| Description | In this Christmas letter Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's Christmas letter wishes all her family a happy Christmas and New Year and remarks on a toy engine she was sending to one of her nephews in South Africa. The letter also contains remarks about a family friend, Edith Reed, who was living in Jamaica.
Taylor Cadbury makes an intriguing remark about Indian women based on correspondence which she had received from her sister Josephine Taylor who was involved in missionary work in India. She writes 'it is curious to think that, as Josephine says, the women in India have such immense influence and yet are kept so extremely secluded.' Considering this, Taylor Cadbury reflects on the position of English women, adding 'some people here think that if women had not asked and agitated for the Parliamentary vote but quietly waited a little longer they would have had it by now.'
Taylor Cadbury informs her family about the death of the Cadburys' family friend Henry Glaisyer writing 'our community here has been much saddened' by his death.
Taylor Cadbury writes that the previous Thursday she had attended a long meeting making arrangements for the annual conference of the National Union of Women which was being held in Birmingham in 1905. Taylor Cadbury adds that she had visited the new Wesleyan Central Hall in Corporation Street to determine its suitability as a venue for the conference. In addition to these responsibilities Taylor Cadbury remarks on her Christmas shopping and attendance at a number of parties, including the Workhouse Party where her daughter Molly (Marion Janet, born 1894) had recited and sung. Taylor Cadbury notes that her stepchildren Henry and Isabel had gone 'to Captain Scott's Lecture on his visit to the Antarctic Regions.' She also remarks on a party at Woodbrooke which had included a series of tableaux given by the students and remarks that she had played the organ at Bournville Meeting.
The letter concludes with remarks about the Christmas party which Taylor Cadbury was holding on the forthcoming Friday. She writes that there would be one hundred guests at the event when the family put up their Christmas Tree. She concludes her letter noting that she had attended 'another School Committee', adding 'we still have not got our staff complete for next year.' |