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Sorry, I haven't recorded this document yet.
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This letter to Kathleen (who will marry Will six years later) has some interesting little tidbits.
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Grove Cottage
Wanstead
Essex.
July 20th / 10
My dear Kathleen,
I expect I’ve got to beg your pardon ever so many times for not answering your letter sooner, + really I suppose I do deserve a good scolding.
You see when your letter came, I was busy getting ready to go away. I’d had a “21st” + Pater + Mater were going to take me to Switzerland. I thought I’d leave the answer till we came back + then I’d be able to tell you how we had enjoyed ourselves.
Well we went, + as soon as we got back, had to set to work making new things after King Edward’s death, so that for some time I had not a minute to spare, and it got left. But because I haven’t written I haven’t forgotten.
I expect the crossing from Liverpool is almost a dream to you now, it seems so long ago, but you certainly seem to have made the best of it, between you. Thank you for the descriptions of the places you have seen; did you know that one of your letters to the Matthews’ went into the "Wanstead Bugle"? I expect you heard about it tho’. Didn’t you feel honoured? But really you do deserve well, + it was no wonder they put it in, with notes + comments of their own, all very flattering.
I should love to see New York, though I don’t think I should like to stay there long, fancy a building thirty stories high! I don’t wonder they call them skyscrapers.
I should think you had an exciting journey by train to Savannah, fancy going so quickly that they had to stop to cool the engines!
I am glad you like Savannah so much, it is heaps nicer to live in a pretty place, than in a smoky dirty town.
Have you got quite used to America + its ways now? I expect you are getting into them fast. Nothing of much importance has been happening here lately, the death of the King overshadowed everything else.
You couldn’t imagine unless you saw, how quickly everything changed for the time. All the places of amusement closed, the shops all went into mourning, + every one, even the poorest, wore something black. It was only then that we realised how much we loved him.
You have perhaps heard that Dorothy Matthews has been queer again. They all except Melissa have gone away for a holiday, + are hoping it will do her good; but I don’t think she will ever get well, while she starts working as soon as she is a little bit better.
Have you heard of that terrible murder in Hilldrop Crescent? If so I expect you are glad you don’t live there now. Did you ever see anything of the man, he lived quite close to were, no. 39. Crippen his name was, + he murdered his wife most cruelly. But I expect you will have seen it in the paper, it must be all over the world by now.
We had a lovely time in Switzerland - just Mater Pater + myself, the things we didn’t see or do in that fortnight I should think were not worth seeing or doing. We seemed to go everywhere, + must have covered thousands of miles altogether. The weather was good for a wonder, + we came home heaps better for our holiday.
We shall not be going for our regulation summer holiday till later this year, somewhere in September I think.
What sort of weather do you get in Savannah? If it’s no better than we’ve been having here, you haven’t enjoyed it much I guess.
Will you please excuse all the mistakes + things; I’m writing quickly so that I can finish right off, + not have to stop in the middle.
Please show you’ve forgiven me by writing again soon. I’m hoping you are all quite well.
With kindest regards from all of us + love from yours affectionately
Edith Chidgey
Wanstead
Essex.
July 20th / 10
My dear Kathleen,
I expect I’ve got to beg your pardon ever so many times for not answering your letter sooner, + really I suppose I do deserve a good scolding.
You see when your letter came, I was busy getting ready to go away. I’d had a “21st” + Pater + Mater were going to take me to Switzerland. I thought I’d leave the answer till we came back + then I’d be able to tell you how we had enjoyed ourselves.
Well we went, + as soon as we got back, had to set to work making new things after King Edward’s death, so that for some time I had not a minute to spare, and it got left. But because I haven’t written I haven’t forgotten.
I expect the crossing from Liverpool is almost a dream to you now, it seems so long ago, but you certainly seem to have made the best of it, between you. Thank you for the descriptions of the places you have seen; did you know that one of your letters to the Matthews’ went into the "Wanstead Bugle"? I expect you heard about it tho’. Didn’t you feel honoured? But really you do deserve well, + it was no wonder they put it in, with notes + comments of their own, all very flattering.
I should love to see New York, though I don’t think I should like to stay there long, fancy a building thirty stories high! I don’t wonder they call them skyscrapers.
I should think you had an exciting journey by train to Savannah, fancy going so quickly that they had to stop to cool the engines!
I am glad you like Savannah so much, it is heaps nicer to live in a pretty place, than in a smoky dirty town.
Have you got quite used to America + its ways now? I expect you are getting into them fast. Nothing of much importance has been happening here lately, the death of the King overshadowed everything else.
You couldn’t imagine unless you saw, how quickly everything changed for the time. All the places of amusement closed, the shops all went into mourning, + every one, even the poorest, wore something black. It was only then that we realised how much we loved him.
You have perhaps heard that Dorothy Matthews has been queer again. They all except Melissa have gone away for a holiday, + are hoping it will do her good; but I don’t think she will ever get well, while she starts working as soon as she is a little bit better.
Have you heard of that terrible murder in Hilldrop Crescent? If so I expect you are glad you don’t live there now. Did you ever see anything of the man, he lived quite close to were, no. 39. Crippen his name was, + he murdered his wife most cruelly. But I expect you will have seen it in the paper, it must be all over the world by now.
We had a lovely time in Switzerland - just Mater Pater + myself, the things we didn’t see or do in that fortnight I should think were not worth seeing or doing. We seemed to go everywhere, + must have covered thousands of miles altogether. The weather was good for a wonder, + we came home heaps better for our holiday.
We shall not be going for our regulation summer holiday till later this year, somewhere in September I think.
What sort of weather do you get in Savannah? If it’s no better than we’ve been having here, you haven’t enjoyed it much I guess.
Will you please excuse all the mistakes + things; I’m writing quickly so that I can finish right off, + not have to stop in the middle.
Please show you’ve forgiven me by writing again soon. I’m hoping you are all quite well.
With kindest regards from all of us + love from yours affectionately
Edith Chidgey
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1.
Grove Cottage
Wanstead
Essex.
Wanstead was where the Farmers lived when Ruth, Cecil, and Kathleen were growing up.
2.
I’d had a “21st” + Pater + Mater were going to take me to Switzerland.
Kathleen turned 22 the following month, so she was roughly the same age as Edith.
3.
Well we went, + as soon as we got back, had to set to work making new things after King Edward’s death
Edward VII of Great Britan died unexpectedly on May 6, 1910.
Alma was in England that summer, and noticed mourning bands:
1910-07-08 LETTER FROM ALMA TO MAMA MARGARET
4.
I expect the crossing from Liverpool is almost a dream to you now[...]I should love to see New York
So Annie, Ruth, and Kathleen (with WJ) took the Liverpool-to-New York route to America.
5.
Thank you for the descriptions of the places you have seen; did you know that one of your letters to the Mathews’ went into the "Wanstead Bugle"?
Wanstead Bugle: seems to be the Woodward and Wanstead Bugle, published from 1907 to 1922. I get that from the Google results, but the links don’t get me much of anything. I was hoping that it was the sort of thing where some organization might have a set of newspapers so that we could see Kathleen’s letter, but it looks as though the Bugle wasn’t important enough for that.
We have a clipping about Kathleen's brother Cecil that may well have been from the Bugle:
1908-10-01 NEWSPAPER ITEM ABOUT CECIL FARMER
6.
You have perhaps heard that Dorothy Matthews has been queer again.
The Matthews family apparently lived next door to the Farmers in Wanstead. We have at least one letter from Dorothy, and at least one from Hubert Matthews, who I think was her father. Dorothy seems nice, Hubert seems less so.
7.
Have you heard of that terrible murder in Hilldrop Crescent? If so I expect you are glad you don’t live there now. Did you ever see anything of the man, he lived quite close to were, no. 39. Crippen his name was, + he murdered his wife most cruelly. But I expect you will have seen it in the paper, it must be all over the world by now.
We have letters addressed to the Farmers from when they lived at Hilldrop Crescent. The Crippen case was famous enough so that I am familiar with it. It is mentioned in a story by Agatha Christie, and also in one of the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers. Wikipedia says:
Hawley Harvey Crippen (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), colloquially known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. He was one of the first criminals to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.
8.
This is the only letter that I've seen from Edith Chidgey. I found something about her younger brother Percy, who was killed in World War I:
https://estatedocbox.com/Architects/76431564-Percy-harold-chidgey.html
It says:
Percy s sister Edith Isobel Chidgey died in December 1919 aged 30.
And that’s a shame, because I like this letter that Edith wrote to Kathleen. I wonder if it was the so-called Spanish flu that killed her.
Grove Cottage
Wanstead
Essex.
Wanstead was where the Farmers lived when Ruth, Cecil, and Kathleen were growing up.
2.
I’d had a “21st” + Pater + Mater were going to take me to Switzerland.
Kathleen turned 22 the following month, so she was roughly the same age as Edith.
3.
Well we went, + as soon as we got back, had to set to work making new things after King Edward’s death
Edward VII of Great Britan died unexpectedly on May 6, 1910.
Alma was in England that summer, and noticed mourning bands:
1910-07-08 LETTER FROM ALMA TO MAMA MARGARET
4.
I expect the crossing from Liverpool is almost a dream to you now[...]I should love to see New York
So Annie, Ruth, and Kathleen (with WJ) took the Liverpool-to-New York route to America.
5.
Thank you for the descriptions of the places you have seen; did you know that one of your letters to the Mathews’ went into the "Wanstead Bugle"?
Wanstead Bugle: seems to be the Woodward and Wanstead Bugle, published from 1907 to 1922. I get that from the Google results, but the links don’t get me much of anything. I was hoping that it was the sort of thing where some organization might have a set of newspapers so that we could see Kathleen’s letter, but it looks as though the Bugle wasn’t important enough for that.
We have a clipping about Kathleen's brother Cecil that may well have been from the Bugle:
1908-10-01 NEWSPAPER ITEM ABOUT CECIL FARMER
6.
You have perhaps heard that Dorothy Matthews has been queer again.
The Matthews family apparently lived next door to the Farmers in Wanstead. We have at least one letter from Dorothy, and at least one from Hubert Matthews, who I think was her father. Dorothy seems nice, Hubert seems less so.
7.
Have you heard of that terrible murder in Hilldrop Crescent? If so I expect you are glad you don’t live there now. Did you ever see anything of the man, he lived quite close to were, no. 39. Crippen his name was, + he murdered his wife most cruelly. But I expect you will have seen it in the paper, it must be all over the world by now.
We have letters addressed to the Farmers from when they lived at Hilldrop Crescent. The Crippen case was famous enough so that I am familiar with it. It is mentioned in a story by Agatha Christie, and also in one of the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers. Wikipedia says:
Hawley Harvey Crippen (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), colloquially known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser who was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen. He was one of the first criminals to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.
8.
This is the only letter that I've seen from Edith Chidgey. I found something about her younger brother Percy, who was killed in World War I:
https://estatedocbox.com/Architects/76431564-Percy-harold-chidgey.html
It says:
Percy s sister Edith Isobel Chidgey died in December 1919 aged 30.
And that’s a shame, because I like this letter that Edith wrote to Kathleen. I wonder if it was the so-called Spanish flu that killed her.
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