"Dear Minnie..."

A Letter to Araminta Brown

This letter is not from Emma Savage, but Minnie's friend, Grace.

It was sent from Dover. Sandra has established that Araminta Brown probably trained in Dover as a Domestic Cook, and probably worked there too.

The envelope is dated Dec 01 and addressed to Miss M Brown, c/o Mr Longsdon, Thorne Croft, Keighley, Yorkshire.

My dearest Min,

Many thanks for your letter. Do forgive me not writing as it really is [not?] my fault this time. I written you a long letter 2 days ago & find it I can't. I put it up to get a card but here goes for another. The card you sent Dear is sweetly pretty. I hope you will spend a happy Xmas & as merry as possible. I'll be in all day as the [HM?] goes away. Shall be very glad when its all over as it makes so much to do. R. went home on Sat. She sent her love, also [?] R said she would enclose in mine but she went off & forgot so if she don't write Dear you must excuse. I have never heard from Bill for ages. I wrote to ask him for that money but no answer. Hope Mac is alright & that you will soon here that he is coming home. Remember me to him. I have not heard again from Teddie [Lizzie?] is in another [circle??] & seems much better. I not been to one dance as yet & don't think I shall. I am dead off. Oh for the old times. Old Gert is home & just as lively as ever she sent her love to you dear. Please excuse short letter promise longer next have got so many to write & so much to do that I am fed up

I don't forget you Min Dear though I am so long in writing, but you know the bounder I am. Enjoy yourself as much as possible then the time goes quicker. Shall I [come?] & go to the dances? Only wish I could. Au Revoir with much love & best of good wishes.
Hoping the New Year will bring better luck than the last.

Your loving friend

Grace
xxxxx

Because this the only letter we have from "Grace", it has been more difficult to identify many of the references.
Also, although the handwriting appears clear enough, it is actually quite hard to decipher, particularly names.
However, it is still worth including here, if only as a link to Minnie's other friends beyond Glemsford and the Savages.
It also sits neatly alongside the contemporary letters from Emma around the end of 1901.
What we have been able to clarify:

• The 1901 Dover Census shows 7 Effingham Crescent occupied by John Ormsby, Doctor of Medicine, his wife Eliza, son Charles,
  GRACE Veazey, Domestic Cook, aged 24,
  and Charlotte Friend, Housemaid.
  So we are assuming that the letter writer was Grace Veazey.
• "Mac", we think, must have been Minnie and Grace's pet name for John McGuire, Minnie's sweetheart and husband-to-be.
  This also suggests a link between Dover and that relationship
• Unfortunately, we cannot be more precise about any of the other names. It is just possible that "Mrs B" in the note added at the top of the letter was Mrs Blick of the Isle of Wight.
  Mrs Blick's age and frequency of mention does pose the question whether she had something to do with Minnie and Grace's training.
• We are charmed by the reference to dancing and the "old times". Nostalgia is not just a recent characteristic.
• At a trivial level, it is also interetsting to note that Grace calls Araminta "Min", Emma Savage called her "Minnie", while brother Gersham referred to her as "Minta".

Read about what we know about the
Brown Family History and what we know about
their "future" in the 20th Century