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WHAT’S INSIGHT
An Unvarnished Christmas An excerpt from Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr Edited by Dr. Kathryn Bridge
In 1905, Emily Carr moved to Vancouver to teach art classes. In this excerpt from the Royal BC Museum’s Unvarnished, a new collection of Carr’s unpublished writings edited by curator emerita Kathryn Bridge, Carr sketches a holiday trip back to Victoria to see her sisters, Lizzie and Alice—complete with a menagerie of pets. The prose preserves Carr’s distinctively eccentric writing style, as well as her quirky personality.
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A
t Xmas time I packed the parrots [Jane and Sally] in baskets, the bullfinches in one cage, Peggie [the rat] & her offspring in another with Peter hanging from the top tied up in a stocking. A little gold fish in my bag and Billie [the dog] chucked below decks I went home. Enroute the Lady in the next chair to mine had rocked the observation room with a screech when out of an innocent looking wicker bag between our chairs had popped a snow[y] head with full yellow crest and a very sweet voice said into her stocking bag “Hello! Sally’s a Sally.” I rose in embarrassment & took my bags & blankets out on deck. Presently a man tapped me on the shoulder. “Does it belong to you?” pointing. There flopping violently on the deck was the handsomest of my two gold fish. The fool had kicked my bag containing the jar of water. I hurried the fish back into the empty jar & rushed for the washroom. When I returned with my handbag tied on the top of the wide jar Jane was laughing diabolically and people were looking at one another. Everyone thought everyone else could not be quite right & nobody suspected the innocent looking basket under my seat. Finally we got to Victoria & I unchecked the Bullfinches & rats from the Petty Baggage & Billie from below decks & there was my sister waiting with the old horse Renie & the chaise. Lizzie looked extraordinarily down when she saw all the creatures [for] she was our anointed housekeeper. Peter the rat tied up in the stocking so that he would not eat the coconut shell full of babies was the last straw & I hustled everything except the dog who was not allowed in the house and the parrots who were only allowed to sit on the kitchen chair up to my bed room. I frequently ran down to Victoria for a Sunday & contrived to leave all the creatures except the cocatoe & Dog for one night. Because of the time I left Sally and she had screamed for a week & the landlord had threatened. The return boat sailed at midnight. Alice always came down & saw me on board though she was often very tired & I begged her not [to] and when I was once on the boat it never failed that I looked across the little harbour and began to cry. I don’t know what I was crying for but I always had a hard cry on leaving Victoria though I was very happy in my Vancouver work. Perhaps Vancouver was more cityish & there was less freedom. On one of these returns it was a very stormy night. I checked old Billie [in the hold]. At the gang plank I said goodbye to Alice, the porter carried Sally & my bag aboard there was no sleeping accommodation to be had except the top bunk in a 3 berth room. No 2 was getting undressed. “I’ll wait outside till you are in bed,” I said. I felt the cry coming on. I put my bags under the sofa. “If that bag squirms do[n’t] be alarmed there is a parrot in it.” W I N TER 2022
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