Letter From Grove Farm to Indian Head

                                                                                     
                                                                                      Grove Farm
                                                                                       Saxmundham, Suffolk
                                                                                       October 23, 1906

I hope this will meet you all quite well as it leaves us. I received your letter this morning which I was very pleased to get.
I had ever such a long letter from Louie also. I expect she will be home again in a fortnight's time and your mother is coming back with her. I expect she will miss you all now more than ever after Louie and the baby come away.
Louie has had a lot of people come to see her and the baby. I expect it will seem rather dull down here to her after seeing such a lot of people but she will have the boy to cheer her up.
I was sorry to hear that Mary had not been very well. I expect little Ernie was pleased to see his Uncle Arthur wasn't he?
Is he helping to thresh? Is Ernie still away at work? He has had to go away quite a lot of times hasn't he?
I expect you are glad that you haven't had to go away much as it cost such a lot to live when you are away don't it?
I hope you won't upset the ink bottle anymore after you have wrote my letter as it must be very provoking to have to write your letter twice.
Willie and Dick have just had their dinner at 3 o'clock today as they have been working in the town. Willie has had the  toothache very bad so now he has been to the doctor's and had it drawn so it is better now.
Father is going to Rushmere on Saturday to see his brother and stay for the Sunday.
I had a nice letter from Annie last Sunday week and we heard from Mary last Saturday week.
I'm wondering if you will be at Indian Head when this letter comes but if not I daresay you will get it some time or other.
I was pleased to hear about your harvest festival and I would like to have been there but I can't come as its such a long long way and the wide sea in between. I do so long to see you some times and then I feel so pleased when your letters come.
I went to Saxmundham Church twice last Sunday but the Sunday before I did not go out only once.
Mr. Aldous who took the farm where we used to live came here last Sunday week and he say that his people don't like living there at all.
I expect that little rose which I sent in my last letter was quite dead by the time you got it wasn't it?
Dick is now just come in with the milk so I must not stop to write much more as I must look after the separator.
Do you have to walk a long way to work now or are you near the house? I suppose that little Ernie won't be able to play in the garden now that it is cold. It will be a year ago tomorrow since you and Louie went back to Lexden after your first stay at the Grove Farm.
And now dear Horrie I must bring my letter to a close and I hope I shan't upset the ink over it.
With love to all and my truest love to you I remain your ever loving Alice
P.S. Dick want me to tell you that he has got some great beets where you saw him digging in the garden.

1906 Letter from Alice Hall to Horace Nevard

                                                        Grove Farm Saxmundham
Suffolk, England
July 6, 1906
My Dear Horrie
I expect you are beginning to look for a letter from me but I did not receive your letter till this morning so I could not write before. It was an extra long while coming this time and I began to wonder if it was lost. I don't know what sort of flowers they are which you sent me which you got on the prairie but some sort of Canadian flower I should think. I am sending you two little pansys out of our garden just for a remembrance and two daisies off the meadow. The summer has really come now and we have had some hot weather since I wrote to you last.  I expect you find it very hot at work. I hope the mosquitoes don't worry you so much now. I expect you have seen Mary and Ernie by this time. I expect Ernie thought it took a rare long time to get  to Canada. I hope they got there alright. We shall not be able to hear yet for a few days I don't suppose. Mary sent a post card to Emily from Londonderry and Emily  forwarded it on to us. It was very good of Emily to go to Liverpool with them. Louie is home again now. She came back on Monday. I expect Cecil will be coming to stay with Louie for his holiday at the end of this month. Annie is coming home tomorrow just for the weekend and going back on the Monday and then she is coming home again on August the seventh for a fortnight's holiday. She told me when she wrote to me last that she wished to be remembered to you and to tell you that she would welcome you for a brother one of these days. I had been looking for the postman to bring me a letter for over a week before it came and Willie said he expected you had got another girl out there in Canada just to tease me. But Dick said I must not pay any regard to that  because they used to tease him just the same when Maud went to Derbyshire and he expected you were too busy to write. I was so pleased when Mother brought me the letter this morning. It came while I was turning the separator. I am writing this in a great hurry but I hope you will be able to understand it. I am going to the town this afternoon and I want to post it when I go. I have just had my dinner and I expect you have just had your breakfast but I don't know what time you have it though. We got 41 pounds of butter this week and we took 36 pounds of it to the town and my arm did just ache when I got there. Father was going to carry it for us and then they were so busy so I thought I could carry it. They are very busy with the hay now and we are having beautiful weather for it and hope it will continue to till the hay is done. Willie bought a clipper or grass mower at the show so that will help them on a bit. We have got such a lot of gooseberries in the garden but we didn't have many cherries. Although the tree was so full in bloom as I daresay you will remember and what few there was the birds were soon after them. I went to the Girl's Friendly Society Festival last Wednesday afternoon at Kelsale Rectory and I enjoyed myself very much. I saw my cousin Mary from Leiston. She is Daisy's sister you know who is at Colchester and we had quite a nice time together. I expect they are all coming here from Leiston on August Bank Holiday so we shall be quite a party. I had a nice big card given me at the festival for 5 years of faithful discharge of duties in the employment of my parents. I was quite surprised as I did not expect to get anything as I had always been at home.
Last Saturday week we had a lot of company. Father's brother from Ipswich and his wife and their son and his wife and three children came here and stayed to dinner and tea. My cousin Walter has not got any work and there is ever so many in Ipswich out of work. He is thinking of going out to Canada but I don't know whether he will. He is a bricklayer by trade, You can read some of this letter to Mary if you like or else tell her as I have no doubt she will like to hear all the news. Give our love to her and I hope she is better now and kiss dear little Ernie (Bill Nevard) for us all. I expect he will help to cheer you up and keep you lively. He didn't seem to mind leaving us at all but I don't suppose his little mind could realize that he would not be coming back again yet awhile. It is a good thing that he is so happy. I don't think he will ever really forget us. I am sure they must miss him very much at Lexden.
I don't think I must stop to write much more. I will keep the piece of Canadian money and the flowers for a keepsake . you pressed them out very nicely. I do so wish I could see you sometimes but I ought to not to write so I suppose. I hope you are not downhearted because although we cannot see each other we can write although its not quite like talking. I think of ever so much I want to tell sometimes and then I go and forget it. Annie said Herbert was quite well and was coming home in October I went to Saxmundham Church last Sunday morning and to Rendham Church in the evening. Is the Church you go to anything like Lexden Church?

Hoping this will meet you quite well. With love and kisses I remain your ever loving Alice.

1906 Letter From Alice

Grove Farm
Saxmundham, Suffolk
England
August 8, 1906
My Dear Horrie
I was very pleased to receive your nice letter this morning. I ought to have received it yesterday but the postman made a mistake and took it to Rendham.
I often think about you and what you are doing. You have to go away to work a good bit don't you? I am glad you are living with Mary as I should think it is much nicer for you. I expect little Ernie is pleased to see you. He used to say, "there will be five of us in Canada". I don't suppose he has seen his Uncle Arthur yet.
You will have heard from Mary that your Mother and Cecil have been down with Louie. I think Cecil enjoyed his holiday very well. He kept himself busy most of the time clipping the hedges, chopping sticks, etc. He went back yesterday by the 9:23 train as he had to get to his office by 11 o'clock and your mother went by the five o'clock train. We had a post card from Cecil this morning telling us that they had all arrived home safely. I expect Emily was very pleased to see them home again.
We are rather quiet today but Annie is coming home tonight by the six train and then I reckon we shall be quiet no longer.
Father is gone to the sale at Saxmundham and Willie is just going to town also. I expect they are going to begin harvest tomorrow as the corn is quite fit to cut.
My Aunt and Uncle and cousins from Leiston came here on Monday. Maude and little Elsie came also. There were 14 of us. Elsie is such a good little girl and she was so pleased to go out and see the cats, chickens and so forth.
Nurse Winstanley came here to stay with Louie a fortnight ago. She stayed from the Tuesday til Thursday. She knows we write to each other because she asked Willie and Louie if I had got a young man and if it was anyone whom she knew. They said it was and then she guessed Cecil first and then you.. She quite surprised me because she said "you can give my love to Horrie when you write Alice" and I didn't know that she knew anything about it. I don't think I'll tell you what she said about you for fear that you might become conceited.
I should like to see some of the nice places where you go . I should think it is nice by the lake but I shouldn't care for the adventure which you had on coming back from your row on the lake. I should think you began to wonder where you would spend the night. It was very fortunate that you went to the right house.
It is very dull and turning to rain. Dick and Mother are just going to milk the cows and I mustn't stop to write very much more as I have got to get ready and go to town and then to the station.
Mother and I went to town with butter this morning and it was hot too. Father came and helped us part of the way. We don't get quite so much butter now but we shall have more next week as we had a calf go to the sale this week.
We don't get many eggs now. They are 14 for a shilling.
I haven't forgotten sitting in the armchair before you went away. I felt very much like crying then but I know it is best to be happy if we can and I hope to see you again some day so we will sing "we'll meet tomorrow as we did that night".
Now dear Horrie I must bring my letter to a close and please write soon. I know you don't have much time to write but I do so like getting letters, especially yours.
Hoping this will meet you quite well, with love to all and yourself I remain your ever-loving Alice.

Nurse Winstanley