Item 24 - Letter from H.G. Dakyns to Nora Sidgwick, with note about Henry Sidgwick's letters

2 docs

Letter [24/1], saying that he is sending Nora by parcel post today the corrected copies of Henry's letters 'I to LXXVIII', and hopes to get the remainder from Miss Dickens [his typist?] that week or the following week. Explains that he sends a typewritten copy and a carbon duplicate [of each letter], and suggests that Arthur might prefer the latter format. Also explains the corrections that he has made. Adds that he has decided to have almost all of Henrys's Initial [Society] papers typed for his own 'private delectation', and undertakes to send a copy each to Nora and Arthur. States that he looks forward to seeing her 'on the 26th', when he intends coming up 'to the meeting' and to spend the night with the Peiles, but fears that he may be prevented from going to the Society for Psychical Research meeting. Hopes that she is well, and remarks that she must be very tired as the term draws to an end. Refers to 'Henry's watchword - fier', and asks where he got it.

MS explanatory note [24/2] in relation to correspondence between Dakyns and Henry Sidgwick. Refers to letters which he sent to Henry at Terling, and to their arrangement. Notes that Henry rarely dated his earlier letters, but says that he does not despair of getting them 'into a more exact chronological order', having spoken to Arthur and having recovered 'the threads of internal evidence.' Speaks of Henry's 'passing moods' of troubled thought and depression, and believes that he was most conscious of 'a sense of the beauty and richness and joy of life....'

ADD.MS.c/96/4 - Typewritten papers, entitled 'Initial Society Papers', probably the copy which Dakyns says in this letter he will have sent to Nora Sidgwick.