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West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking. - Thanks Trevelyan for coming to the churchyard [for Forster's mother's funeral] and Bessie for her letters. His aunt [Rosalie Alford] and Florence [Barger] have alternated spending time with him, and tomorrow he is going away, probably to Clouds Hill, opposite T. E. Lawrence's cottage. Agnes [Dowland] and [Henry] Bone, the Forsters' maid and gardener, have been very kind. Is taking Auden's new poem ["For the Time Being?"] and Huxley's new novel ["Time Must Have A Stop"?] to Dorset, though neither immediately attract him: 'The feeling in modern poetry seems so often the same and so dispirited.'

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Very much liked the poem Trevelyan has written about Goldie [Dickinson]: Bessie has given him a copy to keep. He shares the sentiments about Goldie: he was not afraid of death, only distressed by the state of the world as he left it. Forster is glad he has gone, particularly that he did not live to see Japan attack China. Expects Trevelyan will send a copy to May and Hettie [Dickinson's sisters], to whom it will give great pleasure. Is lending his own copy to Florence Barger. Sends greetings to Trevelyan's brother [Sir Charles]; would like to visit him again, and wonders how his plantations coped with the summer. Has just returned from Dorset, and is to 'broadcast about T. E. Lawrence's cottage there.'

35 Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, N.W.3. - Has been reading the abridged 'Golden Bough' and suggests a connection between the myth of Adonis, Attys and Osiris and the existence of primitive wheat in the same area of the Lebanon and Mount Hermon; provides an extract of a chapter on wheat in Professor J. Arthur Thomson's 'Science Old & New'. She has met a Syrian lady, Miss Fareedeh el Akle, who has a school at Brummana; she read the description 'Adonis in Syria', and found the description accurate; this woman had been of service in the campaign in Palestine and Syria and had seen much of Lawrence and had given him lessons in Arabic.

Includes correspondence from T.E. Lawrence re the Lees Knowles Lectureship.

West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking. - Came back yesterday from Dover. Will keep Miss Heisel's address, but probably will not employ her: has 'a few lame dogs' of his own, 'nothing like your pack', and doesn't want to be 'complicated by compassion' in the matter of the shorthand secretary for [T.E.] Lawrence's letters. Is already sending typewriting to 'arthritic Mrs Jones'. Bessie should talk to his mother about Dover and is welcome to borrow the flat in September: he and Ackerley have taken it on till the end of that month. Thinks Bessie, with Miss Simkins with her, would find it possible.

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Very glad she liked the 'Broadcast on T. E. [Lawrence]', which has been 'successful, as my utterances go' and he had 'fan mail' waiting on his return from Norfolk. Had a 'pleasant time' there, partly with the Kennets and partly with the Sprotts; the first part being '"tough" - bathin', sailin' and so on', which he 'quite enjoyed, and the second 'more archaeological'. Saw Binham Abbey; 'the strange modern rival goings on at Walsingham'; Houghton [Hall], built by Sir Robert Walpole, over which the 'present nobb [?] owner [George, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley]' showed them for five shillings each; and Felbrigg Hall, owned by a 'fat young acquaintance' of Forster, Robert Windham Ketton-Cremer so therefore seen for nothing. Got 'so enthusiastic' over sightseeing, that in London he took his Baedeker and 'went round the Royal Tombs in Westminster Abbey'.

Is now at home, 'seeing that the outside of the house gets painted'; asks her to let him know when she returns. Will be 'pleased to make young George's [son of Sir Charles Trevelyan?] acquaintance'; he had been visiting the Kennets and Lady Kennet' was very much on to him as she is to all young and personable men. I don't think she does them much good!'

Expects she is still in the north, but will send this to The Shiffolds since 'it contains nothing of importance except my love'. Is here until Friday, when he is going away for a weekend with the Woolfs; not a good time to go, as he is 'so irritated and bored by Virginia's Three Guineas that I don't know what to do. Such an endless ill-tempered prate, and so badly-written in the true sense of writing. She wants a pill [?] she do'. However, is sure he will be 'charmed and captivated' when he sees her.