Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Willie Hodgkins
Date
26 May 1940
See full details
See transcription
Object Detail
Date
26 May 1940
Transcript
The Croft Bradford on Tone Taunton Somerset May 26th 40
My Dearest Willie
These are dark days. Shall we win through this time? By the law of average it’s about time our side got an innings. Battles rarely go all one way. Nothing has ever made me so sick at heart as all this treachery. It is pure cold horror. No I don't for a moment despair. This week's K H News Letter gives a very sane account of what resources we have even if France is more over run. Even if Hitler overruns all Europe, but you'll be reading this about when this letter reaches you so I will not quote.
At least and at last, we are united with Labour pulling its weight and every ounce being put into War Effort.
Today is the day of prayer. Thought is a powerful thing. May such a wave stand as a bulwark against the evil forces against us.
I have moved over here to the Croft from Corfe Castle not because it is any safer. No place is safe but it is rather more away from it all than on the S. coast where the coastal gunfire rattled my big studio windows. Very worrying. Geoffrey gave me the use of the Croft for the summer & I shall stay here so long as the Gov: doesn't fill it up with evacuees. The garden has plenty of fruit & vegetables, rather backward from the winter frost. All flowers & shrubs are killed dead & the macrocarpa hedge dead also a horrible brown colour. The dear little garden I used to call a Persian Garden more like a wilderness than anything else. I have dispensed with the Housekeeper & am doing my own work & cooking in a sort of fashion. I have lost the domesticated touch I once had. Economy is the Keynote.
Forgive me if I don't write more. In the face of the horror which is doing its best to engulf us all it is not easy to write. Whatever one says or does seems immaterial in a world which changes imperceptibly from hour to hour. Perhaps these are the birth pangs of a new world order. What will the offspring be like?
My work is interrupted. My Gallery writes. Goodness knows what will happen to all the Art Exhibitions in the light of the past few days’ events in France.
I have just had yr letter (March 6) & Heralds. Thanks so much. Dont send more papers - delivery restricted. Posting you N. Statesman with account of the Venice picture show at Hertford House. Send this on to Sis & tell her not to worry about me & keep a good heart. We shall come through.
All my love Frances I need nothing only the help of your will power.
My Dearest Willie
These are dark days. Shall we win through this time? By the law of average it’s about time our side got an innings. Battles rarely go all one way. Nothing has ever made me so sick at heart as all this treachery. It is pure cold horror. No I don't for a moment despair. This week's K H News Letter gives a very sane account of what resources we have even if France is more over run. Even if Hitler overruns all Europe, but you'll be reading this about when this letter reaches you so I will not quote.
At least and at last, we are united with Labour pulling its weight and every ounce being put into War Effort.
Today is the day of prayer. Thought is a powerful thing. May such a wave stand as a bulwark against the evil forces against us.
I have moved over here to the Croft from Corfe Castle not because it is any safer. No place is safe but it is rather more away from it all than on the S. coast where the coastal gunfire rattled my big studio windows. Very worrying. Geoffrey gave me the use of the Croft for the summer & I shall stay here so long as the Gov: doesn't fill it up with evacuees. The garden has plenty of fruit & vegetables, rather backward from the winter frost. All flowers & shrubs are killed dead & the macrocarpa hedge dead also a horrible brown colour. The dear little garden I used to call a Persian Garden more like a wilderness than anything else. I have dispensed with the Housekeeper & am doing my own work & cooking in a sort of fashion. I have lost the domesticated touch I once had. Economy is the Keynote.
Forgive me if I don't write more. In the face of the horror which is doing its best to engulf us all it is not easy to write. Whatever one says or does seems immaterial in a world which changes imperceptibly from hour to hour. Perhaps these are the birth pangs of a new world order. What will the offspring be like?
My work is interrupted. My Gallery writes. Goodness knows what will happen to all the Art Exhibitions in the light of the past few days’ events in France.
I have just had yr letter (March 6) & Heralds. Thanks so much. Dont send more papers - delivery restricted. Posting you N. Statesman with account of the Venice picture show at Hertford House. Send this on to Sis & tell her not to worry about me & keep a good heart. We shall come through.
All my love Frances I need nothing only the help of your will power.
Pages
2 pages
Sender's address
The Croft - Bradford on Tone, Taunton, Somerset
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-44
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-44.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23167563
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23167563