Showing 69 results

Text written on recto, with scholarly apparatus on verso opposite, corrections and emendations.

Blakemoor farm, Widdrington. Thanks H M Butler for [scholarship] examination papers pleased to see that Thucydides warrants an essay, wages £156 pa, retirement manouvres.

Thanks H M Butler for a pocket Thucydides, placed on alert but immediate danger passed

Palermo:- Has come here for a few days to ‘draw on [his] bankers’ and see some more of the place; will return to Taormina tomorrow or the next day. Is well; the weather ‘has become Italian again, after nearly a week of continual wind and rain’. The rain was ‘sadly wanted’: the Cacciolas say that there has not been a ‘proper downpour’ for three years, so that citrus and other fruit trees are ‘quite backwards, and the blossoms unhealthy’. The Cacciolas have been ‘very kind’, allowing him to borrow books, but still he does not thinkTaormina can ‘hold a candle to Corpo di Cava as a place to stay’, and he would definitely have gone there had it not been for the cold. Has not yet received her second letter, but thought he would write since he may not return to Taormina till Tuesday. Is just going for a drive with the Hodgkins, whom he found in Palermo to his ‘surprise’. When the ‘old boy is at Syracuse’, Robert will go there for a day: Hodgkin has ‘an exaggerated idea’ of Robert’s knowledge of Thucydides, and wants him to ‘demonstrate the military topography’; Robert is however confident that he knows the ‘“siege” pretty well’. Will write again from Taormina.

Hotel Timeo, Taormina [on headed notepaper]:- There is 'beautiful weather again', though the nights are rather cold. Everything is 'rather backward this year, and the almond trees are only just beginning to blossom'; there are many in the Cacciola garden, which 'will be a very Eden in a day or two'. Is still living a 'studious and simple life, not cottoning' to any other hotel guests, but occasionally taking meals with the Cacciolas. They have many books, and a 'really fine collection of illustrated books of all kinds, Nashes, Bidas, Dorés etc'.

Is going to Syracusa for a day on Thursday or Friday, to 'go over the place with Dr [Thomas] Hodgkin, and to listen to long-drawn comparisons between the Syracusan and Crimean campaigns'. Will 'remember and compare the Greenleighton Epypolae [Greenleighton was a moor with a prominent hill in Northumberland near Wallington, Epipolae a fortified plateau near Syracuse]' when he visits its 'prototype', though he fears the animals 'that browse about its foot will be a sorry lot and nothing to compare to MacCracken's prize sheep'. But 'the genuine Theocritean shepherd still survives here, still plays on a συριγξ (or reed) and still calls out σιτθ to his goats'. Surprisingly, he was as unable to buy a text of 'the great Sicilian poet [Theocritus]' in the capital of the island, Palermo, 'nor even a Thucydides'; he did manage to 'rout out an Odyssey' to re-read the story of the Cyclops, which is set 'in a cave a few miles south of this place'.

Her 'P. M. Budget [a newspaper his mother has sent to him?] is 'very welcome'; also sees Truth, which someone at the hotel takes. Has had a cold, but got rid of it; otherwise has been in 'first-rate health'. Hopes his family are 'all enjoying life, and not suffering too much for being London-pent'.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Thanks Robert for his letter [46/333]and discussion of [Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke]: Sir George has never alluded to Dilke's action [refusing the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland], and the journalists have noticed his silence; quotes Robert's letter on Dilke's possible motives, and notes Dilke himself said he would not take the post unless in the Cabinet. Spencer [Cavendish?] was in the Cabinet, but 'Freddy Cavendish' not. Dilke was always friendly, though Sir George does not remember him 'taking any part whatever about Ireland'; Dilke's close ally [Joseph] Chamberlain was 'conspicuously helpful and loyal' to Sir George throughout his time in Ireland, showing 'much delicacy, and self-suppression'. Agrees completely with Robert's praise of George's book [History of England].

Julian, and the family, are lucky to have 'such books, read by such a reader' [Elizabeth]; Great Expectations is a 'striking' result of a return 'to legitimate methods of authorship'. Grouse-shooting today for 'practically' the first time this year, since Charles has been very busy; will make sure that Robert and Elizabeth get some birds. Last Thursday marked the sixth full week of his medical treatment; the 'local injury' [to his hand] is almost better, but he is in general much weaker. Is reading through [Xenophon's] Hellenica for the first time, after finishing Thucydides.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Likes writing to Settignano; sends his regards to Robert's host [Bernard Berenson]. Is grateful for the photograph of Aulla [home of Robert's friends the Waterfields]; has tried to get a sense of it by comparing photograph and letter, but will have to ask Elizabeth for further help when she comes tomorrow; hopes she has recovered from her bad cold. He and Caroline are quite well, but he is 'very perceptibly weaker every month or so', though he can still get household and financial business done, and enjoys his Greek and Latin reading 'at least as much as ever'; has now finished re-reading Tacitus, Herodotus, and the first half of Thucydides, which he intends now to finish alongside Xenophon's "Hellenica" and some Suetonius; praises Suetonius's biographies of Augustus and Julius Caesar.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Hopes Robert has arrived safely. Has read the first article in the ["Times] Literary Supplement" [on Robert's "Thamyris, or Is There a Future for Poetry?"]; wonders whether there will be discussion in the correspondence next week. Had a very pleasant week with Robert's 'dear people', though Sir George has been ill and 'confined to his room'; has finished Herodotus and Tacitus's "Annals" and is now reading Thucydides and [Tacitus's] "Histories"; has bought a new text of Thucydides.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Thanks Robert for the 'extract specimen' of an edition of Thucydides, which he returns; discusses the editions he has already, including the text by Poppo which he had at Harrow 'covered throughout' with pencil notes; some 'evidently from Dr Vaughan's lips' but most his own; some are 'really interesting, as written in the stress and agony of the Great War'. Thinks he will 'content himself with this little Clarendon Press edition'; asks Robert to tell Mary Caroline.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - The 'next generation' are very fortunate: Mary Caroline, George Lowthian, and now Julian can read Macaulay, Carlyle, and [Motley's] "Dutch Republic", and the books he himself had to read 'almost secretly, and as a sin' because he was meant to be writing 'copies of bad Greek Iambics' and puzzling over Demosthenes; now his grandchildren's 'first duties' are to 'read "Clive" and "Chatham" and Ferrero'. Interested to hear that Robert and Elizabeth have been reading Herodotus aloud together; when Elizabeth comes to Wallington he will show her Paul Louis Courier's paper, which is a 'masterpiece'. Begins re-reading the last two books of Herodotus himself on Wednesday; is finishing Tacitus's "Annals" today; discusses the contrasting styles of it and the "Histories". Agrees completely about Horace's "Epistles". Asks for advice on editions of Thucydides.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Is not writing much now, but must reply to Robert's letter [46/307]; drove as far as the garden yesterday, and saw Whitley and the carriage for the first time in a month; has felt well enough this last week to return to his Greek, and has been reading in the last book of Thucydides of what Jackson calls the 'Whig Revolution' at Athens, though 'Antiphon and his myrmidons were a queer sort of Whigs'; does not know how anyone can doubt this book is by Thucydides. George has just left to visit the Walter] Runcimans, and Janet for the funeral of 'Aunt Fanny', the 'last survivor of Doctor Arnold's family'. Very interested to hear what Robert is reading with Julian; looks forward to hearing about [Diogenes] Laertius and Athenaeus.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - He and Caroline are both 'fairly well, and heartedly contented'. Glad that Robert and Elizabeth are 'deep in Chaucer'; read him aloud to Caroline over two years in which they 'cared for no other poetry'. Is currently reading the four last books of Thucydides; intends then to alternate Terence with [Sophocles's] three Theban plays and four plays by Aristophanes; then to read two Plato dialogues and the four first books of Herodotus: that 'is far enough to look forward to, and (most probably) too far'.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Glad to see the Liverpool University book list, and will be very interested in [Robert's translation of Aeschylus's] "Oresteia"; has just finished the first four books of Thucydides, 'as a fellow of a famous Oxford College [Oriel]' feels he should 'acquaint' himself with Aristotle, for the first time in more than sixty years; sure a 'little will go a long way' and he will be able to return to Euripides at Welcombe. Reading all of his plays is 'a delightful occupation for the last years of a chequered, and somewhat laborious, life'. Likes to think of Robert and Elizabeth enjoying the autumn colours; cannot remember anything more beautiful than the China pond and East wood at Wallington are now. Glad Elizabeth had a good impression of Mr Walker, who is a 'good fellow' and will probably 'appreciate a parish where there is no public house'. Caroline is 'very patient, and acquiesces in her invalid life'; he himself feels his age, 'but not altogether unpleasantly'.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary. - Thanks his father for the fifty pounds paid into Robert's account. Julian returned to school yesterday, and Bessie is on a brief visit to a friend near Marlborough. Robert is 'just starting for Berkhamsted, for a weekend with George and Janet. Julian 'seemed quite cheerful at going back to school, more so than in old days'.

They are very glad Sir George is 'so much better, and are able to go about as usual, and also to start on Thucydides again'. Diogenes Laertius 'has a certain interest, but there is a lot of legendary gossip in it'. Has got Meineke's Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum from the London Library, and finds 'a great deal that is worth reading from Philemon, Alexis and others'. There is 'too much about cooks and guzzling, but that is because Athenaeus... quoted everything anybody ever wrote about cooks'. But Stobaeus chooses 'many really fine passages'.

On headed notepaper for Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland:- Mr Belfield arrived last Saturday, and Robert met him at the station. Likes him 'very much so far in every way': finds him 'very interesting' and they get on well. Thinks he teaches 'very well', as far as he can say from the little experience he has had of that so far: they have done some Thucydides, and began Tacitus today.

Yesterday they fished, but caught nothing so will wait until they have had more rain. 'Very windy' last Sunday, but they still went to church in the morning. Hopes his father is keeping well, and 'the good cause is prospering'. Sees that K[ing] Harman is dead, and wonders 'who will be appointed in his stead' [as parliamentary Under-Secretary for Ireland]. There 'is no fear of the Manchester murderer [John Jackson] now', as Robert sees he has been caught.

Thornton [gamekeeper at Wallington] caught a 'large pike yesterday at Capheaton lake'; he had gone there to 'see about a dog'. Thanks his father for his letter and '[Mountstuart?] Grant Duff's about the flower'. Thompson and Keith [John and Edward, gardeners at Wallington?] 'came in to see the books and found out several things they had not known'. Sends his love to his mother, and asks his father to thank her for the books and say that Robert will write to her tomorrow.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Glad Robert was not 'over burdened' to receive his own books [see 12/250]. Amusing about Julian's 'hero-worship of [George] Stephenson'; agrees that he was a 'hero'. Glad Julian learns what he is interested in by heart, and well; thinks quality more important than quantity; he himself 'ruined' what he supposes was a good memory by having to learn too much, and has tried to improve himself recently by learning a few select pieces. Turned seventy eight years old today, and has finished reading Thucydides, having begun reading it on 28 January; agrees with [Henry] Jackson that the 'account of the scoundrelly plot of Pisander, and the Whig counter Revolution of Theramenes, is equal to most things in history'; does not see how anyone can doubt it is by Thucydides.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Thanks Robert for the 'exact report' from Grosvenor Crescent; glad that he and Elizabeth like 'the trifles of furniture' [which they are getting after the sale of the London house]. Must already have Caroline's old Murray "Handbook for Travellers"] of 1864; asks him to bring the 1864 ["Handbook"] for France when he visits; does not want the others. Glad that daylight saving suits Robert generally, 'specially by its effect on the hens'; mentions a 'nice calculation, suited to dear Julian's tender years'. Is now finishing the last volume of Motley's history of the Dutch Republic, which he has been reading off and on 'since the European war began'; has much to say about it when he meets Robert and Elizabeth. Leaving for Wallington next week, and are both glad and sorry to leave this 'delightful garden of Eden'. Postscript on separate sheet says that he is just finishing the seventh book of Thucydides, and understands why 'good judges' think it the best; 'worthwhile having tried to write history oneself in order to be able to appreciate the marvellous skill of the narrative'.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Caroline received a most interesting letter from Bessy this morning; he has ordered Drummond [his banker] to pay thirty five pounds into Robert's account for Julian's 'little affair' [an operation on an umbilical hernia]; 'quod optime eveniat!' [Latin: may this turn out well]. Sends George's account of their 'little ceremony of Boxing Day'; asks for it back. Has been reading Herodotus, 'with a play of Plautus between each book'; has reached the last book and wishes there were nine more; Plautus grows on him more with each reading, as also happened to Macaulay when he read and re-read him in India. Is now going to read Thucydides, again with a Plautus play between each book. Sir John Simon stayed last week, and mentioned that he had shown Thucydides 2.71-74 to Asquith as 'a curious parable to the story of Belgium'. Was glad to find the narrative easy to read.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Is 'gratified' by Robert's comments on his book ["History of the American Revolution"]. Curious how much literary work is 'improved by print'; remembers Henry Sidgwick criticising his "Life of Macaulay" when he saw it in manuscript, but 'as a book it had no more indulgent partisan'; in this case Sir George made many alterations in response to Robert's 'critical revision'. Pleased by the unanimously good reviews, though 'the historical adepts have something to say', mostly about the forthcoming parts. Wishes they were with Robert [in Florence?] and look forward to being 'ciceronied' next year. Asks if the Cathedral Tower (he thinks) has been re-built and whether there is a subscription fund still open. Is reading the last five books of Herodotus and [written in small letters] 'much prefer[s] him to Thucydides' whom he has also been reading; looks forward to discussing with Robert. Responds to Robert's criticisms of the book: one is a bad misprint; one his uncle [Macaulay] would have likewise corrected. Caroline sends love; they hope he has better weather, and that it will 'persist for George'.

[On headed notepaper for Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland]: - Thanks his father for his letter. Apologises for being 'rather slow in writing this week'; 'will make a point of writing on Sunday' another time. His form are reading 'the 5th book of the Aeniad [sic] and the Seven against Thebes; later they will also read some Cicero, but he does not yet know what; they will go 'straight on in the Thucidides' [sic].

Does not know where he will be placed in his form this week, but he has 'worked [his] best'. Did not do very well at the beginning, 'through not knowing his [teacher's] ways', but has been 'getting on better lately. Has 'had some verses sent up' and is 'working hard at them'. Thinks Charlie is 'getting on very well in Hallam's form'.

The torpid matches will be soon; his house are 'very good this year and... even have a chance of being cock-house'. He and Charlie are both 'quite well now'. Hopes his mother is well. Is 'so glad to hear that Meta [his cousin] is better. The weather is 'very cold here and it has been freezing a great deal'. Last Sunday, some boys 'made a row in the grove, and chased the chickens', so Mr Bowen has closed the grove for now; Robert was not involved. This Saturday there will be a 'whole holiday'. Hopes Spider is well.

Accompanied by a typescript draft headed "Under a plane tree", a letter from F. H. [Sandbach?] to Powell and a letter from an unidentified correspondent dated 22 Dec. 1929.

One of 48 notebooks, Add.MS.c.113-150, used for Powell's edition of Thucydides published in 1942. With 3 sheets of notes fastened together, and 3 sheets headed 'A Portion of the history of the Arundel MS. of Thucydides, Results of enquires at Arundel Castle Aug. 7, 31.'

One of 48 notebooks, Add.MS.c.113-150, used for Powell's edition of Thucydides published in 1942. Collation of Ottob gr. 211.