The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - Thanks his mother for her 'kind letter' and the rucksack, which he will 'find very useful indeed'. He 'suppose[s] one is well past the "mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" [quoting from the first line of the … read more
The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - Thanks his mother for her 'kind letter' and the rucksack, which he will 'find very useful indeed'. He 'suppose[s] one is well past the "mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" [quoting from the first line of the Divina Commedia at fifty', but he does not feel as if he were 'getting old yet'. Saw Charles last week in London, who 'seemed cheerful'. Bessie will see him next week. Is going to London tonight for a dinner 'in honour of [Jean] Marchand, the French painter', who is a friend and will come to the Shiffolds for a visit later 'if he can find the time'. On Saturday Robert and Bessie 'go to Garsington near Oxford, where Philip Morrell and Lady Ottoline live. It is about the only country-house visit we have paid in years. [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson is staying with them for a while.
Is getting on better with his work than he has 'for some time past'. They have had 'some rain, but not enough yet'. Their water has failed, 'not through drought, but because the pipes have got furred up. They are being opened now to see where the stoppage is'. They 'can't have baths, but get along somehow by bringing water from Tanhurst and washing in rainwater'.
Asks if his mother has read 'Sophie Kovalesky's [Sofya Kovalevskaya] memoirs, in French': expects she would like them if not, and he might send them to her when he has finished reading them
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