Handwritten letter from Kate, conclusion — and beginning of another letter on the same spread
Book 1, Page 40 ·1860–1880
Transcription
Two facing pages of handwritten brown-ink letters.
Left page — conclusion of Kate’s letter
like times? I must stop scribbling such nonsense for it is time for me to dress for church and as I am always late I must tell you
Goodbye
Yours as ever
Kate
A short postscript follows in the lower left. The header “Lestrade Burke” is written in blue pencil in a later hand, apparently an editorial identification of the children referenced; the body of the postscript is in the same brown ink as the main letter:
[In blue pencil, in a later hand:] Lestrade Burke —
This all six of these children do tell me something more about Pinger than the state of his health.
Right page — opening of another letter
I have no doubt you are wondering what I have been doing not to have written to my dear old sister for so long, but I hope you will be satisfied when I tell you that I have been stitching out fingers in a most exemplary endeavour for that little & naughty (I was just going to write [son] of yours), by making some Aprons which I know she will look sweetly in. The only aggravating part is that I shant see her in them. [Knew?] so quiet that I [could not?] hear — she must be so pretty, but I cant realize that uncomeatable & to me irresistible Tuft of hair intruding into Curls. It is quite too commonplace an ending for — just imagine Sissy what a sensation “The Miss FitzSimons with the singular hair” would have caused […]
AI Notes
Two facing pages. On the left, the conclusion of the handwritten letter from Kate (continued from page 039), with a closing ‘Yours as ever, Kate’ and a brief postscript headed ‘Lestrade Burke’ asking for news of Pinger beyond just the state of his health. On the right, the opening of another handwritten letter in a similar hand (likely Kate’s, or a near family member’s) to her ‘dear old sister’, explaining that the writer has been making aprons (or pinafores) for the recipient’s small daughter — a child she has never seen — and joking that the FitzSimons family hair, ‘that uncomeatable & to me irresistible Tuft of hair intruding into Curls,’ will give ‘The Miss FitzSimons with the singular hair’ a sensation. The closing dress is for ‘church’ — the letter is being broken off Sunday morning. The postscript header — written in blue pencil in a later hand, distinct from the main brown ink — reads ‘Lestrade Burke’ (a name), apparently added by a later annotator (probably the compiler Amy or an earlier owner) to identify the children referenced. The postscript itself reads: ‘This all six of these children do tell me something more about Pinger than the state of his health.’ Pinger is a family nickname; identity not yet established but appears to be a male child the recipient is rearing. On the right page, the writer is making ‘aprons’ for the niece — the parenthetical ‘(I was just going to write [son] of yours)’ shows Kate caught herself almost addressing the child as a boy. The closing image is the unmistakable FitzSimons family teasing motif — ‘The Miss FitzSimons with the singular hair’ — that recurs elsewhere in the album, anchoring the letter as Barker/FitzSimons family correspondence, and ‘Sissy’ is the recipient’s daughter.
Letter continues on next scan.
The teasing closing image — “The Miss FitzSimons with the singular hair” referring to an unruly forelock that defied curls — recurs elsewhere in the album as a family marker, suggesting the trait was hereditary and recognizable enough across generations to identify a daughter at sight.