W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Wonders if Bob suffered from sick headaches when having prostate trouble: does not think Goldie [Dickinson] did. Is going to consult Terence Millin, a doctor who uses diothermic treatment, though will not arrange to be treated without an outside opinion - on Millin himself if possible. May go on to MacDonald, about whom Bessie informed him via Mr Hutchinson, though is not optimistic about orthodox surgery. His mother knows something about it, and seems to be a little worried but not too much. He worries about 'the bits of work' he hasn't finished off: he has been so happy in his friends, particularly recently, that he does not feel he has '"missed" private relationships'. Hasn't seen Julian's pictures yet, nor the Chinese ones [the 1935-1936 International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy], but he and Bob may do both on Thursday. Malcolm Darling is back. Is trying to think of a title for his collected essays [Abinger Harvest]: asks if Bessie or Bob have any suggestions.
Alerts Gaskell to his obituary of Sir Malcolm Darling and the comparisons and contrasts he drew with the career of Leonard Woolf.
Stephens, Ian Melville (1903-1984) newspaper editorPostmarked Dorking; sent to 'Mrs Trevelyan, The Shiffolds, near Dorking. - Has been ringing but the phone is out of over. 'M. [Malcolm?] Darling's address is 7 Montpelier Terrace, S. W. 7', which is near Harrods. Darling rents the house, which has a telephone but doesn't know the number.
Postmarked Abinger Hammer, Dorking. - Is going to the second concert with Malcolm Darling and they will come to see Bessie in the interval.
Harnham, Monument Green, Weybridge. - Branfoot is the head of the medical department of the India Office and recommended inoculation; Forster has just been seen at St Mary's Hospital. Gives details of the procedure and his reaction. Asks Dickinson to forward this letter to Bob [Trevelyan]. Asks what arrangements Dickinson has made about letters - he has had no luck with Cooks in Bombay as they did not buy tickets through them - and money. Goodall will probably be in Calcutta when they arrive. Darling has just lost his mother. The Trevelyans all looked very fit and happy when he saw them recently.
Upper Mall, Lahore (on headed paper for Punjab Club, Lahore; Punjab Club crossed out). - Was very glad to get Trevelyan's letter and hear there was a chance of seeing him here. They hope he will give them 'the honour' of hosting him when he is in Lahore. Knows it might not suit him to 'separate from [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson: unfortunately [Malcolm] Darling lives about three miles away, and they 'do not run to a motor'. But he and his wife will be very glad if Trevelyan can manage to stay with them for all or part of his time: 'Jos Sedley (as you were good enough to call me last time I met you [a reference to Thackeray's Vanity Fair]) will do all he can to show you whatever you think worthy of your notice in Lahore.
Asks Trevelyan jokingly if he is 'an agent of the Public Services Commission or of Mr Montagu [Under-Secretary of State for India]'; he will be welcome 'in any guise', and 'will be able to instruct us 'poor Indians in the up to day methods of the West'.
Trevelyan should send a wire from Bombay if he can stay with them and Stow will meet him on arrival, as their house is 'a new one and not known to all the cab drivers'.
Postmarked Abinger Hammer, addressed to ‘Mrs Trevelyan, The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking’. - Has ‘no luck’: Malcolm Darling and April want to visit on Tuesday 14th, and since April is getting married and ‘wants to see if any of the glass or china here is suitable’, he must let her come. Asks if Friday 17th would work instead. ‘Poor Philip [Bessie’s grandson’ - I did him out of his cups, and you out of 10/-‘. They have found some cups here, and Agnes thought ‘a mug would be nice for him’, but perhaps he doesn’t like mugs.
Is very glad that Trevelyan and Bessie rate the book ["Maurice"?] so highly. Wishes they could talk it over together, as he will not now see them for a long time. Asks him to return the manuscript to Florence Barger in Edinburgh. Presumes the Trevelyans have let their house; the Darlings have asked him to find them one.
Kings College Cambridge [headed notepaper). - Very nice to hear from her; will answer 'at once like a good boy - which I am not always!'. Agrees that Florence [Barger] is 'wonderful'; he 'found her looking out of the way well'. Has also had a 'good year'; his 'great achievement was getting to Italy for six weeks, to stay with American friends'.
Bessie asks about the London LIbrary; is not on the committee and thinks she should write directly to the Secretary and ask whether Bob's life membership entitles her to become an 'ordinary annual member without paying an entrance fee'; thinks the annual subscription is five or six pounds now but is unsure as he has a life membership himself. Would be more difficult for her to join on a reduced subscription; the Carlyle Fund provides for this, but 'the applicant has to prove special need'. It is 'very nice, and very right' that Birkbeck College allows her to borrow from Bob's library [which she has given to them as a memorial].
His book is about Dewas, the Indian state he was in years ago. Malcolm Darling, 'whom Bob liked and stayed with', has much information about it which Forster has worked in with his own letters from there to his mother. Hopes the book will be published next year; it will be called The Hill of Devi, which is the 'little acropolis that stands about Dewas and gives it its name'.
Would like to come and see her in the warmer weather; may be able to find a 'young friend to bring me in a car - they will sometimes'. Earlier this year he got to the Hammer with John Meade, son of a former rector at Abinger, now at the Staff College at Camberley, who is married to 'a grand-daughter of Major Lugard'.