Extracts
From Robert to Barbara 25th August 1858
“…..I am truly glad to hear that you have been discharging the onerous duties of schoolmistress with so much efficiency and zeal and that you like them so very well.
How I wish I were a little boy at Gulberwick, with what glee I should enrol myself as one of your pupils and what beautiful funs I should have. I should laugh and whistle, blot my copy, tear my book and punch the boy nearest to me till he roared like a wild
buffalo and then deny that ever I touched him. I should make amazing mistakes in my lessons, spell the words backwards, throw over the forms, speak at the top of my voice, make faces on the girls and when I had provoked you so much that you were
obliged to call me up, instead of holding out my hand to receive the weight of the dreaded tawse I should throw my arm around your neck and k-k-k-k-kiss you (I always stammer very much in pronouncing that word – it surely is because I have no fancy for k-k-k-kissing) till I was tired – and afterwards be a good boy for the rest of the day. What would I not give to be a little boy at Gulberwick……”
From Barbara to Robert 14th January 1860:
" ....Oh I must not forget to tell you we have got a French master and he
is such a queer fellow. I wish you were here. Father is making some progress
but I have scarcely made any for, as the gentleman is a capital singer when
he is in the house, I keep him singing. One of his songs is the queerest thing
ever I heard. I should like you to hear it, but he will be away before you come
here, unless you come very early in February.
“Our soirée” is the all engrossing topic of conversation here at
present. I think it is a pity that it was not thought of sooner. It is now rather
late in the season but as everybody seems to “approve of the plan” Father has
determined to carry it into effect. Does it not seem strange that such a thing
should be going to take place at Gulberwick? We must have you with us and
the sooner you come the better. You tell me that it will be necessary for you to
come and see me as you are forgetting now what like I am. I have never yet
had my likeness taken or I would have sent it to refresh your memory, but let
me tell you that you must not expect to find me so good looking as when you
last saw me as it is now nearly sixteen months since and I am growing plainer
as I grow older...."
From Barbara to Robert 13th June 1860:
“…Now, I am not a good letter writer and therefore ought not to criticise perhaps, but I do think that when people can write well they should do it. What a beautiful letter was your last to me! I might have known that it was written at mid-night, it was such a sleepy lifeless affair. It seems to me that you have been noddin’ when you began to write, after writing the first page you have dropped asleep entirely. Just think of introducing a peat casting into a love letter. If you wished to let me know how they manage a peat casting at Sandness why not write a description of one, send it to Chambers’ journal and send to me the number in which it appeared? And then you tell me that you have begun to think seriously of coming East. Well, well!.....”
From Robert to Barbara 14th June 1861:
"....I owe you an apology dearest for not writing you last week. I delayed
till Thursday night and as that night chanced to be an unusually busy one I
did not have leisure. Often on post nights I have very little time. The people
have learned that I can write a little, and four or five of them will come
at a time entreating to write either their husbands, their brothers or their
sweethearts for them and I find it so difficult to refuse. In time to come I
shall be as punctual as a clock and to make sure of it shall write you on either
Tuesday or Wednesday evening.
Today I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from Mr Tawse
stating that an addition of £2 has been made to the school at Sandness – thus
raising my salary to £20 per annum. As Sandness is about the best school on
the society’s scheme in Zetland, very likely some of the other teachers have
received more and I shall be glad to hear that your father has received £3
additional. I need not tell you that I am truly well pleased as my income will
now amount to £28 per annum exclusive of the farm and I intend to abandon
grumbling for ever. The weddings here are far from being over yet. The
proclamation fees have this season exceeded my school fees...."