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With printed message 'I'll not confer with sorrow till to-morrow; But Joy shall have her way This very day'. No message written in by hand. Image of cottage, by Frederick Leighton [sic]. This item may not be from Vishwanath Singh, or it could have originally contained the following item.

Folded sheet, 'Christmas Remembrance' and signature of Vishwanath Singh; on opposite page, image of cottage and hens.

'Greetings. Every Happiness, Every Blessing', signed by Vishwanath Singh.

On headed paper with the arms of Chhatarpur: 'Expecting to hear from you. Having not heard from you for long. I'm anxious'.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - They have just had a 'long letter from Robert' [in the East] but have not yet read it through; expects Elizabeth will also hear from him. Julian becomes ever more talkative. Miss [Charlotte?] Moberly has been to visit. The hounds are coming this morning; does not know whether Julian will get out as it is raining, but he will be able to see them in the yard from the window. She and Sir George are 'greatly distressed' about the 'shocking row' in the House [of Commons, on Home Rule]. Charlie was here on Thursday night; he has gone today with Mary to Alnwick to speak in the place of E[dward] Grey, who cannot leave London. Their children are coming today to see the hounds, then 'sleep and dine' at Wallington. Nora [Trevelyan] came to lunch and to say goodbye as she is leaving; she looked very shaky. Meta [Smith]'s eldest son Reginald is engaged; he is 23 and does not come of age till he is 25, so Meta will not have to leave Goldings till then. Mary is quite well now.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - Encloses his "Recollections" of Donald [Tovey?]. When Molly has read them - perhaps Desmond would like to do so too - asks her to send them back with the other "Reminiscences" he left with her, but there is 'no hurry'. Had difficulty hearing Hisa[o] Ch'ien yesterday, but liked what he could hear; Desmond was 'very good'. Now has sufficient material for the next "Abinger Chronicle"; hopes that Molly will consider writing something for it about "Donald's childhood, or about something quite different'. He and Bessie think that she has a 'very real gift for writing'; it is a pity she lets it '"fust in [her] unused"' [a quotation from "Hamlet"]. Enjoyed seeing her and Desmond very much.

Beacon Hill School, Harting, Petersfield. - Was very glad to show Bessie's friends over the school and hear some news of her. Sees very few people, since the school 'takes up so much thought and time' and she does not dare leave it for too long or go far away. Always remembers the day they first met, since it was also the first time she met Bertie; they all thought then that the world would be better after the war. Supposes no-one will now see a 'cheerful and up-and-coming world' like the one she grew up in; at least they can take care of some young people. Having four children and a school makes her 'feel quite aged'. Asks if they see anything of Bertie these days.

Telegraph House, Harting, Petersfield. - Peter Russell hanks Bessie for the little jackets; was short of these, and since she plans to knit a large shawl was worried about not getting enough done. It is 'very warming and encouraging to have the baby welcomed like this'; Bessie is already being as kind to it as she always has to John and Kate. The children are 'both so grown up' and have been making things for the baby.

Bertrand Russell adds that it would suit him to bring John and Kate to visit on April 9, as long as the baby does not come then. Is not going to Holland this spring, though this was talked of. Is glad she agrees with what he said to the Lords.

Telegraph House, Harting, Petersfield. - Apologises for not thanking her sooner for the face-towels; 'sick-room routine' seemed to take up all her time when she was in bed, and she has been looking after Conrad for the last week which seems 'almost a whole-time job'; though now she is getting used to it and enjoying it. Is pleased because he seems to do better with her than the nurse. Sorry she was 'so distraught' when Bessie visited; the nurse was 'cross and rather negligent' because of something in her private life, but once she was soothed down they got on well. Found her 'stories of East End midwifery' fascinating, but her methods 'not quite adequate for Conrad'. Conrad's additional names are Sebastian, after Bach, and Robert.

Casa Cuseni, Taormina, Sicily. - Julian seems very contented, works all day, talks and laughs a lot in the evening, and they find him 'very charming'. This is an ideal place for him; the house is full of people, all 'very friendly and companionable'. Knows it is hard to guess how people are really feeling, but it seems he is being 'soothed and rested'. She came out here without the doctors' permission and is feeling better than she has for months.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - The day she and Bertie spent at the Shiffolds was 'quite perfect'; apologises for not writing sooner to say so. Hopes to see Bessie in town, but much looks forward to 'the promised repeat expedition' when the days are warmer and longer again. Is most grateful to Bessie for welcoming her so warmly. Asks to be remembered to Miss Jones, who did much to make them happy, and 'the other ladies' as well if they are still there.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Bertie's operation yesterday was successful, according to the doctors, and he has made good progress. There were some complications, so the operation was 'frighteningly serious and took a long time'. He will probably be in hospital for about three weeks. Will give him Bessie's letter to read when the 'haze of drugs and pain' has gone.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Bertie is getting on very well [after his prostate operation]: 'looks like himself again - except painfully thin - and smokes his pipe like billy-o.' Has told him about Bessie's letter, and the excerpt from Dr [Karl] Bluth's letter; he was very pleased. He can only read light thrillers at the moment, but thanks Bessie for offering to send the "Persian Adventure". Will probably be able to go home in a week; their ceilings fell down just before Bertie's operation, so the house is 'full of builders and plastic and dust'. Is sorry to hear that the glare of the sun on the snow pains Bessie's eyes.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Thanks Bessie very much for offering to take in the Russells, but the workmen have finished at the Richmond house. However, Bertie has developed a slight fever, and must stay in hospital until it goes; she feels quite anxious, as the cause is not known, though the doctors insist there is no need to worry.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Bertie's fever seems to have been caused by an infected stitch; he has no temperature tonight for the first time in a week. He had an x-ray to check whether the organs disturbed during his [prostate] operation were causing trouble, but everything was normal. He should be able to go home soon, and they are both very happy.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Apologises for not writing sooner; hopes Bessie saw the notice in the newspaper that Bertie had left hospital. He is very cheerful and getting stronger, though still thin; they walked a little way in Richmond Park yesterday. 'It is heavenly to be together again and alone'.

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - would love to visit on 16 June; Bessie should let them know if that date becomes inconvenient..

41 Queen's Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Glad to hear that Bessie is settled with such a nice couple. Would like to visit, but they are away on the Continent in September; asks if they might visit for a day when they return. The children [Russell's grandchildren?] are here now; they are going to Cornwall to stay with Dora until school starts in September. Mary [Fedden] and Julian must have had a 'glorious holiday' in the sun; the Russells were in luck to have the sun shine on them in 'that lovely azalea wood' where they walked with Bessie in May or June.

Newspaper cuttings, sent to Trevelyan by Durrant's Press Cuttings agency, from the "Sunday Times" [by Desmond MacCarthy] and "Listener" [also reviews "A Harp with a Thousand Strings", compiled by Hsiao Chi'en].

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - He is recovering from his illness. There has been great anxiety about Meta [Smith]'s eldest boy [Cyril], who has been 'fearfully ill at Eton with pneumonia'; Meta has been ill too, and now her husband, who has 'very delicate health' has had a dangerous attack of the same illness.

West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking. - Tells Bessie to 'keep the Boswell for Beethovenian cycles'; is glad that Bob is reading aloud from it. Pleased they had 'such a nice visit from [their grandson] Philip. I expect and hope that he cried on the chord of C because a chord is too much of a good thing at once, whereas a scale is just a lot of nothings-at-all in a row, and he could deal with them severally'.

Asks if she has heard how Hsiao Chen is; he wrote to Forster after Dr Bluth took him for an x-ray, and 'was hoping to avoid an operation'. Afraid Margaret's operation 'though not making her worse, did not do her any good'; does not know what arrangements Florence [Barger, her sister] is making for her. Understands that 'Evert and his Molly [Mollie Sinton, who married Evert Barger in Jan 1944]' are being very helpful.

His mother is 'fairly well and sends love'. Forster fears they have 'now left it too late and date in the year' for Bessie to visit; looks forward to coming to see her and Bob at the Shiffolds. Now has a copy of Trilling's monograph', and could lend it to her if she likes. It is 'an intelligent but almost overwhelmingly serious piece of work. It praises me for my seriousness; then censures me for my lack of seriousness... but when summing up it suggest that my very absence of seriousness may imply a seriousness far more serious than superficial seriousness'. Was 'rather difficult to know how to thank the author', but he is 'pleased with the book, and tried to say so'. His mother 'cannot read it for nuts [?]'. Has had 'several letters from America, and some tins of food'.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Meant to answer Bessie's 'kind letter' before, but 'these are paralysing days, and it is impossible to write with one's old gaiety, nor has one time to create a new sort'. Went to the London Library the morning after the bombing, and 'saw Carlyle's head stricken from his shoulders, and the theological section ruining [?] through the ceiling of the Reading Room'; wonders whether 'poor Bob has looked in'. Meant to 'do half a days salvaging there, but had to go numbering up all my aunts in Putney. All were intact'. Now he is back home, 'combatting a sore throat and cough with prudence and success'; would like to come over next month, and perhaps as the evenings get lighter she will get to visit them.

Should have 'taken chair for Hsiao Chien on Tuesday', and is disappointed that he cannot; has not seen him recently, but has 'been blessed with an American charmer [William Roerick], a friend of Christopher Isherwood, who has now gone off to Africa'. He was acting in This is the Army [by Irving Berlin], perhaps not known to Bessie 'even by name!', and took Forster a few times to the Churchill Club [at Ashburnham House]. There was a '"musical brains trust" there , Ralph V[aughan] W[illiams], acquitting himself very well, Malcolm Sargent - glib, Wm Walton smartibootified, and Alan Rawsthorne a little drunk'.

Thanks Bessie for the 'cutting for [the National Council for? Civil Liberties'; thinks they are 'a little nervous of adding education to their activities'. His mother seems fairly well, and sends love. 'Bob (policeman) [Buckingham] has been over here mending pokers, window sashes etc. He has had a grim time during the raids'; Forster hears '(from another source) that many more planes come over than we are allowed to know'. Hopes the news of [her daughter in law?] Ursula and family is good.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Is signing the card 'After some indecision... with a slight modification of its text'; though there are 'some weighty arguments against it', he feels it is 'a good thing to testify to the possession of compassion and a heart, when one has or things one has them. Everyone is or is pretending to be so hard'.

After he visited Bessie, 'a cloud, then no bigger than a man's hand, turned into the shape of an aeroplane', and now it really seems he will fly to India in ten days for a [P.E.N. ] conference of writers at Jaipur. Can 'hardly believe it, and of course there may be last minute hitches'. Hsiao Ch'ien has lent him a 'wonderful cane suitcase', which he can 'carry with one finger' when empty. Is only meant to be away for two months, and the household 'hopes to limp through' in his absence, with the help of Florence [Barger], Aunt Rosalie and others. Agnes [Dowland] 'has been very sweet about it, her only objection being that I am sure to crash'.

His only companion will be Ould, the secretary of P.E.N., who is 'pleasant and easy to get on with'; they hope to fly via Karachi to Delhi, where Forster will stay with friends [including Ahmed Ali], then to Jaipur for the conference, then he thinks to Calcutta and Bombay. He may of course 'be turned off the plane at the last moment if a V.I.P. (official phrase for Very Important Person) wants my seat'. Looks forward to going, 'despite the unhappiness and the politics which I am certain to find there'; will be 'such a change', though he fears he will be 'in a daze for at least a fortnight, and lose Chi'en's suitcase during it, with all my clothes therein'.

[No signature - incomplete?]

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Bessie ‘cannot imagine how consoling’ her letter was, ‘nor Bob how well placed his flounce. The whole thing was done without my knowledge [the adaptation and broadcast of his story The Eternal Moment], and the first news he had of it was ‘the ghastly sketch in the Radio Times’. As she may imagine, ‘rows are in progress’: with his publishers, who gave permission without consulting him, as they are bound to do by the terms of the contract; and with the producer [Howard Rose] ‘for his discourtesy in ignoring me, and for supposing that an author doesn’t know anything [crossed through] can’t help over his own book’.

The contrast between ‘this insensitive hack’ and Leonard Cottrell, producer of The Celestial Omnibus, is ‘extraordinary’; Cottrell consulted him throughout, and invited him to Manchester for the rehearsal. Will let her see the letters if she likes. Is ‘taking it all to the Society of Authors’, and then will ‘ask for an interview with someone in the B.B.C., as this sort of thing must be stopped’. Notes that they acted legally [in obtaining permission from his publishers].

Looks forward to visiting soon. The cold has been ‘terrible’, and they are ‘still not feeling the better for it’. Chi’en was ‘nice’, but Forster criticises his English: ‘I once ventured to Chi’en that his lectures were becoming difficult to follow. He beamed and continues to deteriorate. Something is wrong with the Chinese after all, I fancy’. Went to Cambridge last week ‘to speak to Indians’; did not see Bertie [Bertrand Russell], but his lectures ‘continue a huge success, and the other dons are most critical: - jealousy partly, partly the uneasy knowledge that he upholds humanism in a community which has betrayed it’. His mother sends her love.

W[est] H[ackhurst] (Postmarked Abinger Hammer, addressed to ‘Mrs Trevelyan, The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking’) . - Thanks Bessie and Bob for their 'kind letters' and for [Hasan Shahid] Suhrawardy's address; thinks he only met Suhrawardy once, at the Shiffolds. Expects to stay in Calcutta, probably in November.

Now looks as if he leave London on Thursday for an 'airport near Poole. All very odd'. Is 'looking forward to it - with occasional tremors'. Has 'been inoculated against 3 sorts of typhoid, cholera, smallpox', and Chi'en has lent him 'a lovely light suitcase'; asks if he has mentioned that before. Sends love, and says that air-letter is best if she writes [to India].

A postscript in another hand gives Forster's address to the beginning of December as c/o Thomas Cook, Queensway, New Delhi.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Does not know Binjori's [Abdul Rahman Bijnori?] works as he ought to, and does not feel able to take the chair; wishes Trevelyan would do it himself. Suggests asking someone from the East such as Narayana Menon, though perhaps he is too little known. Discusses [Elizabeth] Daryush's poems. George Thomson should have organised the [Apostles'] Dinner, but is going into hospital. Took tea with Chi'en [Xiao Qian]. Agrees that Silvia S. [Sylvia Sprigge?] is now far away.

Montepulciano (Prov. di Siena). - Has had news from Elsa Dallolio of I Tatti, who paid her first visit there on B.B. [Berenson]'s seventieth birthday: Mary [Berenson] dined and seemed well; his own opinion is that she is getting better but also grows intolerant of everything going 'against either her hopes or her prejudices'. Elizabeth is amazed at her fluctuations in health. However there is something 'big' in her so that those with her must 'feel the benefit of her greatness' even when sharing her life has inconveniences. B.B. was very healthy, but a month of life at I Tatti at the height of the season in Florence has tired him. Mary is due to go to Vienna soon, then B.B. and Nicky [Mariano] leave for Venice; he is tempted to join them there but put off by the heat. The music at Florence has been mixed: began with hearing [Adolf] Busch's rehearsals of the Brandenburg concerto and was very taken buy the performance, though he regretted the choice of the 'modern' piano over the clavichord despite Serkin's beautiful performance). The Weingartner performance of [Beethoven's] ninth symphony was uneven. Was sorry not to hear "Norma"; found Serafin's conducting of some other Italian vocal pieces lacking delicacy; Bruno Walter gave a good performance of [Mozart's] "Seraglio", an uneven one of Mozart's "Requiem", and a difficult Mozart concerto at Palazzo Vecchio. Saw Gluck's "Alceste" on an immense scale in the Boboli gardens. [John] Walker is here again and settled in Rome: B.B. is worried that he will be distracted by 'too many girls and women'. Hopes he will see Trevelyan at the Consuma in August, where he will go to allow Nicky to take her holiday in Sorrento. Hopes Bessie Trevelyan is doing well after her operation.

King's Coll. Cambridge [headed notepaper]. - 'Delighted' that Friday 3rd December suits her for him to visit, 'What luck for me!'. Suggests coming on an early afternoon train from London; sees there is one which reaches Ockley at 2.13. Thought of suggesting himself for lunch at the Meades [Lionel Meade, rector of Abinger Hammer, and his wife?] on Saturday, then 'going on to the Hammer to see Bone and arrange about the felling of some trees in the wood' if he can. Will be at 9 Arlington Park Mansions from Wednesday to Friday; until Wednesday his 'Movements... err on the side of uncertainty (Other people's fault of course!)'.

Agnes was 'only paying a visit to Florence "as a lady"', and has now returned to her own flat; she seems to have enjoyed herself and 'laments' leaving '"just as she was finding out where all the things were kept"'. Currently, Florence is thinking of keeping on as she is until Harriet [her old maid] returns, as she may do one day. Thinks Florence would now be 'very pleased' to hear from Bessie about her news; she has 'taken up all her old employments [after the death of her sister]'.

Sends love to Bob and Bessie, is looking forward to next Friday.

Monk's House, Rodmell, Lewes, Sussex. - Would not object to [Hsiao?] Chien using the 'extracts from the letters', and would like to look at the letters themselves 'sometime'. Is usually in London for a day or two a week, and would like to see Bob; as however he 'much prefer[s]' being in the country he 'pack[s] everything' he has to do in so tight that he rarely has time for anything else. Will let Bob know when he might be able to see him, but cannot do next week. Would like to come and see Bob and Bessie at the Shiffolds, but finds it 'very difficult to get away'; will let them know when it may be possible.

Metelliano. - Thanks Trevelyan for his "Collected Poems". Has been invited to translate his brother George's "British History in the Nineteenth Century" into Italian, though it is currently a secret as negotiations are still in progress; is reading the book now and feels the job will be enjoyable, if long and maybe hard. Has also been offered the chance of translating "Pericles", but does not feel prepared to cope with Shakespeare. Hears Mary [Berenson] is preparing herself for a journey to England and taking motor-rides; thinks this is only a psychological improvement, but that is a great deal. Does not yet know whether B.B. [Berenson] is going to Yugoslavia.