The study in the Leaskdale Manse and the place where Lucy Maud Montgomery typed out her book manuscripts. Also the place where her husband Ewen wrote his sermons. Maud wrote all her work long-hand in a notebook first. In Leaskdale, she sat by a window in the parlour to write.

Maud’s bookshelf in the Leaskdale study with many of her own books in it.

So what is a ten year letter?

Maud wrote on October 18th, 1900 in Cavendish PE. Island

… which being interpreted means a letter, “written, signed and sealed” to be opened and read ten years from the date of writing.

In The Complete Journals of L. M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900, Maud had written that when she was fifteen years old, she had a “mania for writing” these letters; she didn’t know where she got the  idea, maybe in a “Pansy” book, but she adopted it for her own

for it seemed so fine and romantic.

 

A ten year letter might be a fine way of reminding oneself later what was in our thoughts at an earlier time.

The Complete Journals, released 2012, University of Guelph, from the original text.

Photos: C. Wilker