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Regarding Morris Moore's painting 'Apollo and Marsyas' which the National Gallery refused to buy as a Raphael [now in the Louvre as 'Apollo and Daphnis', and attributed to Perugino]. Includes offprint of letter to the Morning Post.

On headed notepaper for the Harrow Philathletic Club, with 'The Grove' added in Robert Trevelyan's hand:- Thanks her for her letter; 'quite agree[s]... about Georgie's remove', and does not see why he was passed over since he was 'left top last term'. Does not think it will do Georgie 'much harm, as this is a short term, and he will not lose any places eventually, if he comes out top'.

Is 'very glad about Hartlepool' [a Liberal by-election gain], and hopes 'things will go well in the house'. They have 'had some skating' here, but Robert did 'not care for it very much'; they have 'begun footer now, and there will be three matches'. Robert has got the new flannels, and thinks they are good enough, but 'fear[s] they will be another long bill'. He gave Jane 1.10 to buy 'umbrellas and braces and a few other things, as it will come to the same thing', so he will need money sooner than he thought, but not yet. Mrs Dimgate [?] has arranged his 'room during the holidays very satisfactorily.

Has 'very little news', since not much is going on. Asks whether Sophie is 'better, or out of bed yet?'. Had a 'very pleasant time with Miss Martin', and went to the National Gallery; there are 'two new pictures'.

7 Audley Square, W.1., Private - Is interested to hear about the bust of Frazer by Bourdelle, reminds her that the National Portrait Gallery does not exhibit portraits of living people; offers to approach the Tate Gallery; thinks Bourdelle is underrepresented in England.

7 Audley Square, W.1. - The Board of the National Portrait Gallery thanks them for the gift of the Bourdelle bust of Frazer; Charles Aitken, the Director of the Tate, is interested in the original clay [i.e. plaster] model.

Bessie shall have ‘the first two penny half penny letter’ he which writes; wonders why two and a half pence was ‘once a term of abuse’, they ‘must now speak of the sum with awe’. Gets home tomorrow or Friday, and hopes they can meet soon. Has just been for a weekend near Birmingham, and lunched with George [Derwent?] Thomson.

Agrees that, like Bessie, he is ‘courageous by fits and starts’. Reminds himself periodically of ‘two helpful truths’: ‘that everything is very interesting, and that one can usually be of a little use to someone’, but does not think that either is ‘a truth of the highest water. You can’t promote civilisation either by staring about you at the mess or by lending an occasional neighbourly hand to others who are involved in it’. Also, ‘endurance is not an adequate substitute for hope’.

Reads a good deal, which his illness had previously put him off doing. The Ministry of Information want him to write a pamphlet, and the B.B.C. want him to ‘talk about books to India’. Is ‘gladder to have written that Daily Telegraph letter [on ‘Nazism and Morals: Dangers of “Gestapo” Methods’, published on 16 Apr 1940]’, and very glad that Bessie liked it. Augustus Daniel ‘chaffed me gaily about it on the steps of the National Gallery yesterday’, thinks he was ‘actually a bit shocked’. Forster was on his way to hear three Mozart violin sonatas, ‘one very boring, another (in E flat) with a marvellous slow movement’.

National Gallery, British Art, Millbank, S.W. - Letters discussing the acquisition of the original plaster bust of J. G. F.: on 26 Oct. Aitken suggests that he get the model from Manchester to show the Trustees; on 4 Nov. he tells Lady Frazer that Mr Hayward will send the bust, but does not mention insurance; on 26 Nov. the Board has officially decided to accept the bust for the Modern Foreign Gallery; on 27 Nov. he would be pleased to show them around but they must know there is much redecoration being done at the moment.

Bayswater.- Morris Moore should succeed Seguier [at the National Gallery]: he is the best judge of Italian pictures in the country; 'He is an anti humbug and therefore is not likely to have many supporters'; can Milnes contrive it?

The National Gallery appointment is in the gift of Milnes' 'despotic master, 'orange' Peel, & could you soften his obdurate heart, [Morris] Moore would be pretty sure of the post; Milnes will perceive Moore's suitability if he calls; 'Mere picture dealing sagacity does not go far, & public taste needs direction, & has already too many purveyors to its pampered & gross appetite'.

3 Hare Court, Inner Temple:- Is setting off tomorrow morning 'by the train de luxe', and will reach Florence on Friday evening; his address will be c/o B[ernard] Berenson, Via Camerata. Expects he will stay there over Christmas. Went to tea with Mrs [Helen] Fry last Sunday: she was 'still better than last time', and will 'leave Roehampton quite soon, possibly has already'. Will see Roger Fry this afternoon at Fry's lecture. Mrs Russell Barrington and her 'majority on the committee have behave[d] abominably to him in the matter of payment'; his solicitors say he has an 'absolutely safe case' if he choose to fight it but he 'does not want to have a row'.

Is glad his mother 'liked the wood-cuts'; thinks the 'round Shannons were the best on the whole' and bought two of them, the Pegasus and the Diver. Some of Robert's friend [T.S.] Moore's Bacchantes and Centaurs and his Wordworths [illustrations] were 'very charming in quite another way, and of course he is not so accomplished an engraver as the others'.

[Robert] Binyon, who 'should know as well as anyone' recommends Dyer of Mount Street, who 'looks after the National Gallery pictures' to 'varnish the Holl'. Supposes his parents are 'sure it wants varnishing': pictures are 'so often over-varnished now', but Binyon says Dyer 'would be quite certain not to over varnish it'. Will however ask '[G. L.] Dickinson's father' whom he will see later today and 'ought to know best, as he is a good portrait painter of long experience'; Robert also thinks he 'knew Holl himself'. Will let her know in a few days.

Encloses a review [of his book Mallow and Asphodel] from the Speaker, which is 'quite favorable'; is 'still waiting for a real criticism, favorable or the opposite', but supposes he is 'asking too much of Reviewers'. Hopes his parents are well.

Milan. - Milnes' predictions concerning Lord Londonderry have been realised: he writes he has lost £40,000 a year through fall in coal market and has been forced to sell Correggios for less than half the £50,000 paid for them; at least they have been acquired by the National Gallery. Lord Londonderry offers other pictures, furniture, and marble chimneypieces, but is perhaps overestimating the need to sell. Lord George is to join Colonel Hughes on a tour of southern Italy, 'with a view of dispelling the blue devils'. Postscript sending compliments to Major Nolan.

Removed from National Gallery catalogue, The Early Netherlandish School.

'The main thesis of this brochure is that Antonio Pollaiulo enjoyed no reputation as a painter...'

Seatoller, Borrowdale, Keswick. - Thanks his mother for her last letter. Is glad she met [Herbert James] Craig, who is an 'excellent person', who was in Scrutton's chambers when Robert was there. [Henry Francis] Previté is a 'great friend of his' and says he is 'really a first-rate candidate'. Robert would 'like to see him again very much'.

The weather has been 'excellent', with just one stormy day. Bessie seems to be getting on very well at Rottingdean with Mrs Salomonson, and is 'probably going to bathe'. Expects Dowden's [biography of Robert] Browning 'would be dull. Chesterton's is certainly lively' though it 'annoyed [Robert] very much': thought Chesterton 'said all the wrong things it was possible to say about Browning as a man of letters, and in fact entirely showed himself up as a critic'; he was 'more interesting about Browning as a man, but even there was exaggerated and paradoxical'. Admits this may not be fair, as he 'never can stand Chesterton'.

Has a 'few scanty notices of the Chantrey bequest committee' in his newspaper; the [Royal] Academy's defence 'has certainly been a fiasco, as it was bound to be'. Hopes 'the whole gang of them will get thoroughly discredited at last', as until that happens there is 'no hope of any adequate recognition of what is really good in modern art', or reform of the mismanagement of the National Gallery. Poynter 'has just succeeded in swindling Fry out of the Slade Professorship', as he thinks he has already told her; this is 'only one instance of the fatal power for evil that his gang possesses'.

Is getting on with his own work, 'rather slowly "eppur si muove"'; his father is also getting on with his, doubtless a little faster.