Girset [?], Java. - Received his father's letter of 20 January at Batavia, but there was no time to answer it before the mail went. They have been as far as Djodkakarta [Yogyakarta] in central Java, where they visited the great Budddhist temple Borobudur; this was 'as fine as anything [they] saw in India. They came here on the way back to Batavia; it is 'surrounded by seven large volcanoes', and they visited two of the craters.. [Goldsworthy Lowes] Dickinson is going to Bintenoy [?], while Robert returns to Batavia and will stay two nights with Bessie's half-brother Herman [des Amorie van der Hoeven], who manages several estates and is a 'very pleasant intelligent man'. They sail on 8 March for Singapore, but will not sail from there to Hong Kong until 15 March; will probably visit Deli in Sumatra in between. Will only have a month in China if he returns by the train leaving Pekin [Beijing] on 21 April in order to get back to London by 4 May. Not sure if he will receive any letters posted after this one is received, but gives an address in Pekin, which he expects to reach about 6 April. It is the rainy season here, but they have had a 'very pleasant impression of Java', though he does not 'find the people so interesting as in India'. The Dutch have certainly 'made more of a success of Java' than the British have of Ceylon; cites population growth. It is very hot in Batavia, but 'quite cool and pleasant' up here in the hills. Will be 'very glad to get home again', though he has had, and is 'still having, a wonderful time', and is especially looking forward to seeing something of China. Has just finished "Cousin Pons", which is 'a depressing story. The world can hardly be as bad as Balzac paints it'.
The Shiffolds. - He and Bessie are very glad to hear his mother is 'so much better, and... will now be able to get out again'; hopes the weather will not be too cold. They are all very well, and their 'invalid guest, Mr [Gordon] Bottomley, is fairly well too'. Will be getting the proofs of his new comedy [The New Parsifal: An Operatic Fable] soon. Asks his father to tell his mother that their nurse, who said last month that she did not want to stay, has now changed her mind; she 'had felt lonely, as most nurses do so far in the country'. Since she is 'in many ways quite good, and as Julian is fond of her', they will at least keep her for the next few months and see if she suits them; it is a 'great relief for Bessie not to have to look for a new nurse at once'. They are probably taking Julian to London at the end of the month 'to go for a time to an infants' school, as he sees too little of other children'.
Interesting that his father's 'American friend [the Secretary of the American Legation in Rome, see 12/207, possibly Arthur Frazier] should put [Rolland's] Jean Christophe on a par with Balzac and the great Russian novelists'; does not think he could ever do so himself, since though he 'admire[s] parts of Jean Christophe a good deal', on the whole it seems to him 'inorganic and often dull, with very little narrative interest'. It is however 'very typical in many respects of modern intellectual and artistic tendencies'.
Palace Hôtel, Rome. - Has not been reading "The Brothers Karamazov"; was amused by the first two chapters, but they support Robert's observations about 'the hysterical character'; Caroline was also 'stuck' for the same reason. Has seen much of the 'unusually clever and well read American Secretary of Legation' [Arthur Frazier, acting Secretary?], who says the 'three great epochs in foreign novels' are that of Balzac, the Russian epoch (especially 'Tolstoi and Turgenieff') and the Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland] epoch. The American ambassador, Page, is also a 'man of letters and means', of the same family as the American ambassador in England. Caroline has now been in bed with bronchitis for almost five weeks, and the doctors cannot say when she will be better; she is 'wonderfully patient'.
Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Robert's sight of Paris [working with the Friends War Victims Relief Committee] 'in these times' must be one of the 'greatest... scenes in the world's history'; since 'one knows Paris so much better even than London', any material or social change must be observable. Wonders what Balzac, Grandville, or Gavarni would have made of it. Supposes Dole is a headquarters of the Society; will be interested if Robert goes there, as he remembers going with his parents, while he was still a schoolboy at Harrow, 'on the immortal road [to Italy] with which Ruskin has made the world familiar'; reminisces about his journey; Ruskin's 'account of his boyish delight in that route makes one sick with longing that oneself, and the world, might be 65 years younger'. They have had 'delightful letters' from Elizabeth.
Dun Bull Hotel, Mardale, Via Penrith. (printed notepaper with photograph of the inn). - Meant to write to Trevy last Sunday, but since Barran and Childers 'forestalled' him he waited. They were all glad to hear 'how happy everyone is at Cambridge' . Childers and Malim are at church. They are 'mourning the departure of Cony [William Conybeare?]' whom Trevy will see before he gets this letter, but Barran will return tomorrow; he has 'been revelling at Winchester, and turned aside to go to a garden party at home'. Childers has 'turned us all into fisherman'; Marsh himself 'became perfectly brutal when I'd seen 3 trout knocked on the head'; he got a fish out of the water, but was unable to land it. Has not yet finished [Meredith's] "Vittoria"; has been reading "Harry Richmond" [also by Meredith], 'one of the liveliest & most delightful books' he knows. Is now reading [Zola's] 'Débâcle', as Trevy should; wishes he had a map of Sedan. Childers has 'gone perfectly wild over Balzac. They went to Seatoller and Mrs Pepper was 'very affable'; the Miss Peppers have 'become goddesses... divinely tall etc'; Trevy 'should have been there for the treacle pudding, which surpassed all its previous manifestations'. Their landlady and cook here, Mrs Hudson, also 'has real genius, besides being like a picture by Romney'.
Hôtel Floresta, Taormina [headed notepaper]:- Since he last wrote, has been to Syracuse for two days, and visited ‘the chief sites with the Hodgkins’: was good to travel in their carriages, since ‘the distances are great’. Escaped ‘the malaria, of which there is none now except in the Autumn’, and only then on the Anapo [river], as they have ‘drained the whole district’ recently, leaving little ‘either for the malaria or snipe-hunter’. Found Syracuse ‘the most enchanting place’ he has ever visited, but admits that since he ‘only stayed two days, and departed unsatisfied’ he perhaps cannot ‘judge dispassionately’. The ‘view of the harbour and the Anapus’ valley from Epipolae is one of the most fascinating [struck-through] beyond words’. Did not have time to see ‘the best of the quarries’, but saw one of them. The ‘Syracusan Epipolae is not so abrupt and sheer as the Northumbrian [Greenleighton: see 46/41] and is not so much a quarry as a kind of steep staircase shattered into ruins’. His parents should come next time they visit Italy: there is an ‘excellent hotel’.
Is glad she likes G[raham] Wallas: made ‘great friends with him at Welcombe’. They [Graham and his wife Ada?] have sent him a ‘choice of seats for the Philharmonic Concerts’: if his mother has not yet bought tickets and wishes to have seats, encourages her to choose, as she is ‘on the spot’; he will miss the first concert, but hopes to go to the second with her; advises her to choose the couple in the Grand Circle. Asks her to tell ‘the people at Chappells’ that he is not corresponding with them; Roger [Fry] must have forgotten to send it out to him, since ‘it seems to have been waiting more than a month’. Is well and enjoying the weather.
He and Roger have ‘entered into a partnership - he paints fans, chiefly on classical subjects’, and Robert supplies ‘sonnets to inscribe on them, treating the myth more or less frivolously’. Their ‘first venture is Jupiter and Io’; Robert’s sonnet pleased Roger, so he hopes that they will ‘continue [their] trade’. Tells his mother that ‘A fan… is to a painter, what a sonnet is to a writer… short and not a great undertaking, and yet… a finished piece of work, and not turned out slovenly’, therefore ‘useful for keeping one’s hand in’. Cannot find his rough copy, or would send it to her. Has been ‘indulging in a debauch of Balzac. Whatever his position among writers may be, he is certainly the most stimulating’. Hopes his father is ‘prospering with his [Charles James] Fox’, and ‘not troubling too much about our miserable fin-de-siecle politics’.
W[est] H[ackhurst]. - They are 'most concerned' to hear about Bessie's 'crisis' [seemingly regarding household servants], and keen for further news; his mother 'asserts that an old father is sure to be dirty', but Forster agrees with Bessie in 'considering him as an asset as a [?] pin'. Hopes that she will anyway 'send the Packs packing, and that they will encounter the discomforts which, by their vulgarity and their unkindness, they have done their damnedest to deserve'. If they had first given notice, so that they and Bessie could 'look about' at the same time, 'one would understand and sympathise, but this discreet preparation is unpardonable'.
Has not read his Where Angels [Fear to Tread] 'for a long time'. Is now reading Illusions Perdues, and 'liking it much better than other works by that master [Balzac]. It sometimes equals Proust in social atmospherics, and of course is his superior in dramatic bustle; also most amusing here and there'.
Florence [Barger] is staying with them for a few days and joins them 'in love and sympathy'; they trust Bessie will 'pull through the crisis'.
Their letters crossed; returns Sykes Davies' letter which 'is gay and charming, and doesn't suggest that much is wrong with him'.
3, Hare Court, Inner Temple. - Begins the letter in the National Liberal Club near Trafalgar Square, where he will soon go to an 'anti-jingo' meeting. Expects this will not be a big affair, as 'pacific people are only too few'; the 'self-satisfied Anglo-Saxon conceit gets worse and worse every year', and 'Kipling, Fashoda, Mr [Joseph] Chamberlain, and even the Dreyfus case' have contributed to it; wishes there was a 'good chance of a fiasco in the Transvaal, not so much for the sake of the Boers' but for the British; has never felt less of a patriot. Is working at the British Museum while his house is being decorated, for which [Roger] Fry has a free hand; expects the result will be 'most charming'. Glad the Frys are going to Ede; he is 'very interesting and full of ideas', though he always wants 'an orthodoxy to comfort him', not necessarily that 'of the multitude', and 'wonderfully sympathetic and imaginative'; she is 'delightful... in quite a different way to him'. Was not there when they cut into the cheese and did not send instructions, so it is now 'as dry as pumice' though they say they like it. Going to see a Japanese melodrama with them tomorrow; expects it will be 'pretty bad' but has heard the 'scenery and costumes are first rate'. Envies the Frys their trip to Holland, wishes that he could go there again so soon, and that Bessie were in the room with him now looking as he writes things he 'scarcely could put into articulate words, things which [he] dare not write now'. She would be safe, as [Charles] Sanger is away; otherwise he would be shocked, 'so mistrustful of ladies as he is wont to be'. His feelings have not changed, as he feared they may when he was away from her, and he now believes that they will not; will say no more, as he is 'not supposed to be writing [her] a love-letter', though he would if she gave him leave. Wishes they could see each other again soon; will come whenever or wherever she might say she wishes. Apologises for sending her that quote from [George] Moore [see 9/75]; meant to show her it was foolish of 'so muddle-brained a creature' as he is to try and understand such things; finds it easier to understand Moore when he talks than when he writes, as in writing he 'compresses his thought so small that it almost becomes invisible'; most philosophers 'sin' the other way. Says he sees nothing wrong in 'trying to think properly, which is all philosophy tries to do'; does not think it does imagination any harm. Could never agree with Neitsche [sic] that 'speculation is a kind of mental disease'. Quotes from Balzac ["Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan"] in French. Will send Bessie more books when she wants them.
Finishes the letter the day after the anti-war demonstration, which 'turned out to be antiboer', as the 'great majority of the crowd was for war'; they 'looked picturesque enough' but the meeting was dull since there was too much noise for the speakers to be heard and 'not even a decent fight'. Glad she is going to make some music with [Willem?] Witsen; asks when she starts her lessons with her new teacher in Amsterdam [Bram Eldering]. Is sorry he forgot to say goodbye [to her uncle]; they will think him vague and absent-minded, which is perhaps right. Hopes she is not worried by their suspicions; is glad Bramine [Hubrecht] is kind to her and that Bessie has taken her into her confidence. Fears there is 'only one way' [marriage] of things coming right for him. She guessed his age correctly: he turned 27 on 28 June. Guesses she is 24 or 25, but he is a bad guesser, and if she were '30 or even 40' he would not mind much, 'except that then [she] would not have as many years in this curious world'. Invites her to call him 'Bob', like his family and most intimate friends; is known in general as 'Trevy'. Now going to the British Museum to read Diodorus Siculus; he could make out he was 'very learnèd' in revenge for his confusion on saying 'something stupid about music'. Asks to be remembered to Bramine; is going to give one of her sketches to his mother. His mind is made up as to what he wants, but he can be patient 'for some time at least'.