Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia, 29th July 1888

Manly Beach
Sydney
29 July 1888

My dearest Mamie,

It is very good of you to write to me so regularly and I feel very grateful to you. I know what a task it is to write so often, so I can appreciate the act. I am always so thankful to get your letters and to hear that you both are well.

Before writing further, I want to say something of Elliot's 'secret'. I am very glad to hear that he is writing and sketching for a paper, and that he is getting paid for it. I shall be very glad to see his productions. I have not got the paper yet, but perhaps it will come tomorrow. I only received the letters yesterday, and as this is Sunday, there is, of course, a delay.

How long has Elliot been writing? I wish the Graphic*1 would put in his sketches and that he would send them to me. I might then be able to get him in some of the papers here. Claudius Cairns says he believes the papers here get their sketches from Melbourne - he says there is no independent illustrated Sydney paper. I wish Elliot could get in some of the military papers. I dare say this will lead to something better, as you say, and I sincerely hope it may.

I had a letter from Hattie yesterday. She seems to feel the cold very much, and she said she did not know when she would be able to go and stay with you. She believed you were very gay and she thought she would be in your way as she was not strong enough to go much into society.

I fear the poor thing is very delicate. Mrs R.W. also wrote to me by this mail and with her ususal thoughtfulness she tells me that Fred has a bad cold and that Dr Hickman says he does not take proper care of himself; and that she believes Hattie is in a rapid decline.

If anyone else told me all this I should feel pretty miserable, but coming from Mrs Jane I am not inclined to attach much value to it. At the same time I should like to know what other people think, both of Fred and Hattie.

If we can carry out plans of going to Naples and stopping at Sorrento or some warm place for the winter months Hattie ought to join us. I am sure it would be better for her than staying in England. It would be delightful too if you and Elliot would join us. But I can make no plans till I see how our money lasts.

At present we are rather in straits and I have written to your uncle Stanley and have offered to pay him a visit next Thursday. If we can stay with him for a few weeks and then at rurrawatta with the Cairns, we shall be able to save a good deal.

The other day our landlady was ordering some butter and I heard the man say the best butter was 2/7 a lb! Does not that seem high? She took a lb and I think it is scarcely eatable. When we go home I expect Anna and I will eat enormous quantities of bread and butter.

We are both of us longing very much to go home. I expect when our money comes we shall want to go home instead of stopping anywhere. If I was not afraid that anna might get ill in the winter at home I would not think of stopping in Italy or anywhere, but go straight home. But I am afraid she would feel the cold very much after being for so long in this mild climate.

Yes, the Lupnon's death was very sad and it must have been very painful. I was glad to see that the .... challenge to the Irish members has at last been taken up. I wonder if the Columbia will be any good. We get such small scraps of news here that it is most unsatisfactory.

I should not think it was very ... work watching the poor people coming off the steamer from France. I remember feeling if was so horrid of people to come down to watch us when I have been one of the poor sufferers in those wretched steamers. You feel so sick and dirty and untidy and the inhabitants look so smart and they generally laugh at tyou if you look extra deplorable.

What wretched weather you seem to be having. Here it is fine and bright. Yesterday was a wet day - only the third we have had since we came to Sydney. We are glad to wear our warm dresses and cloaks, but sometimes we find them rather too hot.

Last week Anna spent two days on the ocean beach. The first day she and Ethel Christian started at 10.30 am, took their lunch with them and materials for afternoon tea and they went dow to the Fairy Bower* and stayed there till after 5. I went down about 3 and had tea with them.

The next day both the Christian girls went with Anna and did the same. It was blowing a good deal that day so I would not go, but the girls said it was quite sheltered at the Fairy Bower.

But two families have called on us here, one is the clergyman's wife and the other some people of teh name of Maurice. I have returned the visit of the Clergyman's wife and I will call on the others tomorrow or the next day. Another lady says she is going to call on us, but now we are going to Wollongong I do not see the use of people calling.

I have taken the dress Sellick made me all to pieces and have sprayed it with water and am going to iron it out and then try to remake it. It is an awful bother, but I want another dress and I cannot afford to buy one. I hope I shall make it up all right. The trouble will be with the body as it is a good deal worn and does not fit me at all. I shall think myself very clever if I make anything of it.

Anna has nearly finished her dress and the skirt looks very nice indeed. I have fitted the body on for her and it promises to fit very well. She has bought some pale pink nun's veiling to make herself one evening dress and she is going to make that herself. By the time we get home she will be quite clever in making dresses for herself.

Last Thursday evening Mrs Christian sent me word that she had a ticket for me for a lecture and she hoped I would go with her. So I went. The lecture was by ... Dawe, an American, and it was on teh Rhine and the Alps. It was a description of his own tour along the banks of the Rhine and his ascent of one of the steepest of the Alps.

His account was most graphic and when he was describing the times when he and his companion with their members of the Alpine Club and thirteen guides were all tied together, and began to ascend a great steep boulder of solid ice, into which each footstep had to be cut, his audience were breathless with suspense.

He acted the whole thing and you could imagine you were there and saw them all. It was a wonderful effect. I was very glad I had gone, and I only wished that Anna had been with me, but she had stayed with Ethel Christian.

They have had such a lot of bother with their servant. It will show you what people here have to put up with their servants here, so I will tell you. This woman is the C's only servant she does the housework, her girls make the beds and dust, and all the cooking and washing all their clothes. She was a perfect teacher in some ways but she had a vibrant temper and if anyone of them put her out she used to storm fearfully and give notice to leave.

Well one day this last week she got into one of her tempers and said she would go on Friday, and Mrs Christian said she might go. Then the next day she came round and said she did not want to go. As she is such a good servant Mrs C. was not going to part with her, so she allowed her to stay. But she again flew out, and this time they all thought she would go, but all Friday they did not know whether she would go or not.

Yesterday afternoon the girls said they would come round here, but they never turned up and this morning one of their brothers came round to ask us to go there for afternoon tea today and he said that the servant had gone. Now they are without anyone and the girlsw have to do all the work. Mrs Christian says they are such a dreadful lot out here that she dreads having any of them in her house. She gave this one a pound a week.

1

The Illustrated London News held a commanding position in the market place. It was seriously challenged by The GRAPHIC in 1870. Although it never reached the circulation of the ILN it did take a good market share until the turn of the century. The circulation in 1871 was some 57.000 copies per week. Compared to the ILN, prints from The Graphic are not that easy to find.

2

Fairy Bower is a beach and locality in the Manly area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Fairy Bower is an affluent area, located close to Shelly Beach (Manly) and North Head. The Bower Surf Spot is located here. A scenic walk links Manly Beach to Fairy Bower and Shelly Beach.

Dusky Whaler sharks are seen regularly by divers in this area.