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(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

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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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
13 Nov. 1932

My dear Gerald,

Thanks for your information, printed and otherwise.

Your new neighbourhood near Dulwich and the Crystal Palace used to be rather nice, but has probably been a good deal built over since my time. The train service, which was then very bad, is probably better.

There is great debate here about the medical course, whether it is to be separated from the science Tripos.

It is good of you to ask me to your degree ceremony; but, as you suppose, I have seen enough of such things for one lifetime.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | 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 10.15 p.m. on 13 November.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
29 Dec. 1932

My dear Gerald,

Thanks for your Christmas letter and card: I on my part wish you a happy New Year. Oscar also wrote. I suppose you all met at West Hartlepool. I had to eat three Christmas dinners in succession, but still survive.

You must soon be letting me know how much you calculate you will want for 1933. Do not cut it down too low as I do not want you to live with no margin.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1 [Redirected to:] 97 Clifton Avenue, West Hartlepool | c/o† Durham.

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 1.45 p.m. on 30 December and at London at 1.45 p.m. on 30 December, and has been marked in pencil ‘29/12/32’.

† Sic.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
27 Feb. 1933

My dear Gerald,

I am glad that you are not finding your new studies too dull or difficult, and glad too that you have a prospect of a healthy holiday in the summer. I am sorry that the Cambridge men at St Thomas’s are ‘very bisexual’, but perhaps that is only your handwriting. Your ‘Outline’ I am pleased to see in print {1}, though to me the geology of N’Changa remains obscure.

The Lent races are just over, in which Third Trinity was bumped by Fitzwilliam Hall, a disgrace unknown in history. Such things however do not affect my health, which is good now that I have got rid of a rather long cold.

No, I am not likely to be embarrassed by want of funds when taking my holidays.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq | 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 10.15 p.m. on 27 February.

{1} ‘Outline of the geological history of the N’Changa district, Northern Rhodesia’, published in the Geological Magazine, lxx (1933), 49–57.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
28 March 1933

My dear Gerald,

I am glad to hear that you have got through your Part I and that old age has not yet destroyed your memory.

I shall be here all through the vacation, as they have got me to give the Leslie Stephen Lecture next term, and it is a great toil and trouble and leaves me no time for anything else. Otherwise I would have asked you to come here for a day or two.

The crocuses in the avenue, now over, have been more magnificent than ever before. The rival show at Queens’ is out of action, as they had to cut down the walnut in the middle of the bed.

The bronze Hermes in Whewell’s Court had his body painted black and his face yellow on the last night of term; but it took only a few hours to get the stuff off.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq | 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 10.15 p.m. on 28 March.

(With an envelope and a card.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
26 April 1933

My dear Gerald,

I enclose what will admit you to reserved places in the Senate-House until 4.55 on May 9. But I don’t much think you would be much interested, and as it is to be printed you would find reading it less boring, and I can give you a copy. I should not be able to see much of you, as I naturally have engagements.

Do not try to repay me anything at the end of the year. When that arrives, if you have any-thing over, it can be set off against what you will be wanting for next year. The loan is not causing me any present inconvenience.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq | 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 10.15 p.m. on 26 April. The card is inscribed as follows:

Trinity College, Cambridge

Please admit | Mr Gerald Jackson | to the Senate-House for the Leslie Stephen Lecture on May 9.

A. E. Housman
Member of the Senate.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
27 May 1933

My dear Gerald,

As far as I can make out, I should say it would be more prudent to keep on at your medical course instead of taking up a job at geology which does not promise permanency. But of course you have to reckon with the possibility that I may die, in which case, as I told you, my assistance would come to an end.

I am not going to sign the lecture for anybody, as I do not regard it as one of my good works.

I am glad you are going to the Irish Guards again.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, half torn away, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.15 p.m. on 27 May.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
10 June 1933

My dear Gerald,

I am very glad to hear of your success in the examinations and of your nearness to success in the Iraq post. I hope you will have good weather and enjoy yourself with the Irish Guards. Your news about Rupert’s financial affairs is very vexatious.

I am back here after about three weeks† absence with relations in Worcestershire and Somerset, where I had some pleasant motoring, but I am not well. In the hot weather in the beginning of June I spent a week in a nursing home, because the doctor said my heart was all over the place. It has behaved properly ever since, but I am told not to walk much in the heat, and that deprives me of the exercise on which I regularly depend, and makes me feel weak. On the other hand an oculist to whom I went today about new spectacles says that my eyes are very good.

I feel that I ought to apologise for answering your letter by return of post: it annoys me when people do it to me.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 10.15 p.m. on 10 June, and has been marked in pencil ‘10
June 1933’.

† Sic.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
13 Sept. 1933

My dear Gerald,

Thanks for sending me news of you, and I am glad you had such a pleasant holiday.

I have just returned from France, a good deal worse than I set out. I was attacked by a violent inflammation of the throat, which I believe is a form of influenza, and which leaves its victims very weak and exhausted; and the continuous hot weather was bad for me. I have many letters to answer so I do not write more.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 5 p.m. on 13 September.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
25 Sept. 1933

My dear Gerald,

I am very sorry to hear that you have been so ill as to spend a whole week in bed.

If you come to Cambridge I hope you will lunch with me, and also dine, if you are not obliged to leave before 10.10 p.m., when there is a train which gets you to King’s Cross at 11.24. I am very feeble both in body and mind.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

If you can’t stay to dinner, there is a train at 7.7 with restaurant car, getting to Liverpool Street at 8.26.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 10.15 p.m. on 25 September.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
14 Oct. 1933

My dear Gerald,

Your proposed transfer has advantages, as you describe them, but take care not to overwork yourself and cram in more than you can manage.

My strength comes back very slowly, if at all.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 9.30 p.m. on 14 October.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
30 Nov. 1933

My dear Gerald,

Thanks for the news about you in your letter. For goodness sake do not go starving yourself or depriving yourself of proper amusement: if you do it will react on your work.

I am much better than I have been, but I do not yet walk briskly, and I am rather uncomfortable between waking up and breakfasting.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq | 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 3 p.m. on 30 November.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
18 Jan. 1934

My dear Gerald,

As I suppose you must now be back in London and at work again I enclose cheque {1} for £480.0.0 to see you through this year. I hope you had a good Christmas in the north and found the rest of your family well.

I am going on tolerably, neither worse nor better, I think. The eating and drinking of Christmas does me no harm, and the 52 oysters I consumed on Dec. 31 rather did me good.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | The Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, half torn away, was postmarked at Cambridge at 9 p.m.(?) on 18 January, and has been marked in pencil ‘18.1.34’.

{1} A line has been drawn below this word to draw attention to it. Cf. Nos. 47 and 57.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
22 Jan. 1934

My dear Gerald,

Thanks for your cheque for £25.0.0, though I would rather you had not sent it, as it gives me an uneasy feeling that you may be stinting yourself too much. This formidable term you will require extra strengthening.

It was very bad luck for all of you to get the influenza at Christmas.

When you ask “how many meals the 52 oysters represented” you betray some meanness of conception. They constituted the one meal of supper.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 6 p.m. on 22 January, and has been marked in pencil ‘22
Jan 1934’ and ‘£25 returned’.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
29 May 1934

My dear Gerald,

I am glad that you are enjoying yourself now that you have got actual victims and are not restricted to theory.

There seems to be some want of co-ordination between authorities as to appointments on the Rand. Do not think yourself obliged to jump at any job which offers.

I am not by any means well, though the spring is pleasant and the show of flowers unusually fine.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 6 p.m. on 29 May.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
13 Sept. 1934

My dear Gerald,

I came back yesterday and have received your letter of the 7th, from which I am glad to have good news of you. I had three weeks of almost perfect weather, spent mostly in Alsace and Lor-raine, a part of France quite new to me and well worth seeing. I think the trip has done me some good on the whole, though I caught a cold at the end of it and am feeling rather tired to-day.

My chief ambition all my life has been to be invited to the Colchester Oyster Feast. This has come to pass this year, but my lecture at Cambridge will prevent me from going. Let this be a lesson to my godson that earthly hopes are dust and ashes.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge on 13 September (the time is indistinct).

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
15 Oct. 1934

My dear Gerald,

Cease worrying about expense: I can support you quite well, apart from the fact that the sale of my lecture has been profitable and that my holiday has been less expensive than usual.

I forgot if I told you that on the 22nd you can view the Library, as a member of the University, from 2.30 to 5.30 without a ticket, and can take friends with you.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope, which has been marked in pencil ‘15.10.34’, was postmarked at Cambridge at 6 p.m. on 15 October. The postage stamp has been torn off.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
9 Jan. 1935 {1}

My dear Gerald,

From what you said in your letter of the 19th I gather that you will be back in London on Jan. 1, so I send you enclosed a cheque {2} for £450 for this next year, which I hope will be happy and occupied with interesting work. I hope too that you found the family party at West Hartlepool in good health and spirits. Oscar wrote me a very nice long letter with much information about himself and the rest of you. He seems to be inclined to be looking for a new job.

I have not asked you to stay with me here this year because I have felt hardly comfortable enough to be fit for a guest. On the advice of a friend of mine who is a doctor I have just been a total abstainer for a week, which has only resulted in producing symptoms of gout; so I had better stick to my proper medical adviser.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope bears a 1½d stamp, but there is no postmark or any other mark of posting. It has been marked with the date ‘19 Jan. ’35’, which is wrong.

{1} ‘9 Jan. 1935’ below ‘31 Dec. 1934’, struck through.

{2} A line has been drawn below this word to draw attention to it. Cf. Nos. 41 and 57.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
12 March 1935

My dear Gerald,

As to the point you want my advice on, I think it would be a pity to break off your medical education unless a really good offer in the mining world came along. I am glad that you are getting on satisfactorily and with enjoyment.

This last fortnight I have been rather worse than usual and the doctor has been sending me to bed for week-ends, and this odious weather makes me quite ready to go there. I therefore do not feel that I should ask you to stay here even for two nights, as I cannot be sure of being able to entertain you properly; but if, as you suggest, you came over for the day—including both lunch-eon and dinner I hope—I should be very much pleased to see you, unless some accident should intervene. I have given up the idea of going abroad in this next vacation, and expect to be here all the while.

Thank you for your news about your mother, who I hope is now quite well; and I hope that your ulcerated (a word I deciphered with great doubt and difficulty) throat is healed.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 9.30 p.m. on 12 March.

Transcript

Wednesday perhaps might suit me a trifle better than Thursday, but I shall be very glad to see you either day. Meals offer no difficulty at all.

A. E. H.

Trin. Coll. Camb.
16 March 1935

[Direction:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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A pre-paid 1d. postcard, postmarked at Cambridge at 12.15 p.m. on 16 March.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
5 April 1935

My dear Gerald,

I lose no time in thanking you for your birthday present, which I have lost no time in sampling. It is very good, better than potted char; and you have probably started me on a road which will conduct me to the doom of Henry I.

I thought your walk in Wales very enterprising and judicious, and I am glad you were able to seize the good weather before it degenerated into this. My chief recent experience has been motoring sixty miles to a funeral on Wednesday, through country in many places white with hail.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | 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 7.30 p.m. on 5 April.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

The Evelyn Nursing Home, Trumpington Road, Cambridge
25 June 1935

My dear Gerald,

I have been in here more than a week and my correspondence is in arrears, but I will try to write soon. The trouble is Cheyne-Stokes breathing, which you know all about, and I am getting quiet nights by drugs. The doctor is very complimentary to my pulse, and I expect to go away on Friday.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | Medical School | St Thomas’s Hospital | S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. Silver Jubilee stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 10.15 p.m. on 25 June. The letter is written in pencil, but the direction on the envelope is in ink.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
17 Aug. 1935

My dear Gerald,

I hardly know whether it is more satisfactory that you came out top in the Kenya competition or annoying that you were cheated of your reward. It is not the first time in the history of England and Africa that the Colonial Office has been set at nought by unfaithful servants.

I am rather better than I have been, and hope to be amused by my tour in France. I am going to Dauphiné and Savoy, and leave here on the 26th.

I hope that you will enjoy your ten days with the Irish Guards, and be refreshed by them after all your hard work.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | St Thomas’s Hospital | London S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. Silver Jubilee stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 8 p.m. on 17 August.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
5 Dec. 1935

My dear Gerald,

I am two letters in your debt, and I do not quite know at what point your knowledge of my history breaks off. I am now in ground-floor rooms, B 2 Great Court, which are exceedingly comfortable, and the bathroom, which the College has equipped at its own expense, strikes the beholder dumb with admiration. I have no separate dining-room, but the study is larger than the old one, and so is the bedroom. The rooms are rather dark, and in hot weather there is likely to be some lack of air, as the wistaria interferes with opening the windows wide. The situation is very convenient for Hall, and I have a lecture room in the diagonally opposite corner of the court. My walking is weak and slow, and for getting to sleep I am using diminishing doses of a bromide, supplemented with champagne; but I still wake too early in the morning and pass a disagreeable hour or two. The clock does not annoy me at all.

I am glad to hear of your progress, and will hope for your success in the great examination. If you fail this time I shall nevertheless be sure that you have done your best. I must tell you again not to worry yourself about the expense, which I can quite well support; and I do not want you to go taking some geological post which is not good enough. As your mind runs so much on Fortnum & Mason perhaps you might send me a smoked ox tongue. Space here is rather cramped, and keeping potted fish cool might not be easy.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | St Thomas’s Hospital | London S. E. 1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 11.30 p.m. on 5 December.

(With an envelope, addressed by A. S. F. Gow.)

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Transcript

Evelyn Home | Trumpington Road | Cambridge
Monday Jan. 6

My dear Gerald,

To-day I am so much better that I can ansswer† civilly to letters like yours. Hitherto my in-digestion and nausea have been too disabling. I shall try to send you a cheque for £450, which if I mistake not is the regular ammount† and which I beg you to accept, if so, without demur, as I can quite sustatin† it. My head has sometimes got confused bentween† your family and my nephews.

I have not yet dared to eat anything you sent me from Fortnum & Mason, but I hope it is keeping all right. Brawn is a thing I am very fon† of at Xmas if it keeps properly.
Thanks for your visit.

A. E. Housman

This is sent by the kind offices of Mr. Gow of Trinity

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson esq | St Thomas’s Hospital | London | S.E.1

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The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 8 p.m. on 7 January, and has been marked in pencil, ‘Address in Mr. Gow’s handwriting. Written from Evelyn Nursing Home Cambridge.’ The letter is written very uncertainly in pencil; the direction on the envelope is in ink.

† Sic.

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College | Cambridge
31 Jan. 1936

My dear Gerald,

I ought to have thanked you before, and this letter will hardly catch you before you start on your holiday; but, next to walking, nothing tires me so much as writing, and I tend to fight shy of it. The nurses went into ecstasies over the sweets, and over admiration of your taste, for I told them that I had left the choice to you. Harrod’s provender was also good. The doctor told me to-day that he is not coming again for a week.

I had a letter the other day from Rupert, who seems to be profiting by the retirement of some competitors. I hope that you will enjoy your holiday and that it will freshen you up for the examination as desired.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | St Thomas’s Hospital | London S.E.1 [Redirected to:] Hotel Trantheim | Engleberg | Switzerland [At the top:] Please forward

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The envelope, which bears a 2½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 9 p.m. on 31 January, and has been marked in pencil, ‘Written 3 months before his death on April 30th ’35’.