44 Eleanor Road

Stratford E

7.3.95

My Dear Father,

Your letter of the 4^th inst duly to hand. I must say I read the contents with a mixture of surprise, indignation & a great amount of impatience. Surely I have only to remind you that you wrote to a wife of her husband & to ask you to recall to your mind the substance of your letter, for you to thoroughly understand my feelings upon the matter. Even if all you wrote had been true, the letter would have been out of place.

I would beg you to remember that it is my place to take the initiative against my husband if I desire to do so, were there occasion. There is one very special charge in your letter to which I take very special umbrage, “systematic ill treatment for the last 4½ years.” This is most unjustifiable & a gross libel. No one who knew my husband at all could possibly charge him with being cruel systematically – his temper is most different from anything akin to that.

Doubtless you thought you were doing me a good turn, but believe me, you might have brought the greatest grief I could have experienced into the house. Regarding the promise of not visiting the house, I wished you to take no abject position – you were merely to write to me & say you would not come to the house. And considering all things, I do think that was asking you very little.

Now of course, two ways lie open to me, either I must endorse all in your letter, & thus sever myself from my husband; or I must take up my husband’s cause as my own & sever myself from all I used to hold dear. And as my husband must of necessity stand first to me, you will not be surprised that I should decide to acknowledge myself his champion. You must therefore thoroughly understand that unless you make me the promise I asked & acknowledge & apologise for (to me) the obloquy cast upon my husband, all correspondence between us must cease. It is entirely your fault – I held out the olive branch – you would not take it. I am sorry for I know what grief it will cause you all – but you know the remedy – take it or not as you choose.

With kind love

Your affec daughter

Geo Hockley

Anyone heard of this word?

ob·lo·quy/ˈäbləkwē/

Noun:

Strong public criticism or verbal abuse. Disgrace, esp. that brought about by public abuse.