Glad to get Julian's telegraph [from Egypt] yesterday. One word could not be made out: in the description of his pastimes as 'painting, goffinping, and dancing', should the second word be golfing, 'driving your ball over the back of the Sphinx, or getting it bunkered between its paws?'. Expects the weather is hotter than here: today is the first day of spring weather, but 'everything is backward', with no sign of bluebells and cuckoos and 'the very primroses smaller than usual'. Has just had his new book published, and sent it to Ursula; Julian knows almost all of the contents; has become 'un vrai prosateur', as 'Flaubert used to call himself', writing 'nothing but Essays': has just finished one 'on (or rather against) books'. His Simple Pleasures was recently broadcast on the [BBC] Forces Programme; it was 'really rather awful, as they tried to poetize [sic] it, though [he] had meant it to be flatter-than-pancake prose', but he got his five guineas. Tom and Marie [Sturge Moore] are here - Marie unwell in bed but recovering - Tet Htoot is also here for a few days, as 'he too was unwell and wanted cheering up'. Bessie seems quite well, though will go to London on Tuesday to see [Dr Karl] Bluth. Supposes he should write Julian a 'Horatian verse Epistle', but cannot compose it in time for this post; if he does write one will have to send it to Julian on his return; it will 'of course be largely about Egypt, Cleopatra, Amenophis [Amenhotep] and Ramesis, but not Tutenkamen [Tutankhamun]' whom he does not approve of, though 'his predecessor Aknaton [Akhenaten] was an interesting failure'. Hopes Julian will ensure that the 'Memnon statue is camouflaged very carefully'. Seems a pity that now the Nile has only two mouths, lists the names of the seven which 'every school-boy once knew'. Is reading [Lytton] Strachey's Queen Victoria aloud, which is 'really very amusing'; amazing how much easier it is to read a well-written book aloud than a badly-written one. Tet Htoot is reading the first volume of Gibbon, while he himself reads the second; is just coming to the chapter on the Christians, where he knows 'one will have some fun, especially in the notes'. Went with John Luce, with 'a party of Waleys, Joan and Polly [Allen] etc' to quite a good production of the Magic Flute at Sadler's Wells, for which they 'tried, not very successfully, to make the scenery Egyptian'. John is being sent abroad next week, but does not know where; they hope his father [Gordon] is coming home. Mossot [sic: Julian's cat Maszat] has had just one kitten, 'a sad falling off'; is told all cats in Egypt are mummified as divine.
[Archibald] Wavell 'must have been thinking of Procopius's history of the Gothic wars in Italy'; Belisarius 'his hero, was a great general' who 'like Wavell [drove] the Vandals out of Africa and Carthage'. Has never read Procopius, who was a friend of Belisarius, but believes he was 'a very good historian'; the phrase Julian quotes may be there. There is 'an account of it all in Gibbon ["Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"] and in [Thomas] Hodgkin's history ["Italy and her Invaders"]. Also hears that [Robert] Graves, the poet, has written 'a very good historical novel about Belisarius', which he expects Wavell has read. Might get the 1886 translation of Procopius by A[ubrey] Stewart, listed in the London Library catalogue, and try to find the phrase, or send the book to Julian if he 'would take care of it'; meanwhile, he will look in Gibbon and Hodgkin. Bessie has gone to London today and will see Ursula.
Westroad Corner, Cambridge - Shares a reference from Gibbon about the sacrifice of a goat which was also worshipped; Miles has a post at Cambridge.
Accompanied by an envelope redirected from Queen Anne's Mansions to Hotel Lutetia, Boulevard Raspail, Paris.
Interlacken [sic: Interlaken]. - Glad everyone 'got home uninjured after the hunt'. Caroline is very well and enjoying their tour, which is very comfortable; they started at Lausanne, went to Les Avants, and go on to Mürren. Height above sea level given for each place. They were 'swindled' out of a small amount at Lausanne, and 'shockingly' at Paris, but everything is 'honest and hearty' in Switzerland. Is enjoying re-reading Gibbon and Plautus's Epidicus
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Glad to hear that Robert has landed safely; 'awful to read' of the passengers on the cross-Channel boats kept at sea all night by bad weather; asks 'is even Assisi worth such a price?'. Would love to see Arezzo again and wants to know what the hotel was like; it used to be spoken of as the 'best hotel between Florence and Rome', before Brufani [at Perugia], and he thinks his parents and sister were 'the first names in the hotel book'. Notes what Robert says about [Samuel Butler's] "Fair Haven" and will see to it. Cannot 'manage Conrad as a novelist', nor Chesterton as an essayist. has been reading about the Phalaris controversy with great 'interest and amusement'; George gave him a copy of Attenbury's 1698 book a while ago, and he got Bentley's "Phalaris" as a prize at Harrow; they bear out everything that [Thomas] Macaulay says. Good to be 'in company with so strong and able a man as Bentley', whatever the topic; he is an even greater controversialist than Newman, Porson, Gibbon or Pascal.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Bessy read them Robert's account of the Maharajah at breakfast, and Sir George received the letter from Benares [Varanasi]; he himself was there, but probably only between trains; Warren Hastings was there longer and liked it less. Has a vague recollection of a ghaut [ghat], a little like Robert's postcards. That was fifty years ago and much has changed; today is Gladstone's birthday, and it says much about the man that he is remembered 'half a generation after his death'. Sorry that [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson was so ill; hopes he is 'permanently right again' now. In the future, Robert will be glad to have got to know a 'great native household' [that of the Maharajah of Chhatapur], rather than going to Burma; he himself prefers his 'thorough, and rather dearly-earned knowledge of Calcutta' than to have seen more, 'even more romantic objects'. Their journey south on Friday was 'arduous' but went well; Julian behaved perfectly and enjoyed it very much. Is reading the later volume of Gibbon, and more or less agrees with Robert that 'they are a stately bridge between the ancient and the modern world'; keeps thinking what a 'bright man of the world' Gibbon was.
2 Garrick's Villa, Hampton, Middlesex. - Is glad that Bessie will be at the Shiffolds when he visits; asks if he can stay till Tuesday or Wednesday; they will certainly play chess. Is bringing something to read aloud to Bessie which he hopes will make her laugh. Expects he will miss 'the silent Miss Simpkins'. Asks if the Wedgwoods [Ralph and Iris] are at home. Dining with George [Trevelyan] last night, who was 'brisk' like Henry Sidgwick as remembered by MacCarthy and Trevelyan, and was not wearing any teeth. They discussed autobiographies and historians; George confessed he had never read Gibbon's "[Decline and Fall of the] Roman Empire"; MacCarthy did not tell him that one of his favourite autobiographies was 'that of Robert Calverly Trevelyan' [sic] as he is not sure if it is finished; his own is 'rather good, but rather scrappy'.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Expects Robert has chosen the best way to see Spain in basing himself at Madrid; probably the best way to learn Spanish, and the country may settle down in time enabling easier travel. Browning is a 'wonderful genius': he has recently read Pattison's 'admirable' biography of [Isaac] Casaubon, and it was 'all summed up in the "Grammarian's Funeral"; cannot read Gibbon without thinking of "Protus"; and ever since Robert went to Spain he has had "How It Strikes a Contemporary" in his mind, which means more to him 'than Charles the Vth - or Cervantes'. "Scribner's [Magazine]" is publishing 'specimens' of Roosevelt's biography; supposes it is the 'biggest bibliopolic business' ever. The excerpt about Roosevelt and Sir George, illustrated with Mary's snapshots ["Scribner's Magazine", Vol. 66, No. 4, Oct 1919, pp 385-408] has had 'unanimous approbation' in America; encloses a 'racy specimen from a remote new Western State,' but the more serious papers take the same line. Has recovered from his fall, and they are settled in at Welcombe 'in the midst of the perturbed world'. They have regular satisfactory news from Elizabeth.
c/o A. Waterfield, Fortezza la Brunella, Aulla, Massa Carrara, Italy. - Bessie will be with them by now; hopes they are having the same good weather with 'at last' is beginning here today; until now there has been 'nothing but rain and wind'. However, since the castle walls are 'about 15 feet thick', they are 'quite warm and sheltered within'. Must have been through Aulla, along the valley at the foot of the hill, that 'Hannibal marched after crossing the Appennines'; likes to think of him 'riding along down below on his last elephant, on which he crossed the flooded Arno'. The bones of an elephant, 'supposed to be of some extinct kind' were recently found about two miles from here; Robert prefers 'to imagine that they belong to Hannibal's last but one elephant, which had wandered away... and that Hannibal was in too great a hurry to send after it and recapture it'.
Wrote a paper about poetry for the Heretics Society at Cambridge last November; Kegan Paul have now offered to publish it 'as a small book' if he writes some more, so he will work on that now. It will be part of 'a series of books by various writers, some of them quite good, each with a classical title'. Thinks he will call his Thamyris, possibly Marsyas; the 'sub-title will be Is There a Future for Poetry', and of course he concludes that there is, but first 'point[s] out various problems to which modern poetry is liable'.
Does not think his translation of Theocritus will now be out before Easter, nor his 'small book of poems' [Poems and Fables, to be published by the Hogarth Press]. Expects his father is still reading the Gibbon letters, which 'Bessie would be sure to enjoy listening to'. Encloses a letter for her, and sends love to his mother.
Asks Sraffa to send a note to Paris to exercise options in selling gold if there is any profit in it; purchased books from Gibbon's library - 'one of the dullest libraries I ever saw'; Geoffrey Keynes purchased Gibbons' own copy of Herodotus.
11, St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, S.W.3. - Thanks Trevelyan for sending the books; already knew many of the poems in "The Death of Man" but likes some of the new things very much; praises the 'largeness' of Trevelyan's way of writing and says it will endure. Also thinks the translation of [Sophocles'] "Ajax" is excellent, as far as he can tell. Has just published some Donne selections, which he has asked to be sent to Trevelyan. Asks if Trevelyan has returned from Paris. Gibbon is the greatest writer of the 18th century.
In Aldis Wright's hand. Note at bottom: 'letters not published by Lord Sheffield… marked with x’
In Aldis Wright's hand.
In Aldis Wright's hand.
In Aldis Wright's hand.
In Aldis Wright's hand.
In Aldis Wright's hand. Note at the bottom reads: 'Copied from a paper in the possession of the Rev. T. Burningham, Heathfield, Midhurst, 2 Sept 1890. Lady Sheffield's legacy is omitted and two sets of books given to the Library of the Academy at Lausanne. The income from Gi [?] property ought to be £1150'.
In Aldis Wright's hand. Note at the bottom: "In the other copies of the Will the name of the last witness is ;J Satan' or 'F Satan' [?]."
Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Glad that the hard part of the move is done; very eager to see Elizabeth and Robert's new house, terrace, and view. They are 'in an artistic atmosphere', with 'the old smell of oil-colours in the hall' since Mrs Collingwood, friend and pupil of Ruskin, has painted one of the vacant panels 'most lovelily' with sweet peas. [Edward] Keith has won a great prize for his sweet peas, so they 'are immortalised just at the right point'. Tells Robert to read the 'composite autobiography of Gibbon', put together by Miss Holroyd [relative of John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield?], which is 'six times better than the six genuine ones'; almost wishes they had never appeared. Is taking a week's holiday after finishing the first two hundred pages of his new volume [of "The American Revolution"] and having 'disposed of' General Burgoyne; will show Robert two chapters and a 'most beautiful map of [his] own composition'. Will be glad to see Elizabeth and Robert here. Takes note about Stopford Brooke.. Comments in a postscript that it is his birthday today, and he turns sixty-seven.
Two corrected manuscript drafts, the earlier of which is entitled 'History, co-operative and individualistic' (Item 98), the later one dated October 1931 (Item 99); typescript, corrected, accompanied by an envelope for the manuscript and the typescript (Item 100); one proof for publication in 'Mélanges Gustave Glotz' corrected, dated 17 Nov. (Item 101) and the final copy (Item 102); printed copy of the French translation by Léon Chouville (Item 103).