Written from Copthorne School in Sussex, mostly about school sports and books. There are 19 letters to "Mamma" and one fragment of another, and one letter to Hugh.
Robin Ghyll, Langdale, Ambleside. - As he and Janet have 'hoped and expected' for a while, Mary has got engaged to John Moorman, who came to Hallington for a week in August; they met in June, at the Cornfords' musical parties in Cambridge. He left Cambridge this year, having stayed after his degree to train as a clergyman, and is now a curate in Leeds; he studied under [George Gordon] Coulton, who 'thinks highly of him'. He is 'liberal-minded', and George has discussed religion and history with him 'with much agreement and no feeling of barrier'. Moorman is also a 'fine walker' and is 'small but wiry'; his father was Professor of English at Leeds, and his mother is 'much respected in academic circles', and matron of a University hall in Leeds; their closest family friend is [Arthur] Grant, recently retired from the History Professorship there, a 'first-rate man'. Moorman's 'most intimate older and younger friends are Bishop Wyld [sic: Herbert Wild, Bishop of Newcastle], who conducted George and Bob's parents' funerals, and his son [John?]; in fact his 'whole entourage and atmosphere is about equally academic and clerical'. Thinks he will suit Mary very well, though 'not many people would', so he and Janet are much pleased.
reply to dinner invitation, looking forward to seeing designs for "Comus"
Trinity College Cambridge - is required to suggest a subject for next year's Chancellor's Medal, considering whether it is possible to write a poem on the subject of evolution.
Trinity College Cambridge - temporary presidency of the Workers' Educational Association, arrangements to see his mother and Frances Darwin
K[ing's] C[ollege] C[ambridge]. - Asks if Bessie could come for lunch on Wednesday: the Cornfords may be coming for tea and he would prefer to see her alone. Charlie [Sanger's] death is 'a blow'. Asks her to tell Bob 'I never had his Blue Trowers, either the book or the real object'.
Trinity College Cambridge - presentation from workpeople, planning to visit Jane Ellen Harrison.
Trinity College Cambridge - hopes Frances Cornford will attend Socialism debate.
Trinity College Cambridge - speeches were bad [at the socialism debate] because speakers had too much to say, Suffrage meeting - driven mad by Mrs Humphrey Ward, Jane Ellen Harrison's health better: TCC
Trinity College Cambridge - discussion of modesty based on pamphlet by Alderman Reuben [George].
Trinity College Cambridge - believes Frances will become a socialist, separation while Frances Cornford is in Donegal, cannot write to her as to a "young lady", Whitman's poetry.
Endcliffe, Saunton, N Devon - calls her Frances for the first time, Jane Ellen Harrison much better after journey, description of place they are staying in, socialism, dislikes those who see "social questions" rather than human relationships: Endcliffe, Saunton, N Devon
plans for journey to Switzerland with John to visit their parents, will meet Reg in London on the way, "cursory toe bulletin".
Conduit Head, Madingley Road, Cambridge - Thanks them for the volume of selections [S. G. Owen's 'Greece and Rome: a selection from the works of Sir James George Frazer'?]; his wife has been ill and is slowly recovering.
The Warren, Chesham Bois - [John Cornford] is invited to tea, he is an isolated and unusual boy:
Harnham, Monument Green, Weybridge. - Asks if Trevelyan could lend him some books as the L[ondon] L[ibrary] has failed him; would like some of: Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland]; Butler's "Life or Habit" [sic: "Life and Habit", Samuel Butler], "Luck or Cunning" and "Evolution Old and New"; Dostoieffsky, "Les Possédés" [Dostoevsky, "Demons"] but not "L'Idiote" as he jokingly says he has 'déjà stucké dans le'. Asks if Trevelyan has read Gertrude Bone's "Women of the Country"; thinks Miss Mayor's book [F.M. Mayor, "The Third Miss Symons"?] is also good. Asks what Trevelyan thinks of Mrs Cornford's "Morality" [Frances Cornford, "Death and the Princess: A Morality"]: he found the middle dull but the end beautiful. Masood is marrying the niece of Sultan Ahmed Khan. Is going to visit Mrs [Hope] Wedgwood at Idlerocks in Staffordshire, then to Meredith in Ireland.
Bound volume with cover title, "List of Writers of Letters to Henry Jackson (1839-1921), Fellow of Trinity College (1964-1921)", featuring an alphabetic list of correspondents with summaries of the letters and descriptions of the correspondents in Add.MS.c.24-47, with a letter tucked into a pocket in the back written by Henry Jackson 19 Oct. 1858, his first letter home from Trinity College, a sketch of the cloisters in Nevile's Court by Christopher Cornford, and a poem by Frances Cornford entitled 'Gone Down', three photographs of Jackson, his room in Nevile's Court, and his grave. Also pasted in are a printed list of books dedicated to Henry Jackson and a printed flysheet relating to reforms at the university.
Jackson, Sir Henry Cholmondeley (1879-1972) Knight, General'as from' Conduit Head, Madingley Road, Cambridge. - Receiving "From the Shiffolds" was one of the best things about Christmas this year; thanks Trevelyan, and apologises for not doing so earlier due to her son Christopher's leave, 'influenza in the house & no domestic help all happening at one'. Thinks the end of the poem to Ursula Wood about Virgil touches her most, as well as "Dream Truth", whose 'finality & clear, sure shape' she praises. Trevelyan will probably guess that she is 'deeply interested to read translations - being [herself] a translation addict'; she is a 'good subject to try the Petronius on', as she knows no Latin - which she believes to be 'an almost hopeless handicap for any writer of English'. Thinks she gets a 'fresh & firsthand sense of the originals', which must be 'enchanting'. Makes the 'tentative criticism' that sometimes Trevelyan uses word order 'which is just too foreign'; has noticed the same 'almost stilted inversions' in Trevelyans own verse, mixed with others that have a more modern tone, and is not sure whether the content of the lines justifies the difference. Asks whether Trevelyan is 'developing a new & more intimate manner of writing' and this is 'a transition period'.
Conduit Head, Madingley Road, Cambridge. -Thanks Trevelyan for his 'Christmas translations' ["From the Shiffolds"]; apologises for only writing now, as they arrived when she was ill with flu and she 'rashly lent them from [her] bed' and found they had 'completely vanished'. After waiting a long time for them to reappear, finally asked to borrow Eily's copy. Does 'admire & trust' Trevelyan as a translator, who never gives '"that translation feeling"' but always gives a sense of the original language. "Moretum" is 'such a startling Dutch genre picture'.
End House, Chiltern Road, Chesham Bois. - Was 'charming' of Trevelyan to send her his 'Christmas book of poems' ["From the Shiffolds"]; will 'put him next to "Aftermath" & "Leopardi"'. Wishes she could have included "Pusska" in her anthology ["The Poet's Cat"], but it 'went to the printers last September & has not been heard of since', though she had hoped it could come out for Christmas. If she can add a 'supplement', would like to have "Pusska" as well as the Tessimond poem ["Cats"] she has just found in the Bozman and Church "Everyman" anthology ["Poems of Our Time"]; if not they will 'certainly go in a 2nd edition'. Has indeed included "Pangur Ban" which, along with du Bellay's "Epitaphe d'un Chat' gave her the idea for the collection. Admires Trevelyan's translations: thinks he, Sir Eddie Marsh and Mrs Cornford are a 'wonderful trio'; much appreciates his "Leopardi", and as she does not speak Italian would 'never have known his strange melancholy' but for Trevelyan. Sends regards to Mrs Trevelyan if she still remembers her.