Letter from Bridget to Frances Hodgkins
Date
09 Oct 1914
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Object Detail
Date
09 Oct 1914
Transcript
25, Rue de Villejust, Avenue Victor Hugo, Paris Oct 9th [1914]
Dear Francis [sic]
So glad to get your note but very grieved to miss you in London. We came here a week ago. I wrote to you again at Le Faouit to thank you very much for the cheque. But also! (& that was in my letter too) I was robbed of my purse & the cheque! I tried to stop cheque at the New Zealand Bank, which I think is yours but they required authority of the owner. Was it crossed by any chance?
Paris is all right so far. Red + Hospitals everywhere of course & much sadness; shops closed down a good deal & no busses, so I get about on a bicycle. It is quite safe here & food quite normal in price. Certainly a few bombs have dropped about lately from German aeroplanes, but no great harm done (relatively I mean). Everything is relative in this terrible war. We are helping Lord Robert Cecil to trace the missing & visit the British Hospital to make inquiries. The men are simply heroes. It is quite terrible to see these fine fellows maimed & broken in health & nerve, but they are plucky & cheery & never complain. I have two cousins wounded, one I hear is missing, probably dead. My brother is kept on the General’s staff in Edinburgh, but pining to get out & likely to go soon.
War is not realized in England as it is here, here it is grim & horrible, at home still very cinematographic & territorial. We artists seem out of the picture don’t we? And the prospects for our trade seem pretty hopeless for some time.
I don’t know how long we shall be here. One wants to help but there is not much for anybody but trained Doctors & nurses.
Please write again soon. I am glad you are at home & with a friend but I have an idea you will weary of the dullness of the country in winter. Lily goes to Town in Nov. Her address now is Rest Harrow, Uplynne, Devon, do go & look her up or write.
[Written on top left front sheet along margin] Bernhardi is very illuminating & Graves “Secret Service” still more so. Devils! Much love Yrs Bridget
Dear Francis [sic]
So glad to get your note but very grieved to miss you in London. We came here a week ago. I wrote to you again at Le Faouit to thank you very much for the cheque. But also! (& that was in my letter too) I was robbed of my purse & the cheque! I tried to stop cheque at the New Zealand Bank, which I think is yours but they required authority of the owner. Was it crossed by any chance?
Paris is all right so far. Red + Hospitals everywhere of course & much sadness; shops closed down a good deal & no busses, so I get about on a bicycle. It is quite safe here & food quite normal in price. Certainly a few bombs have dropped about lately from German aeroplanes, but no great harm done (relatively I mean). Everything is relative in this terrible war. We are helping Lord Robert Cecil to trace the missing & visit the British Hospital to make inquiries. The men are simply heroes. It is quite terrible to see these fine fellows maimed & broken in health & nerve, but they are plucky & cheery & never complain. I have two cousins wounded, one I hear is missing, probably dead. My brother is kept on the General’s staff in Edinburgh, but pining to get out & likely to go soon.
War is not realized in England as it is here, here it is grim & horrible, at home still very cinematographic & territorial. We artists seem out of the picture don’t we? And the prospects for our trade seem pretty hopeless for some time.
I don’t know how long we shall be here. One wants to help but there is not much for anybody but trained Doctors & nurses.
Please write again soon. I am glad you are at home & with a friend but I have an idea you will weary of the dullness of the country in winter. Lily goes to Town in Nov. Her address now is Rest Harrow, Uplynne, Devon, do go & look her up or write.
[Written on top left front sheet along margin] Bernhardi is very illuminating & Graves “Secret Service” still more so. Devils! Much love Yrs Bridget
Sender's address
25 rue de Villejust, Avenue Victor Hugo, Paris
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-29
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-29.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23224416
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23224416