BIB_ID
428577
Accession number
MA 23198.13
Creator
Gurney, Emelia Russell, 1823-1896.
Display Date
London, England, 1886 August 30.
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1982.
Description
1 item (10 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.4 cm + envelope address panel
Notes
Written from "3, Orme Square" on stationery engraved with the address.
This letter was acquired with a large collection of letters written to Mr. and Mrs. John W. Field and was previously accessioned MA 3838.
Envelope address panel with postage and postmarks to "J.W. Field Esq. / Ashfield / Franklin Co. / Mass : / U.S.A."
Gurney begins this letter on August 30 and continues and completes it on September 28th. It appears she completes the letter in Hereford with a reference to visiting her Uncle John [Venn].
This letter was acquired with a large collection of letters written to Mr. and Mrs. John W. Field and was previously accessioned MA 3838.
Envelope address panel with postage and postmarks to "J.W. Field Esq. / Ashfield / Franklin Co. / Mass : / U.S.A."
Gurney begins this letter on August 30 and continues and completes it on September 28th. It appears she completes the letter in Hereford with a reference to visiting her Uncle John [Venn].
Provenance
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1982.
Summary
Concerning Kathleen's [O'Meara] visit to America and her stay with the Fields and commenting on Henry James' Portrait of a Lady; saying "It will be delightful to get dearest K's mind photograph of your dear house & surrounding country - her artistic choice of details & her massing of light & shade is so superior to any photographers;" continuing the letter on September 28th; thanking him for the photos he sent "...which I did write to acknowledge between the beginning & middle of this & to the description K has now sent - I can picture vividly your house - your piazza & you yourself & books &etc in it, & the wondrously lovely views on which your eyes rest - Your view of Kathleen is very welcome to me - I know how she looks at the Yankees & I wanted a Yankee's look at her - I will concede that Irish woman to your admiration without jealousy of your Home-rule proclivities - I rejoice in her being over there for a time - (we c'd not spare her much longer) & I think as I foresaw that it will give her an electric battery of new life - by the contact of so much in all of you that is congenial to her - And so you can still travel about in mind & heart & find pleasant scenes & friends to commune with & taste again - It is beautiful not to have exhausted Life - or sucked it dry - but to dwell in the free circulation of Love which has no past tense but is ever Now - yet I want what seems past to us to be restored - to look round & find all the beloved faces & their environing histories in some very tangible way present & answering to my yearning gaze - & I think God will give us that or something that it means to me, when He makes all things New - when He quickens all the old precious things with new life...I have just been reading Henry James' Portrait of a Lady - do you like it? it is immensely clear & subtil [sic] I think - but I can't say I like it exactly, tho' I c'd not leave off reading it - & I can't forgive Isabel for forsaking poor little Pansy, & advising her to give in entirely to her father - I have been especially entranced with Count Tolstoi''s books - I wonder whether you w'd care for them - Now Goodbye you very peculiarly dear friends - may every onward step be possible & even blessed to you, because it must take you deeper & yet deeper into the knowledge of God's love - I embrace you both in spirit."
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