Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Will Field
Date
01 Mar 1913
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Object Detail
Date
01 Mar 1913
Transcript
Lake House Hotel Rotorua March 1st
My Dear Will
How very kind of you to send that wire. It’s most awfully good of you but I have enough for a fortnight with my ticket home & that’s as much as I shall want I fancy. Luckily the weather is good so I am having two good goes a day at the Māori, but have not yet got any thing worthy of them. My hand & eye are out & I can’t get on to the colour a bit. I find them as fascinating as ever & if I lived in N.Z. I should settle alongside this sympathetic Lake – I love it. The Māori has a strong sense of race & ancestry about him very interesting to feel & in this classic spot, Mokoia & the Lake as a background it is quite easy to lose ones heart to him. There is a young blood I have been introduced to – no not rubbed noses, who has a £1,000 a year & a motor car which I fancy he keeps under his bed there is no garage & the house is a shanty. He is only 26 but most comely. The conversation consisted in guessing my age. He gallantly put it at 32 – the women said 35 – I will let you know further if any thing else transpires. Nobody at this hotel but two nicish English men – one a prospective sheep farmer & a student of the Māori – his love. I suspect him of being “Mere Mere” in the Dominion & like to watch him wriggle when I mention the articles. There are several stodgy families taking the baths – otherwise the Hotel is quiet – all the pleasanter for me. I hear Jack Scott is not here now. What fish butchers the men are here. They can only talk of the gross weight of what they catch – no sporting instinct at all. No room available in Sydney – so that settles that. I am writing for my pictures & may be will find them in Wllgtn when I get back. If you do see Mr W. Turnbull wld you sound him about his gallery for early April.
No more now, the mail closing. Saturday night & the shops all open, am going into village to see the beau monde. Many thanks again & love to all. From Frances.
Envelope: WH Field Esq, Solicitor, Wellington
My Dear Will
How very kind of you to send that wire. It’s most awfully good of you but I have enough for a fortnight with my ticket home & that’s as much as I shall want I fancy. Luckily the weather is good so I am having two good goes a day at the Māori, but have not yet got any thing worthy of them. My hand & eye are out & I can’t get on to the colour a bit. I find them as fascinating as ever & if I lived in N.Z. I should settle alongside this sympathetic Lake – I love it. The Māori has a strong sense of race & ancestry about him very interesting to feel & in this classic spot, Mokoia & the Lake as a background it is quite easy to lose ones heart to him. There is a young blood I have been introduced to – no not rubbed noses, who has a £1,000 a year & a motor car which I fancy he keeps under his bed there is no garage & the house is a shanty. He is only 26 but most comely. The conversation consisted in guessing my age. He gallantly put it at 32 – the women said 35 – I will let you know further if any thing else transpires. Nobody at this hotel but two nicish English men – one a prospective sheep farmer & a student of the Māori – his love. I suspect him of being “Mere Mere” in the Dominion & like to watch him wriggle when I mention the articles. There are several stodgy families taking the baths – otherwise the Hotel is quiet – all the pleasanter for me. I hear Jack Scott is not here now. What fish butchers the men are here. They can only talk of the gross weight of what they catch – no sporting instinct at all. No room available in Sydney – so that settles that. I am writing for my pictures & may be will find them in Wllgtn when I get back. If you do see Mr W. Turnbull wld you sound him about his gallery for early April.
No more now, the mail closing. Saturday night & the shops all open, am going into village to see the beau monde. Many thanks again & love to all. From Frances.
Envelope: WH Field Esq, Solicitor, Wellington
Pages
2 pages
Sender's address
Lake House, Hotel, Rotorua
Recipient's address
W.H. Field Esq., Solicitor, Wellington.
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-26
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-26.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23118157
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23118157