"The Hand that
Touched Prince Henry's" A letter from Mary Lawton ("Mrs. Walton") to
Annie Fellows Johnston. The cutest most
interesting thing about this letter (and there are many of such) is the
outline of Mrs. Lawton's own hand on the last page...
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Mrs. Lawton, "The
Hand That Touched Prince Henry's"
The Beeches.
Jan 3rd, 1906
You dear, sweet, kind, forgiving
"Cousin Annie"!---
I don't deserve the least
bat of an eyelid from you, but if you could only see, and know,
the pleasure your thought of me has given The Christmas Sentiment went
straight to my heart. I have it over my writing table where I look at,
I read it every day --- the dear letter that arrived this morning was a
tonic --- the best kind. & I needed it truly --- for I find I am not out of
the woods yet. For nearly a week |
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I have
been suffering with an acute attack of rheumatism that
subdued me as nothing else could. Monday I got both
tired and mad, dragged myself up, hobbled downstairs on crutches and
had the
Creighton's &
Gatchels to supper.
Matthews,
Rosses, Craigs,
Brents
and Posts dropping in later for music. (The Posts have Mrs Bakewells
cottage, & are pleasant neighbors notwithstanding two young
imps of Satan) I
enjoyed it, & felt better. I think the "~~" helped too. Last
summer, I was too far gone, for anything, but to drag through each day.
The first of Nov. I left home for a visit to Manley & Mrs Liscum(?).
Before leaving |
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I wanted to write you,
but when I wasn't laid low, poor
Catherine was --- we really had a pretty bad time of it --- & up to the
last moment. --- I returned only two weeks before Christmas, &
have been in a perfect maelstrom since -not- only of smart set gayety, but
domestic troubles also are swept into the whirlpool & I am at present wiped.
My domestic troubles consists of the cook - who looks like a big black
aceofspades prizefighter in petticoats, & knows as much about cooking
as a jack rabbit. The brightest memory spot - during our trials &
tribulations, & one I |
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love to recall, is the
arrival of your new book-Which we gave royal welcome to, read at once, &
could not - put down, enjoyed most thoroughly. & when the last word was
read, the sighs of regrets were very genuine, that it was the last.
We often wish you could turn them out by magic. I love them as much as
the children do. & had a lovely time with the shop women in the book
department of the big N.Y. stores. I would love to see your
expression- if you could have overheard our conversation. I had a long
letter from Miss Fackler, from Pasadena, Cal - who has taken special
interest in your |
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books. So much
that I sat down one day two years ago & wrote something of your
personality. told of some of the principle
incidents & characters, etc, etc with a picture. & she is still
thanking me. In this last letter, she tells me, how, upon several
occasions, your books were discussed, & my letter read - & the people who
heard, were so interested they bought the series - I was so pleased.
In addition to my pleasure in everything you write I appreciate more than I
can ever tell you, your remembrance of my pleasure - interest - love
& sympathy -- The girls & I so often wished, since we have the Beeches, that
you were |
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were our next
neighbors -
Hallie and Donald
were out yesterday to a reception given officially to the bride - Hallie
looks well. She & Donald are coming to the first choir meeting, and
stay the night with me. Everybody - Cranford generally - turned
out to do honors. & meet the bride - satisfy their curiosity & be able to
hold up their end of conversation in the "talking over" -
Fanny Craig was
special Committee on side remarks to Mrs C. as the guests were presented.
It really was a most pleasant affair - Coffee & sandwiches and cake were
served by my maid ~~~, who looked stylish of course - & the refreshments
were provided by a few most interested, one |
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of which I was whom.
I told you everyone was there but
Mrs. Jungbluth was conspicuous by her absence. Being at present on
very official terms with the parson, whom she refuses to hear preach
anymore. There are I believe, several "official" affairs,
in Cranford just now. I don't know anything accurate, but from
the tom-tit of society, I gather a few stray bits of gossip - Aleck
wont play cards with the
Buckners - Lese won't
meet Aleck -
Amanthis refuses to be friends with the new parson, & "Miss Tinkle" is
mad again, because somebody forgot to invite her to the reception till she
was sick in bed. She is sick in bed now. But we know |
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what kind of
Presbyterians we are from the last time we innocently
trod on her society corn. & each one is
wishing the other will meet her first. One of the(?) funny(?)
features(?) to me, in all the pow-wow over the "Mistress of the Manse", is,
that Mother Woodruff's curiosity, & leftout feeling, succombed at least -
She had Mrs Creighton to dine Christmas day, & walked up in the room to see
the Parsonage - another - Laura. All day at the parsonage, her little
shoulders were quivering with importance, pleasure, eager anticipation & a
very personal or possessive air that was amusing -
Katy Mathews
has already told you of her elaborate preparations |
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& disappointment -
every time we picture the scene to ourselves we enjoy it anew. The
rainy night, Laura in gala dress, sweet eager smiles, flutter of importance
at
Seelbach's - decorating the supper table -tieing
the chairs with white ribbon, rice and shoes & a general air of festivity
--- kind Sprigg dashing anxiously from R.R. stations to telephones ---
getting useless information and wet feet. Ordering the neighbor's
carriage to the barn. Calling for a livery Surrey from Bears(?) --- then the
quiet, sleepy little party at the manse to keep up fires and protect the
church wedding gift sitting in a dim religious light almost dozing --- It is
quite good enough for you to |
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(note the outline of her hand) |
use. Mrs
Creighton says she appreciated & thoroughly enjoyed peeping in on this match
party. But she didn't know how much all the rest pf us enjoyed the
whole thing. It had been so "Cranfordy" so story booky --- I wish I
could tell you all about it and everything at a nice kimona party to
ourselves a good comfortable toe to toe time. I can't talk
about your flying visit. I am too disappointed but can quite
understand.
I have a whole lot
more to say, but am afraid to "linger linger longer Lucy"
& tire you out, but must draw an outline of
my hand that shook Prince Henry's. I was at West Point & attended the
army reception to him. Had a lovely time with
Manley. Nearly a week with friends in N. Y. City, then Elmira. My
love to each one of you dear Johnstons in which all the Lawtons join.
Mary C Lawton
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*with many thanks to
Toni Langlais
and Ann Sharp in deciphering some of the more perplexing words in this
letter
Note:
Cranford is a book written in 1853 by English author
Elizabeth Gaskell. References to the book are made in
The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation,
published 1905, Chapter
13, Humdrum Days (as well as other places in the Little Colonel books).
"That
reminds me of the game I spoke of, "said Miss Allison. "I invented it
when I was about your age. I
had just read 'Cranford,' and the story of life in that simple little
village seemed so charming to me that I wished with all my heart I could
step into the book and be one of the characters, and meet all the people
that lived between its covers. Then I heard some one say that there were
more interesting happenings and queer characters in Lloydsboro Valley
than in Cranford. So I began to look around for them. I pretended that I
was the heroine of a book called 'Lloydsboro Valley,' and all that
summer I looked upon the people I met as characters in the same
story....
...."This is not malicious gossip,"
explained Mrs. Walton, in an amused undertone, smiling with Lloyd and
Katherine at a remark which unintentionally reached their ears. "But in
a little community like this, where little happens, and our interests
are bound so closely together, the smallest details of our neighbours'
affairs necessarily entertain us. It is interesting to know that Mr.
Rawles and his great-aunt are not on speaking terms, and it is
positively exciting to hear that Mr. Wolf and Mrs. Cayne quarrelled over
the leaflets used in Sunday school, and that she told him to his face
that he was a hypocrite and no better than an infidel. It doesn't make
us love these good people any the less to know that they are human like
ourselves, and have their tempers and their spites and feuds. We know
their good side, too. Wait till calamity or sickness touches some one of
us, and see how kind and sympathetic and tender they all are; every one
of them."
"You'll hear more
gossip here in one afternoon than at all the Cranford tea-tables put
together," said Katherine Marks. "But it is a mild sort, like the kind
going on behind us."
Interestingly, Mrs. Lawton refers to Pewee Valley as Cranford in this
letter to Annie Fellows Johnston. It appeared to be kind of a pet name
for Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley, especially when she was regaling AFJ with the
local "Cranfordy" type gossip. (See also a
letter from Annie Fellows Johnston to Mrs. Lawton in 1908)
The town of Cranford certainly had some parallels to Pewee Valley at the
time the Little Colonel books were written, since it was mainly a summer
community of women and children whose husbands worked in town. This is
how the first chapter begins:
"In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the
holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come
to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly
frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties,
or he is accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely
engaged in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town
of Drumble, distant only twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever does
become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford. What could they do if
they were there? The surgeon has his round of thirty miles, and sleeps at
Cranford; but every man cannot be a surgeon. For keeping the trim gardens
full of choice flowers without a weed to speck them; for frightening away
little boys who look wistfully at the said flowers through the railings; for
rushing out at the geese that occasionally venture in to the gardens if the
gates are left open; for deciding all questions of literature and politics
without troubling themselves with unnecessary reasons or arguments; for
obtaining clear and correct knowledge of everybody's affairs in the parish;
for keeping their neat maid-servants in admirable order; for kindness
(somewhat dictatorial) to the poor, and real tender good offices to each
other whenever they are in distress, the ladies of Cranford are quite
sufficient. "A man," as one of them observed to me once, "is so in the way
in the house!" Although the ladies of Cranford know all each other's
proceedings, they are exceedingly indifferent to each other's opinions.
Indeed, as each has her own individuality, not to say eccentricity, pretty
strongly developed, nothing is so easy as verbal retaliation; but, somehow,
good-will reigns among them to a considerable degree. "
The entire book is online here:
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Cranford.html
Notes on specific pages:
Page 2
Creightons: The Rev. Cyrus Murray Creighton was pastor of Pewee
Valley Presbyterian Church 1900-1907
Gatchels: Frances Edwin and Alice Craig Gatchel from
Woodside -- Alice was the
niece of Mamie Lawton
Matthews: Kate Matthews and whichever of her siblings were
living in Clovercroft at the time
Rosses -- of
the Ross Place
Craigs of Edgewood -- Annie,
Fanny, Harry (the special needs brother), Aleck Craig also referred to
later in the letter
Brents -- we're not sure where they lived. Laura Woodruff Brent
is pictured at the tree planting at the Presbyterian Church Her husband
was Sprigg Brent and her father was H. M. Woodruff, owner of Pewee's
first general store; "Henry
Martyn Woodruff (1838-1912) and his wife, Sallie Elam (February 23,
1838-February 27, 1910), are buried in Pewee Valley Cemetery, with their
daughter Laura Woodruff Brent (1868-1907), wife of Sprigg Brent."
Page 6
Hallie Burge and Donald
Jacobs, the cousin of Mary G. Johnston by her father's first
marriage to Hallie Eaves. Hallie is Annie Fellows Johnston's niece by her
marriage. Pictured on the post office
page.
Page 7
Mrs.
Jungbluth is Amanthis Bullitt Smith Jungbluth, daughter of Captain
Thomas Floyd Smith of Beechmore and sister to Thomas Floyd Smith, III of
Louisville Paper Company who once gave John Johnston a job. Divorced from
husband Karl Jungbluth, master of Waldeck, for infidelity.
Aleck is Aleck Craig, Mamie Lawton's, Fanny Craig's
and Louise Culbertson's brother; son of Annie Craig of Edgewood. Aleck
eventually committed suicide.
Page 8
Mother Woodruff is Sally Elam Woodruff, wife of H. M. Woodruff and
mother of Laura Woodruff Brent
We originally thought this passage described the marriage of the
Jacobs, but maybe it was Laura's wedding to Sprigg Brent (see above).
Right now, we do not have the wedding dates for both couples.
This Site:
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The Little Colonel's Hero
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The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: In Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero"
in Indiana::
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana), In Arizona:
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock, In Texas:
San Antonio,
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Penacres,
The Barnaby Ranch,
In France:
The Gate of the Giant Scissors
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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