Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins
Date
22 Jun 1914
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Object Detail
Date
22 Jun 1914
Transcript
5 Equihen June 22nd
My Dearest Mother
I will just shoot you off a short line tho’ I have nothing really to tell you dear. We have had fogs & now storms, today is a raging gale the sea hammering on the cliffs & a big surf, no boats out, nothing doing for the poor fishermen & next to nothing for the poor artists. Such wild weather. June has been a bad month. I have no pupils, no one will come near the sea in such weather. The Postman has just brought me a letter from you with the news of Mr Woodhouse’s death. In a way it is a merciful solution of a most pitiful situation – it might have ended in greater degradation to himself & a long drawn tragedy for his wife & family. But oh dear how awful for her all the same. Mrs Hosking & her Lord up in Wellington in the seats of the mighty & she poor soul left to bury her happiness & ambitions in her husband’s grave. Mrs Hosking said to me in a letter the other day “I think her one of the noblest of women”. Curiously enough I had a letter this morning from an all but forgotten friend Mrs Hanson Turton, do you remember her asking me to go & see her in London. It annoyed me to pay 3d on it. So Aunt Jane has sent the bulbs for Father’s grave. I am sending you a draft for £3 thro’ the Bank. Use of some it to pay the man’s expenses dear & also send Frank some fruit or what ever you think best. I wish I could send you twice as much. No news of my pictures. I have written to the New York Herald & Paris Daily Mail which are widely circulated in Italy & asked them to insert paragraphs. I have also doubled the reward. I think about it night & day & sometimes I wake up at night & my sub-conscious mind almost projects clues & messages on to the white wall so intensely I am willing & directing my energies towards their recovery. It hurts me to think of my last time & chances, all gone by a stroke of ill luck, a while batch of work gone in a flash. Far, far worse than having your best R.A. picture cut up by a Suffragette. That would be an advertisement some artists might even envy one. I must stop now dear. I shall write a little line to Muriel. Poor girl I expect she is very sad about her Father. Take good care of your dear self. Got a pretty story called the “Garden of Resurrection” by Temple Thurston the Author of City of Beautiful Nonsense. A sweet bit of knight-errantry not to be taken too seriously. I got it in a shilling edition & much enjoyed it. Love to you all from Fanny.
My Dearest Mother
I will just shoot you off a short line tho’ I have nothing really to tell you dear. We have had fogs & now storms, today is a raging gale the sea hammering on the cliffs & a big surf, no boats out, nothing doing for the poor fishermen & next to nothing for the poor artists. Such wild weather. June has been a bad month. I have no pupils, no one will come near the sea in such weather. The Postman has just brought me a letter from you with the news of Mr Woodhouse’s death. In a way it is a merciful solution of a most pitiful situation – it might have ended in greater degradation to himself & a long drawn tragedy for his wife & family. But oh dear how awful for her all the same. Mrs Hosking & her Lord up in Wellington in the seats of the mighty & she poor soul left to bury her happiness & ambitions in her husband’s grave. Mrs Hosking said to me in a letter the other day “I think her one of the noblest of women”. Curiously enough I had a letter this morning from an all but forgotten friend Mrs Hanson Turton, do you remember her asking me to go & see her in London. It annoyed me to pay 3d on it. So Aunt Jane has sent the bulbs for Father’s grave. I am sending you a draft for £3 thro’ the Bank. Use of some it to pay the man’s expenses dear & also send Frank some fruit or what ever you think best. I wish I could send you twice as much. No news of my pictures. I have written to the New York Herald & Paris Daily Mail which are widely circulated in Italy & asked them to insert paragraphs. I have also doubled the reward. I think about it night & day & sometimes I wake up at night & my sub-conscious mind almost projects clues & messages on to the white wall so intensely I am willing & directing my energies towards their recovery. It hurts me to think of my last time & chances, all gone by a stroke of ill luck, a while batch of work gone in a flash. Far, far worse than having your best R.A. picture cut up by a Suffragette. That would be an advertisement some artists might even envy one. I must stop now dear. I shall write a little line to Muriel. Poor girl I expect she is very sad about her Father. Take good care of your dear self. Got a pretty story called the “Garden of Resurrection” by Temple Thurston the Author of City of Beautiful Nonsense. A sweet bit of knight-errantry not to be taken too seriously. I got it in a shilling edition & much enjoyed it. Love to you all from Fanny.
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Equihen
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-28
Credit Line
Letters
to
Rachel
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-28.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23058110
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23058110