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Cambridge. Rumours that a bet had affected the personnel in the Jesus College boats, description of a Montenegran cap, comparative standard of Cambridge college cooking, Third Trinity bump supper, debate on Irish home rule at the Union, Mrs Verrall has just "got in touch" with the late Dr Verrall.

Trinity, Cambridge [on college notepaper]:- Hopes his mother finds everything all right at Welcombe and is enjoying herself. Aaks how Bathgate and Fairweather are. Supposes 'they will be shooting the home woods about now'. Is very glad she is going to stay with the Verralls; he will dine there on the night she is staying with them.

Is afraid he 'made a sort of promise to go to Oxford on the 13th', since [Nugent] Hicks said he could arrange rooms in Balliol. Is going to Harrow to play football next Saturday, so could come home to see her after that; she might not be in town by then. Is 'playing Rugby football now', though not 'much more than one game a week'; is 'still able to work quite well' and thinks he is 'making progress'. Will see George on Saturday [at Harrow] and 'will report on him'. Had 'a very interesting letter from C[harles]'; he seems in 'good spirits'. Hopes his father is 'well and cheerful about politics': things seem to be 'going remarkable well' as far as Robert can tell.

Conduit Head - Eily Darwin's design for wall at Newnham - suggests different place for it, FD to interview Mrs Verrall about Committee's intentions.

Trinity, Cambridge:- As he said [46/16] he is going to Oxford next Saturday, and will return to Cambridge early on Monday; does not think he will be able to stop in London, but will see her when she comes on the 21st [to stay with the Verralls]. Saw George last Saturday [at Harrow] and thought him 'flourishing'. Supposes she will be going to Harrow soon. Hears there has been 'a great attack on Welldon in the National Observer', which he has not yet read; expects it is 'probably very unfair, though [Welldon] has no doubt partly laid himself open to such attacks'. Bowen seems well.

Hopes that things are going their [ie the Liberal Party's] way everywhere: expects the Tories will 'talk a great deal about the Evicted Tenants' Commission, but that it will not much matter'. Has not heard from Charlie since he started North; hopes he has had a 'pleasant and instructive journey'. The elections in America seem to be going well, though Robert does 'not understand much about things American'. Asks if his father is well. Is glad that all are well at Welcombe; it is 'quite right that Snitterfield should become an asylum for the oppressed'. Has just been to a chamber concert with Crompton Ll[ewelyn] Davies. Is going to a Wagner concert next week; there are 'some quite first rate concerts here this term'.

Writes from St Beatenberg, 'near Interlaken, on a hill side looking over the lakes of Thun.' Announces that he and his wife are going to Baden on the following Saturday, in order to try the baths and waters there. States that he has derived much good 'from mountain air and complete idling'. Reports that [Gilbert] Murray has been with them most of the time, and that he has proved to be an excellent companion. He has now gone home, and Miss [Jane] Harrison has joined them. She is 'probably to carry off Helen to the mountains' when he and Mrs Verrall go to Baden. Reports that they spent nearly three weeks about the Lake of Lucerne, and have been in St Beatenberg for about ten days. Refers to the weather and the scenery, and his activities.

Reports that they follow the newspapers, and that letters from England bring reports of Sidgwick from time to time. Presumes that he is at [Aldgate], but sends the letter to Cambridge 'for safety.' Refers to Frank Sidgwick's poems. Discusses hotels and the difficulty of making acquaintances in them. Reports that his wife is 'fairly well', and hopes that Baden 'may supply something for her.' Does not think that she will go to Paris. Announces that they will not be going home until September, and states that the house is at Sidgwick's service until then.

5 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge. - Her husband has asked her to thank Trevelyan for sending the "Bride of Dionysus", which he 'thinks will make an excellent libretto' [for music by Donald Tovey]. He cannot write, as Trevelyan probably knows, and is 'very unwell'. Sends 'remembrances' to Mrs Trevelyan.

5 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge. - Thanks Trevelyan for "Sisyphus": thinks 'the revival of the 'Satyric' drama... seems to be a highly promising experiment; the passages where 'the verse (under stress of hyper-tragic emotion...) is forced beyond content [?]' gave him 'great joy' when he 'caught the trick of them'. Will read the play again as soon as he can; meanwhile he has passed it on to his wife and [daughter] Helen. He and his family hope that next term Trevelyan and his wife will visit them; asks him to let them know when might suit. Has sent Desmond MacCarthy a 'most important application of Aristophanic criticism of Tennyson's "Idylls"' for the "[New] Quarterly" [published in "New Quarterly" 2 (1909), pp 81-89]; aimed not against Tennyson by Aristophanes; thinks it migh interest Trevelyan when it comes out.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Has sent Robert the "Times Literary Supplement"; he should read aloud the letter from the 'scientific man' [Sir Edward Brabrook] about Gerald Balfour and the Ear of Dionysus. Gerald and his sister, Mrs Henry Sidgwick, are keeping living together during the war; supposes they talk about 'this sort of stuff together [séances and spiritualism] from morning to night'; this accounts for the 'preposterous message' to Sir George from [Frederic] Myers conveyed to him by Mrs Verrall and Mrs Piper. Bruce Richmond is a 'wonderful good editor'; praises the "Supplement". Is reading "The Shadow Line", which he likes better than anything he has read by Conrad before, and beginning 'to catch his peculiar turn of method... that of a fine nature which turned to creation very late in a life of action'. Had a 'very good letter' from Julian recently.

Hotel Bristol, Naples, Corso Vittorio Emanuele [printed notepaper with line drawing of the hotel]. - Marsh must be 'made of very distractable material' if Bob's last letter [15/269] distracted him for a whole day. Never expected that Marsh would be able to come with him to Italy, and is enjoying solitude; calls solitude and 'a plunge in cold water' as 'fundamental instinct[s]' deriving from the evolution of mankind. Is staying at this hotel for two nights before deciding where to go next; it belongs to [George Parker] Bidder, 'grandson of the calculating infant [also George Parker Bidder]'; the younger Bidder is 'known to all his generation at Cambridge, and the Verralls talk of him'. Hopes to see Bidder and get his advice [note that if Bob was actually staying at the Hotel Bristol, this was not in fact owned by Bidder, whose hotel was further along the Corso]; had intended to go to Corpo di Cava, but it would still be cold, as the hills are still covered by snow. Capri is currently the 'most inticing [sic]' possibility, 'certainly the most secluded and remote'. Is going to the Museum when he finishes this letter, which 'T.T.' [Thomas Tettrell Phelps?' calls 'the most fascinating place he has ever seen'; went with 'T.T.' on his last night in Britain 'to see A. Roberts, and found that it was bad'.

Marsh 'would like Pisa'; Bob saw a band playing in the market place there for the king's birthday, as he and Marsh once saw at Como, and caught sight of a beautiful woman with a 'face such as you seldom see in England'; he later saw her in a box at the theatre, where he saw two acts of Verdi's "Falstaff" before catching the train for Rome. Only had an hour and a half there; 'smoked a cigarette over the ruins of the forum' and thought of Teufledrock [sic: Teufelsdröckh, in Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"]. Cannot even 'glance' at the 'wonderful things on the journey to Naples', and should keep a journal. Must get an Italian hat to wear in town, as he only has a straw one, and being the only person wearing one of these in a crowded street means he cannot escape 'intense' interest. Hope that Marsh will lose his 'nausea for Lucretius, or rather for his science' during the vacation; encourages him to go to Holland with 'S. and S.'; asks him to write. Says in a postscript that he can hear an American 'defending New York in the smoker', saying 'the negro really is a silent factor now'.

W. H. Salter's manuscript reminiscence headed "Housman and Mrs Verrall's Automatic Writing" and a letter from A. S. F. Gow concerning this and the papers of A W Verrall.

5 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge. - Printed thanks from Margaret and Helen Verrall for the condolences of their friends, with handwritten message from Margaret Verrall thanking the Trevelyans for their sympathy and what they write about her husband. Nobody 'ever got more pleasure than he did from his younger friends' and 'the knowledge that they loved him' is her greatest consolation now.

Trinity College, Cambridge. - Has been 'distracted all day' by Trevy's letter [15/269]; is afraid his mind is 'made up against his wishes', since there are many reasons against him going to Italy with Trevy and for it only that he 'should like it so enormously'. His tripos exams are in May and he must work for them; knows he would not be able to work at Paestum; he has already refused to go to with [Nathaniel] Wedd to Greece, with [Charles] Sanger and [Arthur] Shipley to the Netherlands, and with [Maurice?] Baring to Florence. Has also asked James to come to London in Easter week, and wants to see lots of other people there. Will pass over what Trevy says in his letter about [his theories on] the English language, but hopes that both of them have 'improved since that fearful day at Mottarone'. Barran has come in 'in all his customary magnificence' they had great fun at the Verralls' last night. Has got to take tea with 'the little Miss Conybeare's [sisters of his college contemporary William Conybeare?] now'.

Admiralty, Whitehall. - Thanks Bob for writing out his poem 'so neatly' ["For a Fan", see 15/280]. Bob will 'never' be forgiven for not coming to Trinity last night; he himself had 'great fun, chiefly with Moore and Barran'. He then stayed for Verrall's funeral; glad he was able to be there as Verrall is a 'great loss'. Hears Mrs Verrall and Helen are 'wonderfully well'. Has to speak at the [Apostles] dinner and can't sleep 'for thinking of the shame and misery of it'.

Grimsby Farm, Long Lane, Coldash, Newbury. - Hopes Trevy has received the letter he wrote to Naples, otherwise he will think Marsh 'rather a beast'. Glad Corpo di Cava was not snowed under, since it has turned out to be 'so delightful'; he himself would have 'preferred Capri for the sake of Tiberius' [see 15/318]. Has just got away from London and finished his first day of work here; his 'flesh crept to such a degree' when he woke on Monday night and started to think about his tripos [examinations] that it 'must have moved on about an inch all round'. Stayed in London a little longer than he should have done because of a 'superior French company' who performed [Ibsen's] "Rosmersholm" and "Master Builder" and a play by Maeterlinck under the direction of M. [Aurélien-François-Marie] Lugné -Poé who 'seems to be a descendant of Edgar Poe'. He is 'a very beautiful man with a pale face & black hair', and reminds Marsh of a 'portrait of some poet', perhaps Poe himself; he 'acts very respectably' and played the Master Builder as 'an American with a straggling beard & a drunken complexion' and 'quite revolutionized' Marsh's idea of the part, since 'the rather vulgar arrogant manner he put on in certain parts' made the character seem more consistent than 'the suavity of Lewis Waller'. Asks if Trevy has ever read Maeterlinck, as it is 'useless to try and explain what he's like' if not; in the 'mixture of great simplicity with an entire rejection of realism' he thinks it goes back to 'the Burne Jones & Morris kind of thing'. Sat next to William Archer, who was 'very nice' to him. Saw many friends at the Ibsen plays: [Erskine] Childers, Crompton [Llewelyn Davies], Gerald Duckworth, J[ohn] Waldegrave, 'the Babe' [William Haynes Smith?] etc. Thinks the Independent Theatre must be 'the worst managed concern in the world': the performances usually begin late 'after the curtain has gone up two or three times, to encourage the audience. You're never safe from the irruption of a cat in the most moving scenes', the actors miss their cues, or the curtain does not go down at the end of the act. The man who is called the Acting Manager [Charles Hoppe] is 'the greatest crook [he] ever met with in a responsible position', who seems unable to sell tickets without asking for assistance and did not even know how many acts there were in "Rosmersholm". Marsh took the Verralls to that play; comments on Arthur Verrall's reaction to theatre: 'he never is, or lays himself out to be, in the least moved by a play' but responds to 'the cleverness or stupidity with which it is written'.

Very glad that George [Trevelyan] got his scholarship, though there was no doubt he and Buxton would; 'very hard luck on [Ralph] Wedgwood. Went to see [Charles] Sanger yesterday in his new rooms at Hare Court. No-one has heard 'anything of [Bertrand] Russell for some time'. Only saw Oswald [Sickert], who had influenza, not serious, once; he has just got 'free from the Werner Company, which has used up the Beauties of Britain, & gone on to Paris [ie, finished publishing "Beautiful Britain]'; hopes he will have time for his novel now. [Maurice] Baring took Marsh to supper with Edmund Gosse on Sunday: a 'most amusing man', whose conversation is 'described in Stevenson's essay on conversation ["Talk and Talkers"] under the name of Purcell. He was in the teakettle mood'. Met [Henry] Harland, the editor of the "Yellow Book" there; thought him 'an awful little man', but 'on getting accustomed to his manner' next day he thought him 'like-able on the whole'. Hopes to go to supper next Sunday with 'the even more distinguished [Robert] Bridges', though he has not read his recent works so 'feels rather ill-equipped'. Met John Davidson briefly recently; he 'seemed a genial and light hearted little man, with a nice Scotch accent'.

Trinity College, Cambridge. - Has been invited to dinner with the Jebbs on Saturday the 17th: if Bob does not go to the Verralls, is welcome to dine in George's rooms 'which are in a way common family rooms as the pictures proclaim' and invite guests as he likes. George will write to Moore or Dickinson, say, if Bob says he would like to see them there. Is also engaged for lunch on Sunday, but hopes Bob will breakfast with him, and dine if he wants to.

The papers concern psychical research, in particular the concept of cross-correspondence in the writings of automatic writers, and consist of automatic scripts by Margaret and Helen Verrall (later Helen Salter), with notes and correspondence relating to these and the writings of other automatists active during the early decades of the twentieth century, including those of Alice Fleming ("Mrs Holland") and Winifred Coombe Tennant ("Mrs Willett"). In addition, there are 32 privately printed volumes, including various scripts edited by the Verralls, J. G. Piddington, Alice Johnson, and G. W. Balfour; Piddington's nine-volume analysis 'Notes and Excursuses' and W. H. Salter's 'Introduction to the Study of Scripts'.