‘I thank you, Mrs Colvin’

(notes by Philip Holberton, drawing on the research of Andrew Rutherford and Thomas Pinney)

Source

This verse, handwritten by Kipling, was sent as Edmonia Hill’s thank you for a present of fruit during her illness in January 1889. It is now in the Library of Congress. Mrs. Colvin was the wife of W.M.Colvin, a leading advocate in the High Court in Allahabad.

Included in Rutherford (p. 450) and Pinney (p. 1938).

See also “To These People”, an affectionate Christmas message to Mrs Hill and her husband a few weeks before.

[P.H.]