December 19th Brunswick Square

This new fashion for having trees and whatnot in your house is a tremendous fag but it does make the rooms look very cosy. Today I had my first proper tea party and Cook went to great lengths to make festive tidbits for us to eat. She served a sort of warm wine with fruit in it and an array of small sandwiches, pastries and cured meats. I could tell that everyone was most impressed. I must remember to give Cook a little something as a special reward – she has been very helpful in recent weeks.

Sitting in my parlour were Mrs Cooper, Miss Cooper, Mrs Doughty and Miss Rowena Guiser. She is very pretty and amusing, I think we shall make firm friends. I do need someone else to talk to now that Boo is so occupied with the baby – Mrs Doughty appears to be a bottomless source of new company.

Word from the butler at Blindingham – the Girl has calved. So she also now has a baby boy to call her own – heaven knows who else’s it may be. And that horrible small man from Clacton cannot find my brooch. No doubt he has pawned it or given it to a sweetheart, the crook.

Remind Cook to ask around and discover what the best households will be serving over Christmas.

Mrs Euphemia Hatherwick
34 Brunswick Square
London

December 12th 1850

Madam

I am afraid I am writing with news which will not please you. Having conducted a thorough and rigorous investigation of my staff and public quarters, I can state without a doubt that your brooch is not anywhere under my roof.

I quizzed the chamber maids, the night porter and any staff who may have had access to your room during your stay. Despite hearing some very clear and verifiable accounts of Mr Hatherwick’s movements and your own, I can find nothing which relates to the mislaying or otherwise of any brooch.

I hope this letter is redundant and that the brooch has appeared amongst your belongings as you unpacked. I hope also to be able to welcome you again to this establishment in the future. To that end, may I take this opportunity of offering you and Mr Hatherwick one evening’s accommodation without charge, in recognition of your distress. This in no way points to any liability on our part for the loss of your brooch, of course.

Yours faithfully

Ogden Browne

My Dearest Boo

What a sweet little bundle you have produced! I swear I can still smell his adorable head under my nose. Please accept the mittens I enclose. I knitted them myself and put a kiss in every other stitch!

Mr Hatherwick is as delighted as I am to hear of Bradstone’s appearance in the world and has asked me to pass on his best to you and Mr Pitt. Indeed I do detect a hint of envy in him. At least, when I told him your happy news he said that he wished he could have shared in it with you. If your new baby has unleashed something in my husband, as I dearly hope it has, it may not be long before I have some news of my own….

Pardon my prattle, Boo and give that boy a cuddle

From

His Aunt Effie xx

Dear Mrs and Miss Cooper

I am excited and delighted to tell you that my dear friend Mrs Pitt has been safely delivered of a boy. He is a bonny thing and since it was not so long ago that you were giving Mrs Pitt the benefit of your experience in childbirth I am sure she will not mind me telling you of the outcome.

The infant is to be named Bradstone, after his father. I am sure there are a hundred other things to say about him but the main facts of the matter are that he is safely arrived, has his eyes and ears and will be at home for viewing after Christmas.

I hope that you and I will find time to take tea before long. There are some aspects of Mrs Pitt’s recent experience that I feel cannot be shared except in person.

Yours

Effie Hatherwick

Thursday December 7th 1850 Brunswick Square

Boo and her husband called this afternoon – not Wednesday, when we are ready to receive callers. Brought Baby Pitt with them. For a reason I cannot fathom they have called him Bradstone Josiah Pitt. I coo’d and twitted about of course but the moment she said the infant’s name I was struck like stone. Why has she given him the name Josiah?

He is a pretty enough child, I suppose. They have already had his image recorded and he does seem a bright and chubby thing. But Josiah? What can they be thinking of? She knows I am anxious for a child of my own. Does it not strike her that I might have a son and want to name him Josiah? I cannot name my child after hers, I should look as though I am a sheep.

No, I am disappointed in Boo. I can say it here if nowhere else. She shall never know it – when she brings him on our walks and I give him flapdoodle about how clever he is or some such. But I shall never call him Josiah, not even in a letter. Never.

Mrs Euphemia Hatherwick
34 Brunswick Square
London

December 4th 1850

Dear Mrs Hatherwick

I received your letter of the 27th ult. with great regret. I shall, of course, investigate the loss of your brooch thoroughly and shall inform you without delay of my findings.

In the meantime I thank you for your kind comments about your stay here are trust that you will feel able to recommend The Excelsior to any friends or acquaintances considering a stay in this fine town.

Yours faithfully

Ogden Browne
Proprietor
Excelsior Hotel

Boo! A Boy! Oh, Boo – I can hardly write for excitement!

Tell me everything, Boo, what was it like? How is he? How are you? Mr Pitt must be ten feet tall with pride….

I shall come to visit you in your nursery as soon as you send word that I may.

Oh, Boo – you are such a clever goose! Well done!

E xxxxxxx

The Proprietor
Excelsior Hotel
Esplanade
Clacton-by-Sea

November 27th 1850

Dear Sir

I write with regret, having enjoyed a brief but refreshing stay at your establishment last week. My husband, Mr Josiah Hatherwick, and I were delighted with the accommodation you offer and took great pleasure in sampling the best from your fine menu.

The beds were comfortable, the water nicely warmed by your staff and you yourself showed us genuine welcome.

However, I feel I must write this letter – in the best of faith that you will receive it in the spirit in which it is sent. That is, as a warning from a friend, not a barb from your enemy.

I have arrived back in London without an item that is most precious to me. I am assiduous in the care of my belongings and it would be quite out of character for me to mislay such an item. My husband has no knowledge of its whereabouts and I am forced to conclude that it has been taken from me whilst I was in your hotel.

The item in question is a brooch. It contains an amethyst set in a double row of seed pearls. The brooch was a wedding gift to me from my Mother and I am distressed to be without it.

I fear your staff are not all as trustworthy as you would hope. Please carry out a search of your premises and room-tending staff at your earliest convenience. I am sure that my brooch will be found in the temporary possession of one of them.

I await your reply

Yours in anticipation

Euphemia Hatherwick (Mrs)

My Dear, Brave Boo

When I saw you last I felt sure you would produce your child on the very rug in front of me! Surely it cannot be long now? Just think, you may be in the depths of childbirth even as I write. I stand at the window a great deal at the moment watching for your boy to come with a note telling me I am an honorary Aunt…

I cannot imagine what you will have gone through, Boo. Only that it will have been worth every moment.

Please let me know as soon as you can. Send word whatever the time, day or night. I am not going to settle til I know you are safely delivered of your child.

Yrs

Effie xxx

p.s. Mr Hatherwick asks me to send his best. He is pacing the floor with me, bless him. He has such empathy – for a mere male!

Oh Boo!

Mr Hatherwick and I have been to Clacton!

A day or two ago he came to me after breakfast and said

“Effie, now the Girl is no longer with us I cannot help but notice you are more tired. Until we engage the services of another Girl, perhaps an older one this time, I do not wish you to become worn out.”

I am such a lucky wife. We took an open carriage and were on the beach by mid-day. Oh, it was glorious, Boo. So wide, so open and so so blue. We walked up and down the front and stopped for a cup of tea and some cake. The people of Clacton are very jolly, on the whole, and we were approached more than once in the afternoon by men wanting us to buy eels and the like. We said no.

Mr Hatherwick then walked me up to quite the grandest hotel, straight across from the seafront and said “Say hello to our lodgings, Effie.” I have never seen such a place! You might think that someone used to the grandeur of Blindingham would not care for white stucco and swirls, but I thought it was delightful.

We spent an hour or so in our room before dinner. Mr Hatherwick took a nap and I read a little. Then we ate the loveliest local food – those eels again, I expect – and I drank a glass or two of brandy I don’t mind admitting it.

Clacton by night is a very different place!

After dinner we went for another stroll along the Front. There were no families or nurses with their charges. They were all safely tucked in their rooms by then. So the people we met were much more lively. We saw men singing and rolling along, laughing at the slightest joke and calling out to their friends. They must know each other very well in a small town, I suppose, to be able to shout across the street like that.

And Boo, the women were a sight to behold. So colourful and gay, I felt positively dowdy amongst them. They wandered about in twos or threes, smiling at us as we passed. Mr Hatherwick is a sociable man when at play and he took his hat off to any woman who caught his eye. Most of the women seemed very happy to be out after dark, although I did wonder where their husbands were at such an hour. I am sure I would not want to walk the streets of Clacton in a red dress without Mr Hatherwick beside me.

The rest of our night was quiet and we were back in Brunswick Square by 11 o’clock the next morning. What memories I have!

Mr Hatherwick declared himself to be so taken with Clacton that he will take me again next year. He said he will go there alone beforehand to settle upon the very best Hotel. I shall be treated like a Queen, I can tell.

Mrs Cooper asked me to pass on her best wishes for your imminent event. May I call soon and see you – it may be the last time I see you without an infant on your knee!

Effie x