Reference
X955/1/139
Title
To Mrs Sarah Colenutt
Date free text
1st August 1903
Production date
From: 1903 To: 1903
Scope and Content
The Cottage, Groombridge, Kent.
My dear friend
Ernest would like a brass inkstand. It is exceedingly kind of you to offer him a present. I am glad to hear you are well. It was very pleasant to see Kate. It was a welcome proof of affection that she is willing to come here for a day, after thirty hours. travelling from Switzerland. It is not everybody who will take so much trouble for even a sincere friend.
We are now settling down, although two of our rooms will not be papered until next year. The trouble is the garden. It is a beautiful, almost romantic place, with big trees in it, but it will cost me much more than I can afford to keep in order. It will not, therefore, be kept in order. When I took the house I was driven into a corner and did not properly estimate garden expenses. The old chestnuts and beeches look down somewhat sadly on the motor-cars which rush by, tearing up the dust. We are on a main road much frequented by these stinking, hateful machines.
All the children are well. Agnes and her child were here from Spain two or three weeks ago. She is as beautiful as ever, although the feverous (?) cou (?) beginning to appear in her cheeks. The change to me, who remember her so well as a girl is very interesting. It is touching to see in middle age and then in old age the lines of youth and childhood. Haven’t you often felt this in looking at two portraits of the same person taken fifty years apart?
I hope to be in Ryde before the winter sets in. Life is becoming very short, and no opportunity for a word or two with those we love ought to be missed.
Molly sends her best love.
Ever affectionately
W. Hale. White
Level of description
item