Letters From a Stranger Shore

I think this is more or less ready to start posting now, so here is the first chunk. I’ve started off below with an introduction to set the scene and establish things. I’ll follow it up with the first couple of letters.

A Little Background

This is a collection of letters dating from the early days of the twentieth century, although not the twentieth century that we are all familiar with. At that time, in this world, Europe was a continent of contrasts. Great Britain, the centre of a powerful Empire, had been ruled by female monarchs since the days of Queen Elizabeth the First. The remainder of Europe was divided; a collection of tradition-loving principalities (like Brabant), aspiring but often weak republics and corrupt dictatorships, all suffering from their fractured past, revolutions and wars.

Technologically, the era was one of wonders. The 1890’s saw the development of compact, powerful steam engines and a rapid growth in both public and personal transport. Although heavier than air flight still eluded mankind, 1898 had seen the first commercial flight in Europe of a passenger-carrying dirigible airship. By the 1890’s high performance, steam-powered, road vehicles were commonplace, even if the roads themselves were not always as smooth as they might have been. The use of steam transportation was commonplace; the extraction of gas from coal for heating and lighting provided energy for the home; and the use of mechanisation in factories made a wide range of goods available to the general public; although in Europe, at least, the fractured political scene made it difficult for business to reap the benefits of mass production. The first steps had been taken to harness the power of electricity although the phenomena associated with it were scarcely understood. It was seen mainly as a form of exotic entertainment; only a few useful applications had emerged.

In 1901, a wide range of technological marvels were on display at the Great Empire Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London. Alongside them, the arts of the far reaches of Empire in Ancient Egypt, the Greater American Colonies, Equatorial Africa and the distant orient, captured the imagination of the public and entranced them with primitive shapes and decorative forms. In mainland Europe, the rival principalities, dictatorships and republics with far lesser global reach than Britain looked on enviously at the fruits of Empire and the seeming hegemony of English culture.

England and Europe shared a technological heritage but, the social cultures of the two had diverged dramatically. Their societies were quite different. In England over three hundred years of female rule had created a stable society with very different values from the nearby continent where aggression, opportunism and toxic male attitudes held sway.

By 1901, the rather conservative values of Queen Victoria IV were being eroded. Still on the throne but ageing and losing influence the Queen’s duties were increasingly being taken on by her daughter, Princess Victoria Louise. The Princess’s more liberal values had led to a renaissance in the arts and the growth of what some deemed a decadent culture.

Against this background, in Brabant, Amelia de Kooning’s step-father planned an arranged marriage for her, very much against her will. Her mother, hoping to frustrate these plans, made alternative arrangements.

About the Amelia De Kooning Letters.

Amelia wrote regularly to her mother and friends and it is her letters that are collected here.

Amelia de Kooning grew up in the small town of De Helder in the independent principality of Brabant in the Low Countries during the latter part of the nineteenth century. She was not one of life’s natural trouble makers. She had gone to school as she should. She had gone to church as she should. She had helped in the house as she should. She had cared for her sisters as she should.

If she had a fault it was that she could be stubborn. And, if there was one thing that Amelia De Kooning did feel stubbornly about it was that her father should not determine who she would marry, Approaching her 25^th birthday in 1902, Amelia attracted comment from De Helder society and concern in her family because of her unmarried status. Her sisters found her views on marriage and the behaviour of the men of the town unnatural.

Amelia’s step-father had intended an arranged marriage for her, as was common custom, for some time. Having found several candidates in the family of a business partner that he wished to influence by offering the hand of his daughter, he was anxious to progress a match. Amelia, however, resisted. Her step father was determined to resolve the issue in the face of his daughter’s intransigence but she continued to reject a series of suitors approved by her step-father. Amelia’s mother was sympathetic to her daughter’s wish to retain a measure of freedom. She knew that Amelia would have little independence in such a marriage.

Helping her daughter to avoid her step father’s plans, she arranged for Amelia to travel to England, beyond his reach and away from the patriarchal society that Amelia despised. There, in a marriage no less arranged but potentially more amenable, Amelia would be beyond her step-father’s influence.

In Europe, the tradition of letter writing was still strong. (There was no form of electrical communication save for the home telegraph, a newly emergent technology only available to the wealthy.) Amelia was an enthusiastic correspondent and we are lucky to have a collection of her letters from England from around this time. These are largely manuscript copies in what is thought to have been Amelia’s own hand. It is assumed that she kept copies of her letters in order to facilitate the exchanges and, of course, there was no mechanical means of copying available. She explains her use of English and excuses what some may consider her archaic turn of phrase in her first letters to her mother.

Sadly, only her half of the conversations has been found, but the correspondence still shows just how different the two worlds of Britain and continental Europe were. Most of the letters are between Amelia and her mother (Helga de Kooning) or to her long-time friend, Lucy (Lucy Broeren). They paint a picture of her life as she adjusts to the ways of her new home. Some of her letters were also intended for the various friends and acquaintances that she made in her time in England.

Together, this collection of Amelia’s letters provides an insight into her life and into wider English society. While Amelia’s language may seem a little archaic (partly the manner of the time and partly the result of her tutor) as she acknowledges), she has no difficulty in making clear the events of the time and her feelings about them. Equally it is possible, from Amelia’s words, to infer the views of her correspondents.

Read on with the first of Amelia’s letters.