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Mill House, Westcott, Dorking. - Thanks his father for his letter [12/76], and the '[obituary] notice of the poor silent fogey [Sir Joseph Crosland]'. Remembers the fogeys, and the amusement they gave, very well, but not where they met them; has a 'vague recollection that it was at some English sea-side hotel, perhaps in Yorkshire', but it may well have been abroad. Expects Crosland 'felt very much out of place in the House, and may have been glad to be turned out'; he 'seemed a kindly old fogey', and Robert can 'well believe that, in the stately phrase of the Times, he was "generous to a degree"'.

His father's letter to Paul [Hubrecht] has just arrived and will be forwarded; thinks they [Paul and his brother Jan] both much enjoyed their visit to Wallington; Jan was here for two days, and they went over to the site on Sunday with him. The foundations [of Robert and Elizabeth's house] are about finished, and as far as can be judged the work seems very good; they will meet the architect there soon to make some plans about the garden, which will not be big but require thought as it is 'all on a slope'.

Has left [Turgenev's] Dmitri Roudine at Wallington; asks if it could be sent back to the library once his father has done with it. He and Bessie are both very well, and much enjoyed their time at Wallington 'in spite of the doubtful weather'; it was an 'additional pleasure to see Charles and Molly so happily settled'. Hopes his father is still getting on as well with his book; liked reading the two sections he gave him, and 'thought them everything that could be desired'. Bessie thanks both Robert's parents for their letters, and will 'write directly'; they both send their love.

Sends her the names of some of Turgenief's novels, which he has praised. Refers to Liza, Fathers and Sons, and Smoke, which have all been translated into English. Lists some that have been translated into French: Étranges Histoires, [ [ ] and Mémoires d'un Seigneur Russe. Adds that he forgot to ask her that morning before he left her, whether her brother Frank [Balfour] 'is now, or is likely to be soon, in London', and asks her for his address. Explains that he has been hoping to see him to compare notes about Finland.

Cites a note from Turgenev to Mrs Susanna Milner Gibson in the Cullum Collection, shelfmark Cullum MS P34.

2, Cheyne Gardens. - They [he and Janet] have been 'reading nightly' from Bob's "Don Quixote" with 'great enjoyment'; today 'the most beautiful lot of Tourgenieffs in a delightful binding turned up' [perhaps a wedding present?]. Will take one away with him next month. Says in postscript that he has 'been hearing from Desmond what a jolly time you have had'.

c/o Mrs Salomonson, 49 Wierdensche Straat, Almelo; addressed to Bob at the Mill House, Westcott, Dorking, Surrey. - Has been a week since Bob last wrote; hopes he is all right, and that he is in the country enjoying the sun. Went for a long drive yesterday to a place with an old castle and 'lovely wood' where they sat outside and had lunch; Jeanne [Salomonson Asser] seems well and happy and is very kind; gave Bessie a 'wonderful piece' of imitation Venice lace which she had worked herself, as well as an antique copper basket for flowers or fruit; Jeanne's husband went away yesterday, and Bessie is not sorry that she will see little of him again since she does not like him much, though he and Jeanne are happy and seem well suited. Jeanne has confided some little worries about her marriage which Bessie will tell Bob about later; does not think Jeanne ought to reproach herself as her husband does not seem to completely understand her. Received a telegram from Alice Jones this morning asking if she could come two weeks later; this will not be possible as they are repainting the rooms then and Bessie will be too busy; hopes Alice will still come. Writes later after receiving Bob's two letters. Discusses the material for Bob's wedding clothes again. Is glad he has written the letters to Sir Henry [Howard] and the consul [Henry Turing]. Would love to go to see Dan Leno with Bob some time. No reason why Bob should not go on sending letters to Irene Locco and writing letters to her, as long as Bessie and Bob love each other 'in the right way'. Tomorrow it is 'Venus day', as well as birthday and death day of Shakespeare. Is reading Turgenieff's "Väter und Söhne" [Fathers and Sons], which she thinks Bob has talked about, having read it in English translation as "Generations"; thinks it wonderful.

Apartado 847. - Has seen Pedredo [?] and told him Trevelyan does not want "España" any more. As for Trevelyan's offer to send books, and comments on 'what [he] should, or ought, to do and think of them', the suggestion of Tchekoff's letters was a good one, as Sickert got them for Durán for Christmas. He found them in the German bookshop. Durán will not know 'how unsympathetic her [Constance Garnett's?] translations are', or she may have improved; Sickert did not like her Turgenev, who he thinks the best Russian novelist. Don Julio [Álvarez del Vayo] and Luisa have returned to Berlin; he is back with "El Sol". Has finished his sale of the Diccionario and is trying to get on with a prospectus of 'a Geography in 20 volumes' but is feeling too lazy; this letter 'has been going on for days and days'. Saw Benavente's 'chef d'oeuvre', "Los Intereses Creados", which was 'very strange'; discusses the theatre and mime, including on the Japanese stage, at length. New parliament just assembling, so there is a 'pack of motor cars' outside the office; 'curious that it occurs to no Spanish politician to make bids for popularity'.

12 Pembroke Gardens, Kensington, W. - Does not remember for which Turgenev Trevelyan wanted the French translations; recommends him to write to Mr Lumley, a bookseller near South Kensington station, as he saw a number of nice copies there recently.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Has sent back the Chekhov; "Three Years" gives a better picture of the Russia 'of a semi-barbarous state' than anything else he has read: Dostoevesky does too much of this, and 'no nation of such a people as he draws them could have got on even as they did', while Tolstoy remains the aristocrat and Turgenev 'a sweet-natured gentleman'. Is sending a 'short correspondence' and cutting from the London "Guardian" telling of a pleasant thing which will has happened to him; younger people cannot understand 'what an Oriel [College, Oxford] fellowship used to mean'.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Robert's letter has brought 'a breath of Italy'; wishes he could be there; asks to be remembered kindly to Robert's hosts and wishes he could see Berenson's library. Books now his 'medium for everything': foreign countries, past times, 'vanished friends and opponents'. Has now read the elegiac and iambic fragments in Bergk, and will go on to read the '"Melic poets" as one reads Keats and Shelley'. Has also finished Plautus's "Casina"; a great coincidence 'utterly unimportant in itself' like all great coincidences, that the last time he did so, in 1916, Morton and Kate Philips came to stay as they are doing tonight for the first time since then. Is reading Robert's Tchernov [sic: Chekhov] and thinks the stories may give even 'more vivid and real' a picture of Russian life than Turgenev and Tolstoy, while being 'far less repulsive' than Dostoevsky; though he does not approve of the 'sordid little pictures of conjugal infidelity', which is better done in many French novels and he is 'many years too old for it in any language'.

Casa di Boccaccio, Settignano, Firenze, Italy [on headed notepaper for I Tatti, Settignano]. - Thanks his mother for her letter. Bessie says she will be with his mother until Saturday, so this letter may come while she is there. Is 'very glad she is going to Holland'; is sure she will enjoy it and that it will 'do her good'. Julian seems well again now. The weather here is 'very changeable', but he has done 'a fair amount of work'. Is 'quite comfortable' in his lodgings, and has meals with the Waterfields in the Casa di Boccaccio. Usually works in the Berensons' library in the morning, then goes 'out on the hills in the afternoon, unless the weather is impossible, as it often is'. Glad his mother had a 'pleasant visit from Audrey [Trevelyan]'; hopes Hilda is now better.

Prefers the English translation of War and Peace by [Constance] Garnett to the French, as it is 'more accurate, and does not leave things out'; however, he 'like[s] reading Turgeneff best in French'. The 'postage for letters abroad' is now three pence, not two and a half; it is a lira from Italy to England, which is just over two pence. Asks her to thank his father for his letter [12/349?]; will write to him soon. [Bernard] Berenson sends his 'kind regards'; he and his wife are going to Greece next month, about the time Robert will start home.

Palace Hôtel, Rome. - Has not been reading "The Brothers Karamazov"; was amused by the first two chapters, but they support Robert's observations about 'the hysterical character'; Caroline was also 'stuck' for the same reason. Has seen much of the 'unusually clever and well read American Secretary of Legation' [Arthur Frazier, acting Secretary?], who says the 'three great epochs in foreign novels' are that of Balzac, the Russian epoch (especially 'Tolstoi and Turgenieff') and the Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland] epoch. The American ambassador, Page, is also a 'man of letters and means', of the same family as the American ambassador in England. Caroline has now been in bed with bronchitis for almost five weeks, and the doctors cannot say when she will be better; she is 'wonderfully patient'.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Glad to have Elizabeth's letter, though sorry not to see her and Julian, even more so for Caroline's sake. Understands how tired she must have been by her first visit to the Netherlands in so long, and looks forward to seeing her at Wallington when she is 'really well' and able to come; travelling is very difficult at the moment. Sends back the two volumes of 'Tchekof's stories': "Three Years" tells as much about 'that strange people, and that loosely constituted semi oriental society' as anything he has read, even more than Turgenev and Tolstoy, though Tchekoff is 'not a genius of their calibre'.

Long's Hotel, New Bond Street, London, W. - Bob's fiancée's name [des Amorie van der Hoeven] is a 'mouthful but... a delicious one'; likes 'those old French Dutch names in all their romantic associations', and tells Bob not to 'swallow it completely but just add to it [his] own charming patronymic'. Has always liked Dutch women, and has known two 'beautiful in body & soul in a very special way'; one married an Englishman and died five years ago in Java, the other he loved 'as a boy at Heidelberg' but has heard nothing of for many years; they 'stand in [his] memory as beautiful shades', so Bob has 'nothing to "overcome"' in him, and he also has 'faith' in him. Looks forward to meeting Bob's fiancée and trying to 'make her "see" [him] -"J.S." - a poor thing but his own'. All the more pleased at the news as Bob has been for some months 'blown upon by many rumours' about his 'dark purposes' from friends whom he will not name; is glad their 'tips' did not come off and that he was right to keep 'putting [his] money' on Bob's connections in Holland. Also distrusts the same friends' reports of 'McTaggart & his Daisy Bird' that on arriving in England, McTaggart sent his wife to stay with his aunt at Guildford and went himself to Cambridge, where he 'plunged into a prolonged debauch of philosophical conversation' and showed no sign of wanting to 'resume his conjugal duties'. Alys Russell was so sorry for Daisy that she went to see her and told her that 'if she had the slightest spirit she would return to her profession as a nurse'; Mrs Whitehead then invited her to stay with them at Grantchester, where 'McT was induced occasionally to come out and dine', though he said it was too far to come to sleep; it seems he is also reluctant to take a house but wants to keep his college rooms. Even if this is not true it is 'very comic': as is Constance Fletcher's new play, which he went to see recently with Henry James. 'Mrs Pat [rick Campbell]' played the heroine 'admirably'; they were in the front row and 'H.J. fairly blushed at the languorous glances she cast upon him!'; the play is very funny, but since it has 'no art in the great sense, cracks of course in its solution, which is only arrived at by turning it into farce'.

Has not read St[ephen Phillips's play ["Paolo and Francesca"], and is unlikely to, being put off by the 'too unanimous' praise and having read the extracts. But the 'B[ritish] P[ublic] must have a poet, and since W[illiam] Watson's correct attitudes in the Dreyfus case... could not make them forget his wickedness in the Armenian business', S. Philips seems likely to fill the bill'; he is also prolific. The [Second Boer] war sickens him: though if England got into a 'really tight place' he would turn about and become 'violently pro-British', he cannot help looking at the Boers as 'antique heroes'. Hears that Frank Costelloe is dying of cancer and has left a 'perfectly hateful will'; knows the details but has promised to keep them secret. Sees John Waldegrave a great deal, and becomes fond of him; was sorry to miss [Desmond] MacCarthy when he came to see him. Waldegrave wants him to visit his father's after the New Year, but he thinks that if he is able to leave Town his best Christmas proposal is from the Thorolds at Torquay.

His own 'poor old father' has written imploring him to spend the winter with him at St. Augustine in Florida; there is a 'Turgeneffian melancholy in the thought' that he cannot really explain to his father why it would 'kill' him. Bob has chosen the 'only true solutions... of our vital problems' and he is sure that in the 'limited & human sense of the word' Bob will be happy as it is unlikely he himself 'ever shall be'. The '"man of feeling", the man with an ear for life, can only find the rhythm of it in Love or in the Church; for Art, which busies itself (in spite of Logan [Pearsall Smith]) with life so directly' cannot take its 'acolyte far enough away from joy & sorry to make him self-sufficing'. Apologises for growing 'platitudinal'. John Waldegrave tells him his 'preference for memoirs to works of fiction is as certain a sign of old bachelordom as [his] cry of "Cras amet"!'

Stocks, Tring. - Has just had a 'charming letter' from Bob about 'Paul's weight, height, colour & general accomplishments', so should really reply to him, but wants to write to Bessie instead, knowing how fun it is to hear 'what a great man one is'. Bessie seems to have managed [the birth] 'splendidly all round'; hopes she is starting to enjoy herself by now. Longs to visit but does not think she will manage before returning from Welcombe, about the 18th [Jan]. It is 'rather splendid' that Bessie had a boy on her first attempt; it puts Molly and Janet to shame. Good that the 'three boy-cousins' are so near in age, 'how they will quarrel & make it up again, & quarrel again'. Sure it is a good omen that Paul 'came on the solstice night': she will expect him to have 'more sparks of genius in him than the other two'. Hopes Bessie did not have 'a very beastly time', and that she could have 'some nice whiffs of chloroform'; she did better than Eleanor Acland, whose labour lasted forty-eight hours. Asks Bessie to thank Bob for his letter, which she will send on to George; also to say Janet knows they do not have a copy of "Dmitri Roudine" [Turgenev's "Rudin"] and they will be delighted to have it; it is the one she especially wants to read.

8, Grosvenor Crescent. - Much looks forward to receiving a book by Turgenieff from Elizabeth; it is to the later writings 'what "The Plain Tales from the Hills" is to Kipling's work'; will read thoughts of Elizabeth into it. Caroline very much enjoyed her afternoon; he went to the National Gallery; yesterday they saw the 'delightful exhibition' of sketches and drawings at the British Museum.

The Mill House, Westcott, Dorking. - Is sure things will improve and she must not worry; as his mother says, 'it is really rather... a storm in a teacup'; it is nothing to compare to the happiness that will soon be theirs. Though he often fails 'through weakness and idleness', his life 'has been passionately devoted... to the best and most beautiful things which [his] imagination can attain to' and hers will be as well; lists all that will be good in their lives. Will write again to the consul [Henry Turing] if he does not hear from him today, since they need to know whether he can come on the 7th [June]; has also not heard from Sir Henry Howard, through whom he sent the letter; will send the second letter direct to Turing. There has been some delay at the lawyers about the settlements; has written to tell them to speed up. Bessie should tell him if he need do anything else regarding the marriage conditions her uncle sent. Thinks he may come over on 12 or 13 June. Meta Smith, his aunt Margaret's daughter, has sent a silver inkstand, and Mrs Holman Hunt a piece of Japanese silk. Had a good time at Cambridge: saw Mrs McTaggart, a 'nice quiet sort of person'; Tom Moore read his play and thinks it should come out well though he has pointed out 'some serious faults and suggested alterations'; Moore is going to give him a lot of his woodcuts, and has begun an Epithalamium for them, though since he has not got on with it says they should defer the wedding for a month. Asks what he should do about the Apostles' dinner; it will be 'quite exceptional this year', Harcourt is president and everyone will come; would very much like to go but will not break their honeymoon if she does not wish it. Very keen to go to the lakes eventually, but they could spend a few days before the dinner at Blackdown among his 'old haunts'; Mrs Enticknap's aunt lives in a farmhouse a mile from Roundhurst, which would be perfect. Hopes [Alice and Herbert] Jones' visit has been a success. [Desmond] MacCarthy is coming tomorrow for a few days and [Oswald?] Sickert on Sunday for the day. Will see [the Frys] this evening and discuss colours for the walls. Thinks [Charles] Sanger is very happy; is not entirely sure [about the marriage], since 'Dora has behaved so strangely', but everything seems to be coming right. Has ben reading Emerson on poetry and imagination and thinks it 'amazingly fine and right'. Most people think "Pères et enfants [Fathers and Sons]" is Turgenev's best book; he himself does not like the ending but finds the book charming; has heard the French translation, the only one he has read, is better than the German or English one - Sickert says so and he is half-German. Has ordered the trousers, and found the catalogue so will order the beds and so on next week. Glad Bessie got on with her socialist sister [Theodora]. has just had a note from Sir Henry Howard saying 7 June will suit Turing; she should let her uncle know. Does not think there will be further delay with the legal papers.

Mill House, Westcott, Dorking. - Hopes his parents had a good time at Welcombe. He and Bessie were 'very glad' to see his mother in London: they had a 'pleasant evening with her, and at George's the next day'. They are going to London again tomorrow, and Robert will 'arrange about the publishing of [his] new play [The Birth of Parsival]'; in the afternoon, they will see Marlowe's Faustus, performed by the Elizabethan Stage Society. Bessie is well, and they are enjoying the weather and countryside, 'which is very beautiful this autumn'.

The situation with Russia [the Dogger Bank incident] 'seems very bad, especially this morning'; however, he thinks the two governments [Russian and British] will find a way to 'settle the matter, especially as the French government seems very anxious for peace'. Thanks his father for returning Dmitri Roudine, and is glad he found it interesting; perhaps it is 'not a perfect novel', but Robert thinks he likes it 'almost as much as any of Turgeneff's'.

They went last week to stay for two nights with Aunt Meg [Price] at Pen Moel, and had a 'very pleasant visit'; Robin was there 'and seemed much improved, though still very shy'. A 'young Trinity man' is there as his tutor, whom they liked. Also staying was 'Lady Macdonald, the wife of the Canadian "Dizzy" [Sir John Macdonald]'; she was 'rather amusing for a little, but not for long, as she is really very vulgar, though quite a kind good-natured person'. Reminded him of 'characters in Dizzy's novels. Perhaps she modelled upon them'.

Bertie Russell has been staying for two days and was 'very cheerful, as he is getting on now quite well with his work which is to revolutionize mathematics'; he 'got stuck' for almost a year and 'could not get on at all, which together with the Fiscal controversy depressed his spirits very much'. Sends love from both himself and Bessie to both his parents; Bessie thanks his mother for her letter.