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Ivy Holt, Dorking. - He and Helen much distressed to hear of Ida Cresswell's marital difficulties: her husband's affair seems insane, but she is brave and will pull through. Is leaning towards beech trees for Trevelyan's picture; will send some ideas of composition soon: thinks he has the pose of the figures. Has finished the second volume of the "Arabian Nights". Has finished Horne's and Mrs Gibson's pictures. The family is well though Julian is upset not to be able to dig outside because of the weather. They have met a 'very nice curate'. They go to Failand on the 27th and then on to Bruge. Saw Entiknapp [Enticknap].

Hotel de la Place, Veules, Seine Inférieure. - Asks about Trevelyan's new home: Roundhurst sounds 'almost baronial', and Fry does not think it is time for 'another Abbotsbury & mediaeval revival', though a mail coat 'like Mr Chainmail' [in Thomas Love Peacock's "Crotchet Castle"] would suit him. He and Helen are both very happy; they are reading [Flaubert's] "Bouvard & Pécuchet" together and he is reading Wilhelm Meister in French translation. They drank a bottle of wine last night in honour of Trevelyan's letter (cider is their usual drink) and Helen vowed to dive headfirst into the sea if the weather was calm: she did this today to much admiration. It was very hot in Italy, and hard to travel; they have come to France to 'get fat'. Describes their time in Venice, where they both did much work; they then stopped at Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, and Saronno; Fry got to know the Verona and Vicenza artists. Has done a lot of studies, and has started to think about Trevelyan's fan [?]. Is delighted Trevelyan wants to buy his picture ["The Valley of the Seine"] which he thinks the best thing he has done so far. Does not agree about [Thomas Sturge] Moore's "Woodstock Maze". Asks about Pan in Trevelyan's 'fan poem', with a sketch of the god. Is sorry Cyclops has 'escaped' Trevelyan [a reference to Trevelyan's "Polyphemus"?]. Is not sure whether he can take up the invitation to Wallington: may go to Newton [Newton Hall, home of the Widdrington family] to alter some of his portraits there and give some lectures in Newcastle but his plans are vague: depends on how quickly they find a house. Trevelyan must visit them after his trip to Bayreuth.

A paragraph written and signed by Helen Fry in the middle of the letter thanks Trevelyan for his letter and assures him that she and Roger are happy and 'just the same'; she is glad he likes Roger's picture.

His friendship with Roger Fry [presumably written to aid Virginia with her 'Life' of Fry; see also 17/85 and 17/97] in the days when they lived together at 29 Beaufort St between April or May 1895 and the autumn of 1896, when Roger married and Bob moved to Haslemere. Saw little of him before then, and 'knew next to nothing of art and artists', but 'no one could have been kinder in the way he introduced [Bob] to his world', or 'more patient of [Bob's] ignorance'. He was often busy with Extension Lectures on Italian art, and as illustration had 'already collected a great number of photographs' which was much harder then; thinks he had already succeeded D. S. MacColl as the "Athenaeum" magazine's art critic ; he did not therefore have as much time as he wished for painting, but 'worked very rapidly' when he could. He was painting 'several of his best early landscapes' and a few 'perhaps not very successful portraits'. One was of Mrs Widdrington, the 'sister [sic: actually mother] of Sir Edward Grey's wife [Frances]', who was a 'great friend' of Roger's and the mother of Ida Widdrington; Roger had been 'very much in love' with Ida not long before, but 'perhaps wisely, she would not marry him. She was a very vital and amusing girl, who loved hunting, farming and acting' and she and her mother remained friends with Roger for years. After that Roger 'had fallen very much in love, and none too happily, with Kate Kinsella (now Kate Presbitero)'; Bob thinks she 'treated him rather cruelly, not wanting to give him up altogether, and luring him back to her from time to time'. 'Fortunately (or perhaps in the end unfortunately) [because of her mental health problems]' he got to know Helen Coombe while he was living with Bob, and they fell in love with each other. Roger's parents 'strongly disapproved of his becoming an artist' - he told Bob that they had offered him a hundred pounds extra a year 'if he would promise never to paint from the nude', which he 'naturally refused' - and this made him fear they would not be pleased by his choice of wife, so he told them nothing about Helen 'for a long time...' [the rest of the draft is missing].