UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Documents associated with: Philip, Frances Septima
Record 12 of 12

System Number: 04838
Date: 8 July 1902
Author: Rosalind Birnie Philip[1]
Place: The Hague
Recipient: Frances Philip[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler P478
Document Type: ALS[3]


Hotel des Indes
La Haye.

July 8th 1902.

My dear Mama.

Thank you very much for this morning's letter. The rennet came yesterday, Monday, & the curds & whey were made. I am happy to say Whistler[4] seems greatly improved the last two days. He is still weak & unable to get up, but is able to take more food, which is the [p. 2] important thing.

Ethie[5] has not written herself as she has been doing the night watching, & rests during the day. I have been doing the least, on the whole, of the three. But I am not as good at nursing as I used to be, or perhaps some people are more exacting. The people in the hotel are most obliging. The mint has come safely & it is put into water at once. I am glad the King's dinner[6] was a success, & most of all that Frankie's[7] evening [p. 3] novelty looked so pretty & became he [sic] so well. I have taken a peep in at Ethie, but she is fast asleep.

She went to bed at 6 o'clock this morning and it is now past 4, so I enclose her love in this letter.

The tax paper I am going to send to Webb[8] for settlement. Whistler requires your letters read to him & this morning noticed there was never any reference to Ashbee[9]. I thought to myself, the less he hears of that person the better, for I believe it was nothing but through over exciting himself, that [p. 4] all this trouble has come.

I shall look forward to tasting the jam tell Mary[10]. A man has just gone along in black velvet slippers & long hair, selling wooden whistles. They had a long piece of wood which drew in &out, & the result as far as noise went was most satisfactory.

I will write soon. Take care of yourself & with many affectionate messages from the gentlemen & much love from Ethie & myself

Your loving daughter -

Linda Philip


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Notes:

1.  Rosalind Birnie Philip
Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), JW's sister-in-law [more].

2.  Frances Philip
Frances Philip (1824-1917), née Black, JW's mother-in-law [more].

3.  ALS
The paper has a mourning border.

4.  Whistler
JW had been very ill indeed, having recently suffered a heart attack on the way to Amsterdam with Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), industrialist, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art [more].

5.  Ethie
Ethel Whibley (1861-1920), née Philip, JW's sister-in-law [more].

6.  King's dinner
Not identified.

7.  Frankie's
Frances Septima Philip (1867-1949), JW's sister-in-law [more].

8.  Webb
William Webb (b. ca 1851), of G. and W. Webb, lawyer [more].

9.  Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942), architect [more].

10.  Mary
Perhaps a servant.