20 Hinde House, Hinde Street, Manchester Square, W.1. - Very kind of Bob to send her "Windfalls"; hopes he can 'spare it', since Logan [Pearsall Smith] told her 'it can't be got' but that he had let Bob know she would like it. Enjoys the [essay] "Pleasures", and lists some she would add herself, such as 'the croaking of frogs in the hills.. 'the hot smell of hedge & ditch flowers in the sun... bicycling (with one's feet up) down a long hill'. Would also include 'walking abt London in an air-raid with fine sky effects and tremendous noises' under Bob's 'Fearful Pleasures' heading, as '[t]his is exhilarating'. The book is the kind she likes. Hopes Bob has now recovered from 'crossing the road amid traffic... too fearful a pleasure'. Hears of him occasionally from the Lynds. Is reading George's "[English] Social History", and finding it 'absorbing'; wishes he would publish the 'pre-Chaucer part soon'.
Contains "Wilfred Scawen Blunt's Garden", by Alfred Lambart; "Old Surrey Saws" by Max Beerbohm; "Childhood Memoirs (1)" by Sarah Shorey Gill, with an introductory note to her grand-daughter Polly; "Exile" by M. Poyntz-Wright; "Between Trains" by S.S. [Sylvia Sprigge]; and a poem, "Bad Weather", by Sylvia Lynd.
5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, N.W.3. - Thanks Bob for the 'fine new edition of "Windfalls"'; wishes she lived nearer so that she could visit easily and 'talk about it by the fire". They still have a fire in Cambridge, and they would love it if Bob visited for tea some time. Robert is 'no better', but fortunately no worse either; she has had a bout of high blood pressure and is 'feeling particularly blind & lame'. They both send their regards to Bessie. Adds in a postscript that she has been translated into Spanish in an anthology, "La Poesia Inglesa". Bob's poem in "Time and Tide" recently was very fine.
2 Hampstead Hill Gardens, Rosslyn Hill, N.W.3. - He and his wife thank the Trevelyans for the Christmas greetings, and "From the Shiffolds". They hope to see Trevelyan here again next time he visits his 'friend nearby' [Robert Lynd and wife Sylvia]; Margery sends best wishes to Bessie.
Thanks Bob for lending her his 'wholly delightful book' ["Windfalls"]: she has read every essay with 'exquisite pleasure', and re-read many of them. Wishes he could bring out a larger edition so she could give it to all her friends for Christmas; it is a 'calamity' there are so few copies. Much enjoyed reading Desmond MacCarthy's piece on Robert, and heard a 'most appreciative eulogy from Max' [Beerbohm?] whom she saw at the Lynds recently; he 'particularly admired the essay on Poetry and Prose'. Hopes Bob does not mind her lending the book to [Gerd?] Wohlgemuth, who 'also enjoyed every word'; he would have liked to take it on his honeymoon but she would not let him as she was sure Bob would want it back; returns it now. Does indeed like Mrs Wohlgemuth, as she is now, and thinks it is an 'admirable union'; they were both pleased Bob came here to meet them the other day.
5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, N.W.3. / Tillies Cottage, Forest Green, Dorking. - Asks how things are at the Shiffolds. She and her husband are coming down tomorrow for the weekend, and for a few weekends after than. Sends 'belated thanks' for the 'lovely Christmas book' ["From the Shiffolds"]; she got ill before she acknowledged it. While recovering last week she asked Robert to find it; he was unable to but found Bob's [translation of] Aeschylus' "Oresteia", so she read that instead. Hopes that the Trevelyans are both well and 'haven't had anything like the bedevilments this winter' that the Lynds have had.
5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, N.W.3. - Thanks Bob for his Leopardi poems [in this year's "From the Shiffolds"]: this is '[j]ust the weather to think of the coldness of having to die'. Hopes to see another spring, and that Bob also feels that way. Regrets that 'dear Olive [Heseltine]' has died; glad that she bought her last book and kept her last letters. Is 'pretending, if not actually hoping' to go and stay with Florence and Max [Beerbohm, in Rapallo] in May, and may be 'game for anything' if she gets through the winter. Is hoping to meet Walter de la Mare at the Rostrevor Hamilton's house tomorrow at tea. Adds a post-script saying that since Bob sent her two copies of his book, she will give one to de la Mare tomorrow: 'poets are the best audience, poets can find'. The Rostrevor Hamiltons are now at Swan House, Chiswick, which was once the Squires'. Very 'silly' of Julian and Ursula to 'sever [divorce] instead of accumulating memories'; these may 'make one sadder but they stretch ones range of feeling'.
5, Keats Grove, Hampstead, N. W. 3. - Thanks Trevelyan for the book of poems; asks if there is a new end to the 'Epistle to P. E. T' [Philip Erasmus Trevelyan, i.e. "Epistle to my Grandson"].
Heald, Coniston, Lancashire. - Sorry to have missed seeing Trevelyan in London: got his telegram [see 5/178] too late. Had good visit to town, then went to Ipswich, Felixstowe, and Lowestoft when 'things began to get a bit wrong'; on returning home was 'overhauled' and looks to need another operation. Sends his love to the Lynds; just missed seeing Robert in town; has known them about forty years. Would like to see the poaching book. Reassures Trevelyan that he will write poetry again, and wishes him good luck with the reminiscences.
5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, NW3 . - Thanks Bob for the 'lovely poems' [in this year's "From the Shiffolds"], especially the memorial to [Goldsworthy] Lowes Dickinson. Hopes Bob will visit the Lynds soon. Sends new year's greetings to the Trevelyans from 'Sylvain of Fossewood [?] & his Gt Grandparents strictly Honorary & Infatuated'.
5 Keats Grove, Hampstead, NW3 / Tillies Cottage, Forest Green, Dorking. - Thanks Bob for the 'delightful poems' [this year's "From the Shiffolds"]: the first poem beautifully 'mingles the landscape with the mythology' and makes her see the 'steep hill up to the Shiffolds in summer. Petronius 8 makes her think of her 'little house covered with Horsham stone'; cries to think she will never bake scones on the fire there as the cottage has been sold. If she manages to shake off her influenza, she will go next week to see 'Hoad the carter dismantling it & carrying everything away', but thinks she will probably leave it to chance. There has been an 'evil spell on the Lynds for the last two years'. Addresses Bob as 'dear poet' as she bids him goodbye and asks him to visit. Hopes the Lynds will 'come & look at Forest Green again'. Robert seems 'better at last' and has begun treatment with a masseur.
Contains: poem, "The Flycatcher", by Sylvia Lynd; "Sicily" by S. S. [Sylvia Sprigge]; "Intellectual Conversation" by Arthur Waley, which mentions Maynard [Keynes], Francis [Birrell], Hugh Dalton, Roger Fry, Gerald [Shove] and Sebastian [Sprott]; sketch in memory of Edmund [not Edward, as on cover] Gosse by Max Beerbohm; poem, "Lying Among the Yellow Flowers", by Kenneth Hopkins; poem, "Complaint", by Diana Lodge.