Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Rachel Hodgkins
Date
03 Oct 1916
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Object Detail
Date
03 Oct 1916
Transcript
St Ives Oct 3rd
My Dearest Mother
I can’t remember if I have written since my return to St Ives. Just before leaving Campden I got a bright letter from you with a delightful photo of Sis, you & Peter. How very nice it is. It cheered me so much - I think it is lovely of you all, quite the happiest you have ever had – I have found a little frame for it. It is so nice to have to show friends. I left Campden sooner than I intended – but it got cold & wet & the Class came to an end on the Sat: 16th & Monday I was off myself by the 10 p.m. train & was in my Studio eating a boiled egg & talking to the cat by 8 o’c – rather played out but glad to be back in my own room. I slept for 2 days almost. The cat was very thin but I have stuffed him out & his contours are now quite elegant. The neighbours all tell me how he used to go out on the sands looking for me. It has been mild & foggy since my return – you feel the Gulf Stream at once – so different from the Midland breezes wh are much more bracing. I am busy fixing up for the winter, getting shutters & laying out my savings on a carpet & curtains – I must keep warm this winter. I got £8 from my tenants & since my return have sold £18 worth of sketches to different people – one to Miss Alice Farmer, a well known London artist, who I saw quite a lot of last week. She took away something of mine – it was rather a big one at a low price – but that is how it is done these days. Altogether prospects are brighter. Last Oct: how gloomy we all were & no wonder – now the news is wonderful & the Allies go irresistibly forward. True there are Zep raids wh we don’t like but now the guns are bringing them down in great style wh is consoling. Yesterday a young girl called on me. She said she had witnessed last Sunday’s raid in London, she had seen them all & three Zepps brought down & she was tired of putting the baby in the cellar so had packed up & came down here on Monday & called on me to see if I could help her find rooms & a Studio – she is an artist. She apologised for troubling me but said that she had looked up her R.A. catalogue & finding a large red mark against my picture & seeing that I lived in St Ives she settled on coming here! She wants lessons. She looks about 18 but says she is 29. She seems to have money enough to run a nurse baby, Studio & Classes & marvellous youth & energy. I start teaching again in Nov. 15 & have reason to think I will really have a Class this winter. I sometimes marvel at my luck – when it is good – there are two kinds you know. The enclosed snap is a poor thing but I have a nice little head I will send along next mail. I had some jolly snaps of my class & self – but by a bad stroke of luck they were burnt by mistake.
Gertrude Crompton has gone to Paris to help in a Hospital – she said she had to produce 18 photos before she got her permit. The Nickalls are there too & a lot of my old pals. They are all up to the neck working for the Poilus. No more now dearest. Up Street (as they say in Cornwall) to do some shopping – golly how dear everything is. Do you pay the prices we do for butter, bacon, sugar, tea & matches? Sugar is difficult to get – I don’t eat meat but sometime get a shank bone & make soup for the making for which I have the inherited family “touch”. Much love to you all Your loving Frances Am sending you “Ann Veronica” by Wells. Have you read it?
My Dearest Mother
I can’t remember if I have written since my return to St Ives. Just before leaving Campden I got a bright letter from you with a delightful photo of Sis, you & Peter. How very nice it is. It cheered me so much - I think it is lovely of you all, quite the happiest you have ever had – I have found a little frame for it. It is so nice to have to show friends. I left Campden sooner than I intended – but it got cold & wet & the Class came to an end on the Sat: 16th & Monday I was off myself by the 10 p.m. train & was in my Studio eating a boiled egg & talking to the cat by 8 o’c – rather played out but glad to be back in my own room. I slept for 2 days almost. The cat was very thin but I have stuffed him out & his contours are now quite elegant. The neighbours all tell me how he used to go out on the sands looking for me. It has been mild & foggy since my return – you feel the Gulf Stream at once – so different from the Midland breezes wh are much more bracing. I am busy fixing up for the winter, getting shutters & laying out my savings on a carpet & curtains – I must keep warm this winter. I got £8 from my tenants & since my return have sold £18 worth of sketches to different people – one to Miss Alice Farmer, a well known London artist, who I saw quite a lot of last week. She took away something of mine – it was rather a big one at a low price – but that is how it is done these days. Altogether prospects are brighter. Last Oct: how gloomy we all were & no wonder – now the news is wonderful & the Allies go irresistibly forward. True there are Zep raids wh we don’t like but now the guns are bringing them down in great style wh is consoling. Yesterday a young girl called on me. She said she had witnessed last Sunday’s raid in London, she had seen them all & three Zepps brought down & she was tired of putting the baby in the cellar so had packed up & came down here on Monday & called on me to see if I could help her find rooms & a Studio – she is an artist. She apologised for troubling me but said that she had looked up her R.A. catalogue & finding a large red mark against my picture & seeing that I lived in St Ives she settled on coming here! She wants lessons. She looks about 18 but says she is 29. She seems to have money enough to run a nurse baby, Studio & Classes & marvellous youth & energy. I start teaching again in Nov. 15 & have reason to think I will really have a Class this winter. I sometimes marvel at my luck – when it is good – there are two kinds you know. The enclosed snap is a poor thing but I have a nice little head I will send along next mail. I had some jolly snaps of my class & self – but by a bad stroke of luck they were burnt by mistake.
Gertrude Crompton has gone to Paris to help in a Hospital – she said she had to produce 18 photos before she got her permit. The Nickalls are there too & a lot of my old pals. They are all up to the neck working for the Poilus. No more now dearest. Up Street (as they say in Cornwall) to do some shopping – golly how dear everything is. Do you pay the prices we do for butter, bacon, sugar, tea & matches? Sugar is difficult to get – I don’t eat meat but sometime get a shank bone & make soup for the making for which I have the inherited family “touch”. Much love to you all Your loving Frances Am sending you “Ann Veronica” by Wells. Have you read it?
Pages
5 pages
Sender's address
St. Ives
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-32
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-32.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22784883
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22784883