Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Field
Date
11 Feb 1896
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Object Detail
Date
11 Feb 1896
Transcript
Cranmore Lodge Tuesday 11 .96
My dearest Sis
I feel that I have treated you very badly never writing to you all these weeks and I have still to thank you for the stockings you sent me at Christmas. I wore them at Cannington and was very glad of them and in spite of their being unacknowledged were very comfortable. I have been home now for more than a week. I found Mother looking the picture of health and as brown as a berry being so much in the garden. I brought back a fine tan myself and am now in the peeling stage. The best news I have heard for a long time was that you were so much better and stronger. Mrs Finker wrote many complimentary things about you & the babies. I had a lovely month in the country and feel a different person. I thoroughly appreciated the idle life we lead. I came back to find Willie gone and much as I miss him I cannot help enjoying the entire peacefulness that reigns. Father doesn’t know himself, he hasn’t been once contradicted and I am not sure that it is altogether good for him. He is now his own master in his own study and his native spirits are returning. The Congress Gaieties are all over and the last of the doctors have gone. It was a memorable week one whirr of excitement and perfect weather. I contented myself with three garden parties, the Reynolds, Cuttens and Mr Russells, at all 3 of which Vice Royalty was present. Major Elliot has set the whole town agog with his behaviour. He seems to be a howling cad from all accounts and has been snubbed right and left. The Batchelors ball was a most brilliant affair I believe, the best ever given in Dunedin. May has a new grey satin dress which is to form part of her trousseau. Alice McG. does not seem to be any stronger and the doctor is again in attendance. I am convinced Robert doesn’t half take care of her she was allowed to go to the balls on no account to dance and if they didn’t walk home, and of course she was far too knocked up to go to anything for the rest of the week. That hill is enough to kill her when she is so delicate. She is going with him down to Invercargill and for a night to Lucy Tolmie and the change may do her good. I think Robert ought to feed her up and give her wine and beer and give her a proper chance. I am sure Mrs Spence would insist on it if she saw how delicate she is looking. The baby is of the stodgy and extremely healthy order and has a face devoid of any expression save a penetrating stare. The night before I left Cannington Jim Morris came over and stayed the night, he has grown a red beard and look a frightful Hooligan. We had trotting racing and he was Time Keeper. We were got up jockey fashion with sashes and caps.
Mother is calling out for the ink I have surrendered it and continue in pencil. [Incomplete]
My dearest Sis
I feel that I have treated you very badly never writing to you all these weeks and I have still to thank you for the stockings you sent me at Christmas. I wore them at Cannington and was very glad of them and in spite of their being unacknowledged were very comfortable. I have been home now for more than a week. I found Mother looking the picture of health and as brown as a berry being so much in the garden. I brought back a fine tan myself and am now in the peeling stage. The best news I have heard for a long time was that you were so much better and stronger. Mrs Finker wrote many complimentary things about you & the babies. I had a lovely month in the country and feel a different person. I thoroughly appreciated the idle life we lead. I came back to find Willie gone and much as I miss him I cannot help enjoying the entire peacefulness that reigns. Father doesn’t know himself, he hasn’t been once contradicted and I am not sure that it is altogether good for him. He is now his own master in his own study and his native spirits are returning. The Congress Gaieties are all over and the last of the doctors have gone. It was a memorable week one whirr of excitement and perfect weather. I contented myself with three garden parties, the Reynolds, Cuttens and Mr Russells, at all 3 of which Vice Royalty was present. Major Elliot has set the whole town agog with his behaviour. He seems to be a howling cad from all accounts and has been snubbed right and left. The Batchelors ball was a most brilliant affair I believe, the best ever given in Dunedin. May has a new grey satin dress which is to form part of her trousseau. Alice McG. does not seem to be any stronger and the doctor is again in attendance. I am convinced Robert doesn’t half take care of her she was allowed to go to the balls on no account to dance and if they didn’t walk home, and of course she was far too knocked up to go to anything for the rest of the week. That hill is enough to kill her when she is so delicate. She is going with him down to Invercargill and for a night to Lucy Tolmie and the change may do her good. I think Robert ought to feed her up and give her wine and beer and give her a proper chance. I am sure Mrs Spence would insist on it if she saw how delicate she is looking. The baby is of the stodgy and extremely healthy order and has a face devoid of any expression save a penetrating stare. The night before I left Cannington Jim Morris came over and stayed the night, he has grown a red beard and look a frightful Hooligan. We had trotting racing and he was Time Keeper. We were got up jockey fashion with sashes and caps.
Mother is calling out for the ink I have surrendered it and continue in pencil. [Incomplete]
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Cranmore Lodge
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-05
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-05.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23234786
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23234786