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TRER/8/123 · Item · 24 Aug 1939
Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

93, High Street, Knaphill, Woking. - Dr Bluth and Dr de Souza, have made her 'responsible for Donald's welfare'; she knows that 'poor Lady Tovey' has never done him or John [Wellcome Tovey] 'anything but harm'. Dr de Souza has been 'most kind' and told her 'every detail of his illness and treatment'; Dr Bluth is still in the North at Newport, 'taking charge of a hospital', she has written to ask him to return by the end of the month and to Dr de Souza beginning him to keep Donald in hospital 'for at least another month' and guaranteeing the cost since she has to go to Nauheim if she is 'not to become an invalid' herself. Saw Donald last week; he 'ardently desired' a 'garden syringe to squirt water on the little people' in the garden below and a piano to play. TheX-ray shows the joints in his hands had 'not yet ankylosed' so there is 'hope of him playing and even recording' again. He must not return to Hedenham again, and she hopes 'to get him out of Royal Terrace in Edinburgh', which faces 'straight onto the seafogs at the mouth of the Firth of Forth'. Dr de Souza insists on Donald walking; she has often urged him to do so but Lady Tovey just 'murmurs "The motor is at the door" and D. obediently creeps in'.

Changes since she started writing the letter: they have given Donald a piano in the hospital; thinks there is 'nothing they would not do for him' and Dr Bluth tells her Dr de Souza 'delights in his witty and brilliant conversation'. Supposes that he will therefore stay there 'for three months or longer' and will be able to go to Nauheim without anxiety. Now worries about John: fears he has been 'completely idle at Cambridge', and Donald's 'delightful and kind nephew' Duncan says Lady Tovey gives him 'far too much money'; he is now 'idling at Hedenham'. Thanks Bessie very much for sending Dr Bluth to her; he has been 'both very clever and very kind'.

TRER/8/124 · Item · 2 Sept 1939
Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

93, High Street, Knaphill, Woking. - Is very sad and anxious: there has been a reversion to 'the state of things at Hedenham' before the Trevelyans made their 'most merciful and helpful interviention'. Had just written to Donald [Tovey] to invite him, Clara, and the chauffeur to stay with her in the case of 'anxiety about the Hospital buildings [due to the war]'; he would then be able to stay in touch with Dr de Souza at Harley Street; she got her housekeeper to ring the hospital and was told he and Lady Tovey had gone back to Hedenham on the 24th. Has just had a letter from her and Donald's solicitor in Edinburgh; gathers that Lady Tovey has been 'very impudent.. paid all the bills, and wound everything up at the Hospital'. Worries about the damp at Hedenham and Donald's medical care; the local doctore [Dr Corbett] came to see her and was 'obviously incompetent and untruthful'. It is cruel: Donald's hands were recovering to the point that she and Mary Grierson both hoped he might be able to make some recordings of his playing; he has been 'induced to ask the university for a term's leave of absence' which means he will spend months at Hedenham. Thinks he 'would not be sane now' had it not been for the Trevelyans' intervention; also blesses Dr Bluth. The prospect of another great European war is 'the blackest cloud'. Says 'we are not really a European power'; always made her shiver when 'that kind man Mr Chamberlain... talked of Europe as if it was a schoolroom and he its governess'; keeps reading Donald's essays and remembers that her mother used to say 'Beethoven did not beg for peace, he ordered it' (quotes the German), but they cannot do that

TRER/8/134 · Item · 6 Aug 1940
Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

18 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh. - Thanks Bessie for a kind letter: she left Donald [Tovey] on the day of his death at quarter to one and he 'spoke those words' [see 8/133] to her 'quite clearly', but he may have become unconscious after that and when she returned around six he had died. Wonders whether Bessie went to Worplesdon for the burial of Donald's ashes; an old friend went and told her about it, but she herself had not heard it was to take place, yet Worplesdon is only about fifteen minutes drive from her house at Knaphill; wishes she had known. Has not been well recently, but has been working slowly on a project of turning most of this flat to a memorial: Molly Grierson says that there is nowhere for the students to do quiet work; would be happy to gift it to the university. Molly is 'overburdened in every way', especially family troubles. Some of Donald's old books are still here, such as his old "Missa Solemnis" over which she found him weeping [see 8/132] and from which he chose what was to be played and sung by Mona Benson. The memorial service in St Giles was very beautiful: old members of the Reid Orchestra came 'from far away places'; the 'whole University came in their magnificent robes'; Mollie conducted the orchestra in her red Doctor's robes, while she in hers 'crouched in a corner weeping'. Donald 'need not have died so soon... in such agony about his hands', if he had been left in London with Dr de Souza and not 'that damp place [Hedenham] where Lady Tovey and John [Wellcome Tovey] told him he was 'only lazy' [for not practising]. Dr de Souza had arranged somewhere safe for him to go in London if there was anxiety about the [Westminster] Hospital. Wonders whether Dr Blut [sic: Karl Bluth] is interned; very much 'admired and agreed with him as a doctor' and wishes she could help him. John has been sent suddenly somewhere in the South, for coastal defence: 'they have grown quite reckless with the lives of young men by the thousand'. Originally enclosing two poems by Professor [Oliffe Legh?] Richmond, which she thinks beautiful and like Donald. Her taxi driver today commented that she would be missing Donald and said 'We all thought there was nobody like him'; used to go on Sunday nights to hear him. Found herself 'sobbing on the man's arm'.

TRER/6/208 · Item · 30 Apr [1940?]
Part of Papers of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan

39 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, 7. - Thanks for Bessie's letter. Thinks Dr Thin will write to de Souza. Is 'very puzzled' at what Bessie writes about Dr Bluth: does not understand what sort of treatment he means. Asks if it is 'drugs or... some form of phycoanative [sic]'. Dr Thin is not encouraging, and does not think Donald's condition will change much.