the persistent way in which the stall holders at the recent All Saints Bazaar followed her round with infants’ clothes and pestered her to buy them, extremely bad taste wasn’t it?
Willie went up with his camera yesterday and took the McGowan maison. He stayed to dinner and brought Mr Ramsden back with him in the evening. Dolly Murdoch has been staying with me from Friday and goes tomorrow. It is very nice having her for I am left pretty much to myself in the evenings. For several evenings Father has gone out ostensibly on business but has always returned with a large portfolio which he instantly secreted in the most mysterious manner in the study. I was most curious and yesterday I solved the mystery and I confess it gave me a bit of a shock. It turns out he is attending a nude class at Nerli’s Studio and he is much too ashamed to own it. His drawings were most angular and looked as if they have been drawn with a T square. He has quite made up his mind that he is a figure painter and I am terribly afraid he will exhibit a figure subject at the next exhibition.
Did you hear the result of the White Art Union, a very good one for the Holmes faction for they have drawn about 30 prizes between them. They managed to sell nearly 300 tickets which was much better than people expected. Dr Scott won a tall Japanese vase.
The town has been all agog with the Davidson cum Smith wedding. They were married very quietly last Tuesday morning and he went back to work and she received her usual Tuesday Callers. Nobody knew anything about it till they were married and now she is to be seen in her wedding finery trotting about just the same as usual. Father sent her a picture, and in thanking him she said that she thought they had a much greater chance of being happier than most people as they had no sharp corners to rub off since they had done that long ago, which was characteristic of Mrs Davidson wasn’t it. Mrs Finker and her cousin Mr Harris came in last night, I think curiosity to see how I was managing prompted the visit, she said she came down to say goodbye to Mother and brought her a “lovely bottle of scent” but when she found out she had gone, she said “ of course I took the scent away again,” and I rudely said, “yes for there was nobody here who would have accepted it”. She was perfectly insufferable the questions she asked.
I am asked to a small dance at Bishopscourt tomorrow night and to another at the Farquhar’s the next night but I don’t think I will go to either. There was a dance at Girton Hall the other night given by some of the batchelors and I believe 17 girls sat out each dance. May Kenyon went home after the 3rd dance. Alice Greenwood has come down to Totsie again and I am told there is a reason for it. I have not seen Totsie for some time. I expect you have seen Lucy Tolmie before this reaches you. I hope you felt well enough to see her. It would do you good to see an old friend.
Well, dear old Girlie, I must say goodbye for the present. Willie has asked Mr Mitchell to supper so I must fly round. I never realised how much there is to be done in this house till Mother went. The cooking is the hardest part. Agnes is after all a very primitive cook and savours a little too much of the boarding house, but otherwise she is a very nice girl.
I got those photos and am posting them to you with the one you sent down. You had better settle with me as I paid the bill, it was 5/- for half a doz. I have kept one for myself.
Pages
8 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