Item 45 - Letter from Henry Sidgwick to his mother

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Reports that he has returned to Cambridge, having spent a week in Paris with [G.O.] Trevelyan. States that he is staying with [Roden] Noel, but shall be in Cambridge on Thursday. Claims to have enjoyed his visit, but that he felt 'very dissipated'; his sole employment in the morning 'was to read the play for the evening.and go to the galleries.' Praises French acting and French cooking, as well as Paris itself. Asks her to tell Arthur that he disliked the St. Michael [attributed to Raphael] more than ever. Mentions a trip to the Louvre, and the fact that he finds that he takes much less pleasure than he did in modern French art: the only painting that he liked in the room reserved for it was Greuze's peasant girl. Asks whether she has read Trevelyan's book, Cawnpore, which he believes ought to increase his reputation. Maintains, however, that it retains some of his old defects. Reports that he got her stereo-photograph 'at 113 Rue [Boulevard?] de Sebastopol'; describes being allowed to try out the equipment and 'transported to any part of the world', and says it was 'more like magic than any other part of modern civilisation [he] ever came in the way of'.

Part transcription in Sidgwick, Arthur, and Sidgwick, E. M, 'Henry Sidgwick'. London: Macmillan, 1906, p 128-129.