| Description | Wishing her daughters a happy Christmas, Mary Taylor remarks that the name Elizabeth was 'dignified', adding 'I shall expect thee who bear it to be learned and full of good resolves'. She comments on the Christmas parcel which the Taylor family had sent to Elizabeth and Margaret. Mary Taylor also writes about the family's plans to support a public Christmas dinner for the poor and comments that she was giving Christmas puddings away to local people. Referring to national poverty Mary Taylor writes:
'there is a great deal of distress in the country & prices are dreadfully high in everything and many people out of work and this the result of the strikes amongst workmen of all sorts. Besides which there is a very serious amount of wet on the land - acres & acres under water & a very poor prospect for sowing & reaping next year!'
She concludes her letter remarking on the ill-health of the girls' younger brother Edwin Claude.
Please note that the first and second pages of this letter feature crossed writing and are difficult to read in places. |