Written from Warley Place, Great Warley, Essex. Manuscript
She thanks Gilpin for the charming lines about a garden; she hopes they will have a cheery Christmas; she has an oil stove which is less work but no use 'for sunset flames'; she has no running water due to burst pipes in the intense cold; she fears she will lose plants in the garden and the green house; she hopes Mr Robinson's rheumatism is improving due to Gilpin's treatments; her own is worse, she has no remedy, and it will go on getting worse as it is so deep seated; she spent last Saturday at Brockhurst [East Grinstead, Sussex] with the Hanburys; they were kind and the orchids were lovely; the new land Mr Hanbury has bought is lovely and he is very pleased; he saved it from being used for building; she talked to him as Gilpin suggested, and he is considering what to do; she told him Mr R had offered £1000 towards the mortgage over a year ago but keeps hesitating, and what holds up the others, and in the meantime she cannot describe what she is going through; Foster is against her; if Mr R knew what she was going through he would help; she will spend Christmas alone here, putting up with the bad cooking and getting on with mending
Dated 22 Dec, no year [1917; Robinson offered Willmott a £1000 mortgage in 1916. See 'Miss Willmott of Warley Place' / by Audrey Le Lievre]