Camelias for Eglantine

[anteros_lmc]

Happy Birthday eglantine_br!
You asked if Susan's shopping list was written in her own hand, it wasn't, we presume it was written by a clerk. You were right about one thing though, she had a very firm hand indeed, and here it is! Very few of Susan Pellew's letters have survived so we were delighted to find a few previously unknown letters written by her to her son George. Here's an extract from one that we thought you might appreciate for all kinds of reasons....

I have had a severe cold - as indeed we have all had - but thank god I am now inclined to walk out and enjoy the spring flowers a little which is a great blessing snow drops and crocuses abound I suppose even in Yorkshire - but we have Camelias of all kinds looking in upon us from the green house

nodbear and I went to visit West Cliff House in Teignmouth, were Susan wrote this letter from, and were delighted to find that her green house has been beautifully restored. And what did we find growing inside it? A single camelia.



So here's hoping that, like Susan, you've also recovered from your flu and that it won't be long before you can enjoy the spring flowers too :)

Comments

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Finding that Camelia was a moment when 200 years melts away as if it were yesterday ..

and at the foot of a tree by the greenhouse the snowdrops which are the great great great granchildren of Susans ones were just showing through

two teenage lads were playing with a ball and their lovley obedient staffordshire bull terrier

Susan would still know her old home we were glad to feel

and all becasue Anteros pushed me up a hill that was certainly 20 or 25% gradient in places for which no tribute is good eenough

would a dark and a fair lieutenant for a week go some way - I wll see if i can put in a word with Ned for leave

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it was worth every inch of that climb! And finding the camelia and the peeping snowdrops was just the icing on the cake. Having said that, if you wish to send the lieutenants along for a week or so, I wouldn't turn them away ;)

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

There is something so moving about looking at a handwritten thing up close, It is as close to them as we can get now, isn't it? Closer really than a picture or even a photo.

Her hand was closed around the pen, just as she had been taught when she was a little girl with a little hand, and the words formed in her mind, and she wrote them, and they looked just like that.

It is what is left, like the shells you find on the beach, that once had a living animal in them.

I know you won't think me silly. You know what I mean.

Her writing is certainly very clear. I find it quite easy to read, which is not always the case with long ago documents.

How happy she would be to see that the green-house is still there.

As for me-- yes I am feeling much better. And I have never been more eager for spring!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is as close as we can get. It's like reading over her shoulder. This was one of the very last letters we found before the records office closed on Saturday afternoon, then on Sunday morning we went to West Cliff house and found the green house with the camelia. I hope that would have made her smile :)

Her hand is immediately recognisable and very emphatic. Her letters are much larger than Ned's and she has a habit of underlining important words. Lady P was not a woman to be trifled with I suspect!

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Am I right in thinking she uses the long S, there too? I think I see it here and there.

It always adds such flair to the writing of the time!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if Susan uses the long S, I'll have a look at her other letters to check. We certainly came across plenty other letters and documents that use the long S and for some bizarre reason it makes me want to lisp when I read them! XD

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Lovely writing and a pretty flower. What more could one want?

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Susan Pellew has the most fabulously bold hand! Finding the letter and then the flower the following day was just wonderful :)