Seward House, Badsey
17th December 1895
My dear Kathleen
I daresay you will like to have one more letter before you come home, so as Ethel is writing to May, I will send you a few lines & thank you for your good wishes for our wedding day. One day last week I went up to Evesham & chose a nice paper knife, ivory with a horn handle & silver mounted, to send to Auntie Polly as a joint present from you children & myself for her silver wedding present. It cost 18/6 & each of you children contributed 1/2 towards it. Uncle Fred was to give a large dinner at the Star & Garter yesterday. Father was asked but did not accept the invitation.
You will have received Jack’s post card telling you that he has passed the test exam; he did very well in most of the test subjects though not so well in French as we had hoped; in mathematics & Latin he had not very good marks, but of course his being ill interfered a bit with his work, especially in the Latin paper, & Drawing & Physics he was not able to do at all. It is not yet decided whether he will go back to school for a little while, but any way I expect he will go to a coach for some weeks before the examination.
I am glad you did so well in your Euclid exam, Father wants you to teach Arthur a little during the holidays, for he is to go & try for a scholarship at Brecon in January, I am afraid there is not much chance of his getting it as the papers are set for boys of 13 or 14, still age is taken into consideration, so he may have just a chance. I have succeeded in getting the puddings & mince meat made at last, but you need not be afraid, I can find you plenty of jobs to do, & as for needlework there is no end to that.
I suppose you have heard that the Duchess of York had another son? Didn’t the Windsor Castle guns fire in honour of his birth?
Louisa has a little boy, born last Friday, I understand that her husband is 20 today! Rather a youthful father. I must give Ethel her music lesson, so must leave off. Be careful to follow out father’s instructions for your journey on Friday & don’t stand about on draughty platforms to catch cold, but wait in the waiting room, I hope you will manage all your changes all right.
With fond love to May & yourself
I am your loving mother
Eugénie N Sladden
P.S. Don’t forget to bring back spoons & forks & sheets. I am terribly short of the latter now we are such a large family.
