Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Ree Gorer
Date
19 Dec 1937
See transcription
Catalogue number
FHL257
Date
19 Dec 1937
Transcript
Worth Matravers Dorset Dec 19th
My Dearest Rée
I wonder if you have gone to India or are keeping Christmas at the Elms.
I have been here ever since the evening at Waterloo, do you remember, when I faded out & vanished.
Things here not having worked out quite according to plan I have been very busy with many things that seem quite mad boring & irrelevant but are necessary to getting myself fixed up, more or less comfortably, before the winter is on me.
The cold is horrible – raw. I always thought “Dossit” had a mild winter climate – but we have had our blizzards & frosts – occasionally a fine sunny day, to think it over, then sea mist creeps & fills in all the corners for days on a stretch.
I fight the cold with my 2 good anthracite stoves, one in the sitting room & a second in the garden studio. (And every night I bless your name when I go to bed – those blankets!)
A sad thing has happened – my farmer’s wife has died – after a month’s painful illness. It has thrown the life of the place out of gear for the present & the house is all gloom & dreariness. I don’t know anything at all about the immediate future – but am not worrying.
I had hoped to send you a lithograph for Christmas but my own work is at a standstill – so it must be later on. I feel I have achieved virtue by keeping well & free of colds – that is a big something.
All love dearest Rée. I wish you happy days in India. I feel sure you are going – and a very happy Christmas wherever you are & the best wish of all good health. Frances Love to Richard.
My Dearest Rée
I wonder if you have gone to India or are keeping Christmas at the Elms.
I have been here ever since the evening at Waterloo, do you remember, when I faded out & vanished.
Things here not having worked out quite according to plan I have been very busy with many things that seem quite mad boring & irrelevant but are necessary to getting myself fixed up, more or less comfortably, before the winter is on me.
The cold is horrible – raw. I always thought “Dossit” had a mild winter climate – but we have had our blizzards & frosts – occasionally a fine sunny day, to think it over, then sea mist creeps & fills in all the corners for days on a stretch.
I fight the cold with my 2 good anthracite stoves, one in the sitting room & a second in the garden studio. (And every night I bless your name when I go to bed – those blankets!)
A sad thing has happened – my farmer’s wife has died – after a month’s painful illness. It has thrown the life of the place out of gear for the present & the house is all gloom & dreariness. I don’t know anything at all about the immediate future – but am not worrying.
I had hoped to send you a lithograph for Christmas but my own work is at a standstill – so it must be later on. I feel I have achieved virtue by keeping well & free of colds – that is a big something.
All love dearest Rée. I wish you happy days in India. I feel sure you are going – and a very happy Christmas wherever you are & the best wish of all good health. Frances Love to Richard.
Sender's address
Worth Matravers, Dorset
Recipient's address
The Elms, Fitzroy Park, Highgate, London, N.6
Credit Line
E
H
McCormick
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