36 Straight Road
Lexden, Essex
My Dear Brother
I don't know if I owe you a letter or not but I am just writing to say we all wish you many happy returns of your birthday and hope you will have good health and good luck . I hope you are having good weather for the harvest. We have had very stormy, cold and unsettled weather for the last 3 weeks so it has been very bad for the harvest. We are in September now so I hope we shall have fine weather. We managed to have it fine all yesterday and this morning the sun is shining lovely.
Cecil picked the Greengages yesterday. We have more than a half bushel. They are not ripe. If we had left them on the trees we should have lost nearly all as the birds, wasps and flies won't leave them alone.
Mother has been down with Louie for a fortnight. She came home on Monday. I was glad to see her as we have a good lot of work. The stormy weather put me about so I had to work early and late so at the end of last week I felt quite done up. I was so busy I could not go to bed on Friday night. Mother wouldn't have went down only Cecil and I persuaded her to go. And she would have come home before only I wouldn't let her know how busy I was. Cecil was very good to help me all he could. He is going up to London to see Miss Cornish for the weekend tomorrow.
Mother didn't enjoy herself much down at Louie's as the children were troublesome. The boy was much more trouble than he is here. Mother make him mind her when he is with us only Mother didn't tell Louie but she would have been just as happy at home at her work. But don't you say anything about it.
Grandmother was 88 years yesterday. Mother cooked her a bit of fresh fish and I took it down for her dinner. She seemed quite nicely. She had managed to get the dinner ready and sat waiting for Grandfather to come downstairs. He was busy dusting the bedroom.
Laura Payne was married last Monday week just after 8 a:m. Percy and his wife went to Church with them. Percy and the bridegroom went round by Church Lane and Mrs. Payne and Laura went by the street. They furnished their house from Mrs. Bortell's Church Lane and they are living in one of the houses near the loop in Spring Lane where Mr. Ford used to live.
You tell Daisy Mr. Ford had to leave Colonel Corse Scott's in a hurry as he was so often drunk. So they are living in the town and they are still out of work. Harry Lusted is home this week for a holiday. His young lady is with him. Tell Daisy and Mary I will write to them next.
I am so sorry Earn have not been able to go out to work as I fear he will miss the money so much.
You don't know how much I think about you all every day. I do hope you will get enough to carry you through the winter. Tell Daisy I received her letter. Now I must leave off as Cecil is going.
So good bye dear Horrie with love from us all to you and all from your loving sister ...
Emily Nevard
I don't think people either visit or write like they used to.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Gorges. Some say that phone calls and text messages are more instant and therefore "closer" communication. Nothing beats the intimacy of a handwritten letter, though sadly I can't recall the last time I wrote one.
ReplyDeleteIts true, we don't write much nowadays. Wonder if our texts and emails will still be around in a hundred years like these old letters are?
ReplyDeleteAnd at least you can be sure that when you write a letter by hand, the person receiving it is so darn happy to do so, and treasures it. When you blog, half the time you don't know if anyone is listening at all.
ReplyDeleteRalph, I only found your blog(s) by looking at the Live Traffic Feed gadget at the bottom of my own blog. Had I not seen that you or another reader came to mine from yours, I'd've had no idea you were out there and wouldn't have found either of your blogs, which I am enjoying so much!
You can also see the number of "hits" on your blog from the dashboard. Also shows the referring urls and other interesting information. But its nice to get a few comments here too.
ReplyDelete