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Il Frullino, Via Camerata, Florence:- Is 'settled here very comfortably' and will certainly stay 'well into January', when he may 'perhaps go on to Ravello'. Mrs Costelloe is still here, though will go to England soon; nobody else is here but [Bernard] Berenson at present. Sees few people but the Rosses; Mrs Ross was pleased Robert's parents found her book 'interesting'. She is 'very amusing and gives wonderful lunches, having a genius for [a] cook'; Robert likes 'the old boy [Henry Ross' too]'. There is also Janet Ross's niece, Miss [Lina] Duff Gordon, whom he thinks he told his mother about last year. She is 'a great beauty, and very charming though a trifle dull', and Robert 'should have been bound to fall in love long ago' if he had been 'given that way'; but his mother 'need not be afraid'.

Has done some work recently, mainly on his 'book of translations'; gives his translation of Catullus 34. Acknowledges that this does not have 'the charming simplicity of the original', but doesn't 'think it half bad' metrically; must 'try and do something... like it' of his own. Is 'beginning at the play [his Cecilia Gonzaga?] again'. Hopes his mother is having a good winter, and that 'Papa will have some fun among the pheasants'. The weather here is 'quite cold... but fine'. Berenson says they should send [the picture of Sir George Trevelyan by Holl, see 46/64] to Dyers of Mount Street, as Agnews 'would only send it to somewhere of the kind and charge more' and 'Dyers are quite safe'.

The 'danger of the mutilation of Florence has been postponed but not averted'; fears 'they want to pull down a lot in order to make a grand modern street up to the Ponte Vecchio, and then put a grand new iron bridge in its stead, which may the Gods, or rather the Saints avert'.

3 Hare Court, Inner Temple:- Is setting off tomorrow morning 'by the train de luxe', and will reach Florence on Friday evening; his address will be c/o B[ernard] Berenson, Via Camerata. Expects he will stay there over Christmas. Went to tea with Mrs [Helen] Fry last Sunday: she was 'still better than last time', and will 'leave Roehampton quite soon, possibly has already'. Will see Roger Fry this afternoon at Fry's lecture. Mrs Russell Barrington and her 'majority on the committee have behave[d] abominably to him in the matter of payment'; his solicitors say he has an 'absolutely safe case' if he choose to fight it but he 'does not want to have a row'.

Is glad his mother 'liked the wood-cuts'; thinks the 'round Shannons were the best on the whole' and bought two of them, the Pegasus and the Diver. Some of Robert's friend [T.S.] Moore's Bacchantes and Centaurs and his Wordworths [illustrations] were 'very charming in quite another way, and of course he is not so accomplished an engraver as the others'.

[Robert] Binyon, who 'should know as well as anyone' recommends Dyer of Mount Street, who 'looks after the National Gallery pictures' to 'varnish the Holl'. Supposes his parents are 'sure it wants varnishing': pictures are 'so often over-varnished now', but Binyon says Dyer 'would be quite certain not to over varnish it'. Will however ask '[G. L.] Dickinson's father' whom he will see later today and 'ought to know best, as he is a good portrait painter of long experience'; Robert also thinks he 'knew Holl himself'. Will let her know in a few days.

Encloses a review [of his book Mallow and Asphodel] from the Speaker, which is 'quite favorable'; is 'still waiting for a real criticism, favorable or the opposite', but supposes he is 'asking too much of Reviewers'. Hopes his parents are well.

Six letters between Leggatt Brothers of London and John Burnaby from 1922, two letters from C. Gerald Agnew to A. S. F. Gow dated 1926, a report to Council from Gow dated May 25, 1929 enclosing letters from Morland Agnew, C. Gerald Agnew, A. Dyer of William Dyer & Sons, and R. Langton Douglas, with two further letters from Morland Agnew and A. Daniel dated July 1929. Accompanied by a sheet of information about the portrait.