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(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
15 Oct. 1930

My dear Gerald,

I am sorry that you do not expect to come here this term, and so will Nicholas be, to whom I mentioned that you were to be expected. Would you be able, and would it be worth your while, to pay me a visit for a week-end? I seem to remember that your week-ends in term time are very short.

It is great good news that the Company has made you a grant, and you ought to be pleased with yourself.

I did not know that your College was a college to the extent that it could be lived in; but as it is, I should think you would find it better than being by yourself.

The Virginia creeper which you ask after is quite at its best at present in St John’s, but both there and in Trinity a good deal of it has been removed in the last year or two to make room for other things.

Advice from a godfather. Don’t add ‘M.A.’ in addressing a letter. I don’t know why, but it is not the custom. Don’t say ‘I will have to work’ when you mean ‘I shall’. But I never could teach you your catechism.

Your affectionate though inefficient godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | Dept. of Geology | Royal School of Mines | South Kensington | S. W. 7

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.15 p.m. on 15 October, and has been marked in pencil ‘15.10.30.’

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
22 Oct. 1930

My dear Gerald,

You don’t mention your Cambridge address, but I hope you will come and see me soon. For instance on Sunday morning I am pretty sure to be in.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | Dept. of Geology | Royal School of Mines | S. W. 7

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 9.15 a.m. on 23 October, and has some rough notes of names and engagements on the back.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
21 Sept. 1931

My dear Gerald,

I am sorry that you have been too smart for me over your College account, especially as you are apparently going to starve for want of a job.

I only know Dinard by sight, from the opposite side of the bay. In Scotland I found fine weather at last, and all the eight days I spent there were good. The scenery was just what you would expect Scotch mountains and lochs to be, and an artist who was there was full of admiration for the atmospheric effects. I came back at the end of August and am spending this month working, as I have already had more than my usual amount of holiday this year.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | Dept. of Geology | Royal School of Mines | South Kensington | S. W. 7

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.[1]5 p.m. on 21 September, and has been marked in pencil ‘21 September 1931’.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
6 April 1932

My dear Gerald,

When I saw your envelope with its foreign stamps and Spanish names I thought you might have got a job in Argentina; but I see it is Spain and not a job. However I hope you have been getting useful experience. Perhaps I should have been wise to pay Spain a visit this spring, which I have often vaguely thought of doing; but I had such luck with my weather abroad last Easter that I felt sure I could not repeat it. Having been very busy I have put off answering your letter till I daresay you have already started for home; so it will be safest to send it through Rupert. I was glad to have the report of your paper, read before the Geological Society {1}. The vocabulary, like the English array at Bannockburn, was “gay yet fearful to behold.”

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | c/ Rupert Jackson Esq. M.D. | 97 Clifton Avenue | West Hartlepool [Redirected to:] Vista Alegre 9 | Minas de Rio Tinto | Huelva Spain [Redirected again to:] Dept of Geology | Royal School of Mines | S. Kensington | London S.W.7

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The envelope, which bears a 1d. stamp and a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 3 p.m. on 6 April, at West Hartlepool, Co. Durham, at 11.30 a.m. on 7 April, and at Minas de Riotinto, Huelva, on 13 April. On the back is written, in an unidentified hand, ‘Hope you are well | RU’ (i.e. Rupert).

{1} Probably ‘The geology of the N’Changa district of Northern Rhodesia’, published in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, lxxxviii (1932), 443–515.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
30 Sept. 1932

My dear Gerald,

I am glad to have your paper, though what it chiefly teaches me is the wealth of the English language, and my ignorance of it.

Unless the effects of Ottawa are even worse than the Liberals hope that they will be, I ought to be able to finance you. You should let me have a rough—quite rough—estimate of what you are likely to require per annum, and how soon.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | Royal School of Mines | South Kensington | S. W. 7 [Redirected to:] 2nd BATTALION GRENADIER GUARDS | WELLINGTON BARRACKS | S.W.1.

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.15 p.m. on 30 September and at Kensington, S.W.1, at 1.15 a.m.(?) on 1 October. It has been marked in pencil ‘30.9.32’ and, on the back, ‘Ether’.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
20 Oct. 1932

My dear Gerald,

It will be best for you to write to me at the beginning of each year telling me as well as you can what you require until the next; and this, if present circumstances do not become worse, I shall be able to send you annually. But, if I die, this will not continue. I am just making a will, in which I am leaving you three hundred pounds, and directing that my debts due from you to me at the time of my death are to be forgiven you.

I am glad that you are enjoying your new line of study; and as you do, I cannot think of anything to which you should apply yourself in preference.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | Royal School of Mines | South Kensington | S. W. 7 [Redirected to:] MEDICAL SCHOOL | ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL | S.E.1.

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 12.15 p.m. on 20 October and at S. Kensington, S.W.7, at 11.30 a.m. on the 21st.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
19 Sept. 1929

My dear Gerald,

I am extremely sorry that this vexatious trouble has come upon you. I hope you will find at the Royal School of Mines all that you require, and I suppose there is no doubt that you will. They say there is no cloud without a silver lining, and we may hope that it will not be two years, as it would have been, before you sit again at the table in our Combination Room.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | c/ R. W. P. Jackson Esq. M.D. | 97 Clifton Avenue | West Hartlepool [Redirected:] c/o Cook | Springfield

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.15 p.m. on 19 September.