| Description | Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury begins this letter with remarks about her family and acquaintances. She also refers to an evening she had spent at John Henry Lloyd's new house, noting that the house was 'well adapted for a large number of people'. She writes that the eighty guests had enjoyed 'very good music and two or three interesting essays were read.' Taylor Cadbury remarks that she had also met with the girls belonging to the White Ribbon Band 'to strengthen them before the holidays and Christmas temptations.'
Taylor Cadbury writes that the Cadbury family had been very busy the previous Sunday. After attending Bournville Meeting for Worship followed by 'a large Preparative Meeting afterwards' Taylor Cadbury had hosted eight guests at lunch. During the afternoon Taylor Cadbury had gone to Selly Oak to speak to the Sunday Schools and had taken the Northfield Meeting in the evening. On her way home Taylor Cadbury had called on a woman named Nellie Maldron who had recently suffered a family bereavement. She writes that Maldron's husband had been out of work, adding 'we have just given him a job here to keep him going for a little while.'
Taylor Cadbury describes her trip to York with her stepdaughter Isabel to stay with Seebohm Rowntree and his family. Taylor Cadbury writes that they had stayed at the Rowntree family's home which she notes was 'very pretty', and 'built in farmhouse style in an old orchard'. In a later family journal letter dated 20th December 1904 Taylor Cadbury describes the 'old-fashioned latches' on the doors at the Rowntrees' home, remarking that 'everything was white paint and blue and green colouring.' Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree (1871-1954), son of Quaker cocoa and chocolate manufacturer Joseph Rowntree (1836-1925), shared the Cadbury family's concerns for industrial welfare and social reform, his 1901 book 'Poverty: A Study of Town Life' influencing public opinion and shaping social policy concerning contemporary working and living conditions.
Taylor Cadbury and her stepdaughter Isabel were attending the annual Conference of the National Union of Women Workers in York and much of her letter is taken up with a lengthy description of the proceedings. Taylor Cadbury writes that the Union had debated issues including 'hygience practical and theoretical in schools' after hearing a paper on the subject from a health inspector. Taylor Cadbury notes that she had 'picked up several ideas' from the session. During the Conference Taylor Cadbury had presided over an afternoon meeting 'on the laying out of towns' which included addresses from Sir Raymond Unwin 'the Architect of the Garden City' and from Mr. Aldridge 'secretary of the Housing Reform Association. Henrietta Barnet had also explained 'the new Hampstead Scheme' (the Hampstead Garden Suburb) to delegates. Taylor Cadbury notes that this was 'one of the best meetings of the whole Conference'. Reflecting her public association with housing reform, Taylor Cadbury presided over a meeting focussed on housing reform and town planning. Taylor Cadbury adds that the conference had included a number of Council Meetings where she had been elected vice-president and an evening meeting considering "Our National Responsibility, moral, social & spiritual". Taylor Cadbury remarks on the argumentative nature of this meeting in her personal diary entry for Thursday 10th November 1904, and makes similar comments in this letter, noting that 'people were very excited because things had been said with which they did not agree.' She suggests that argument had arisen over differing political viewpoints between Liberal and Conservative women and people of different religious beliefs. The Conference had involved a number of devotional meetings, one of which Taylor Cadbury had been asked to lead. Taylor Cadbury writes that she had given a reading from the Bible and then, as a member of the Society of Friends, had 'asked for a time of silence, according to our Quaker ideals'. Later in her letter Taylor Cadbury remarks on the 'great many enquiries' she had received about her husband George Cadbury whilst attending the conference.
It had been necessary for Taylor Cadbury to leave the conference early 'to attend a school management committee' and oversee the opening of Bournville's temporary school in Ruskin Hall. Taylor Cadbury writes 'our school opened yesterday', noting that they 'still had not our full staff of mistresses.' Later in her letter Taylor Cadbury provides more detail about the opening of Bournville's temporary school, an event mentioned in her personal diary entry for Monday 14th November. Taylor Cadbury notes in her diary that the schools were 'very full!'. In this letter she elaborates, writing 'more children had come than they expected and they had had rather a rush.' She writes that the children 'looked so nice and bonny', adding that the mistresses 'seem a very nice set'.
Taylor Cadbury remarks on attending the Scottish Industries Sale, commenting on the 'very good' tweeds which were being sold. She mentions that Miss Harding, secretary of the Birmingham Branch of the National Union of Women Workers had tried to persuade the Duchess of Sutherland, Millicent Sutherland Leveson-Gower (1867-1955), to be 'local president for the next N. U. W. Conference' which was to be held in Birmingham in 1905, but unfortunately she had declined the offer.
Taylor Cadbury refers to visits from Margery Fry, the warden of the new hostel for women at the University of Birmingham and Miss Staveley and Miss Scott from the Birmingham Women's Settlement. Taylor Cadbury had been associated with the Birmingham Women's Settlement since the late 1890s and here she describes Miss Staveley and Miss Scott as 'most devoted women'.
Taylor Cadbury writes that she had gone into Birmingham to teach her women's class at the Severn Street Adult School on 14th November. She writes 'I gave my class a long account of the Conference, especially of the meeting on hygiene', noting that the women 'were very much interested'. Taylor Cadbury writes that much of the meeting had been taken up with a discussion about 'sleeping with open windows'. Taylor Cadbury writes about one woman who was forced to get up at two or three o'clock in the morning to shut her window 'because of the bad language and fighting going on outside.' She also tells her family about a comment made by another woman in her class who spoke about the lack of sunshine and the 'very impure air' that came into her room. Taylor Cadbury writes 'then she said God gave us the air free, and I am sure he meant that some of us should have a little more of it.' On Monday evening Taylor Cadbury, George Cadbury and her stepson Edward had joined a meeting 'of new scholars from Class 14 and its branches, with their wives'. Taylor Cadbury notes 'it was a very bright meeting, and I think also impressive.' She adds 'some of those present were very very poor'.
Taylor Cadbury concludes her letter with remarks about family events, particularly the opening of a hospital in India founded by her younger sister Josephine Taylor. |