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177: Letter from George John Shaw-LeFevre, 1st Baron Eversley, to H. A. Bright.

On headed notepaper for The Grove, Harrow:- Has received the hamper from his grandfather and replied to him; apologises for being late in answering her letter. Still does not think he is 'doing well in the examinations, but it cannot be helped'; will not mind much if he comes out low. Welldon wants Robert to 'go in for a scholarship at Trinity at the end of this year', so he will 'read with an end to that'.

Will be very glad to go home, as now the examinations are nearly over there is nothing interesting going on. Saw [Henry] Irving and Ellen Terry 'driving through Harrow last Sunday', he thinks to see Welldon, 'but they did not stay long. Hopes to 'see them again soon' [at Macbeth].

Is entering his house's competition for the hundred yards, which he would 'like to get very much', but nothing else. Charlie is well. His house were gymnastics champions, and Robert's not far behind in second. After that there was the competition for boxing champion, 'a very good fight, full of black eyes and bloody noses, in which the smaller beat the bigger'.

Hopes his father is well. Is 'very sorry about Bright' [John Bright died on 27 Mar 1889]; 'would like to have seen him once', but does not remember ever having done so.

St W[olstan's], Celbridge. - Enclosing letter [no longer present] but cannot make out the writer; Bright will gain in the next parliament; the present government will do little for Ireland.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - They are 'at last having delightful weather', and have heard the cuckoo most days this week. Julian is 'especially delighted by the cuckoo', and 'goes out early in the morning by himself to listen for it'. They discuss which poem is better - Logan's 'Hail, beauteous stranger...', 'if it is his and not [Michael] Bruce's, which seems uncertain', or Wordsworth's 'O blithe newcomer...'- and decide that 'on the whole' they prefer Wordsworth's, though like the other too; thinks it was a favourite of [John] Bright.

Took Julian out for a walk today, and 'he did a lot of climbing fir-trees, at which he is fairly good now. When he had got up as high as he could, he said he wished to write a poem, and dictated one to [Robert], not a very good one, but probably as good as most poems written twenty feet from the ground up a tree'.

Mrs Gibson leaves them next Wednesday; she has been with them three months, with her baby, and 'has been a very pleasant inmate'. Her husband will have to stay in America for now, but 'they seem to be treating him very hospitably'. Bessie and Julian are going to Aunt Annie's on the 14th, 'unless someone else at the Park comes out with the measles before then', which is unlikely. They are reading Guy Mannering aloud; Bessie 'has a prejudice against Scott, but has to admit that this is a good book'. She is however puzzled that 'Dirk Hatteraick is a Dutchman, and yet always talks German'; at first she believed 'Scott must have thought the Dutch talked German', but Robert told her 'Scott knew more about modern Europe than that'; still, it is odd. Sends love to his mother. They are 'so glad to hear that Booa is really better'.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Would like to see Robert and Julian in the hay. Their own hay-making was 'deplorable' last year, but the crop has been wonderful this year and was 'practically made in the course of a week'; this makes a difference to the household, as a tea has to be sent out each day to the hay-makers. Strange how children 'like young nations' take verse for their first 'natural channel of literary production'. Is beginning to read Aristophanes in chronological order, with Latin between each play; is currently following up the "Acharnians" with [Cicero's] 'marvellously interesting speech on Sextius'. Judges Cicero to be the best 'orator who reads well': Macaulay reads very well, but 'it is primarily literature'; Gladstone is 'so deficient in matter'; Demosthenes and Bright lack 'the volume of historical and literary, and philosophical matter. Plans to read many of Cicero's best speeches, and Suetonius. Sends a letter from Hilton Young, referring to a 'really beautiful poem of his'; the 'Praed blood' seems to be coming out in him and Geoffrey [a reference to Winthrop Mackworth Praed?] as is 'the old naval blood of the builder and namer of Formosa' [Admiral Sir George Young, of Formosa Place, Cookham, Berkshire]. Has had a letter from Sir George Young about his 'own studies in English prosody, which he is making his old age occupation'; will send it to Robert when he finds it.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Good to read about Julian's 'encounter with country things' [see 46/230]. The people around Stratford who 'profess to be weather-wise', and perhaps are so, say that after a long winter like this, Spring will come very quickly and be 'fruitful'; true that he has never admired the daffodils so much. Caroline was saying she 'always has the cadence of the Bruce-Logan cuckoo [a poem attributed to both John Logan and Michael Bruce] in her ears; [John?] Bright always recited it to them at 'his annual dinner - no other guest, and a fruit table, by special request - at 30 Ennismore Gardens'. They have finished reading "The Grasshoppers" [by Cecily Sidgwick] which is am 'admirable novel', and are about to begin Gosse's "Life" of Swinburne. Interested to hear Elizabeth's opinion of [Walter Scott's] "Guy Mannering" and 'Hatteraick's language' [in that novel]; expects it was 'good enough for Scott's readers', and it is 'as like Dutch' as the 'serious conversation in "Old Mortality"' which Sir George has been reading to Mary Caroline was to 'the language which Morton and Edith must have talked'.

132 Picadilly. Is unable to attend speech day.

132 Picadilly. Is unable to attend speech day.