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The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - Is glad to hear Booa is better; hopes she will soon be out of bed. All well here, 'except for Paul's Vaccination arm'; this should be 'at its worst' in a couple of days, though Robert does not think it will be particularly bad. Cycled over to the Rendels' house near Guildford [Hatchlands] 'as the only way of finding out about Tovey', and met him going for a walk with [Hal?] Rendel. Arranged that Tovey would come this Saturday for a few days; thinks that is what Tovey 'had really been hoping to do all along, though it is not in his way to write'.

Fry is coming down tomorrow to look at the Manor Farm at Abinger, belonging to 'Mr Evelyn of Wotton'; it is currently to let and may suit the Frys. Mrs Fry is recovering, 'perhaps sooner than on other occasions'. Sorry to hear that Charles has 'a bad cold or influenza'; hopes he will recover before his 'debate on the corrupt Companies comes on again'. Hopes his father is well, and will finish his book [Volume III of The American Revolution] soon.

8 Grosvenor Crescent, S.W. - Very sorry to have missed Elizabeth; they hardly ever lunch out, but Sir George 'wanted a holiday' so they went to the Private View then lunched with Lord Rendel. Booa has just told her Elizabeth's news [that she is pregnant] and Caroline is 'immensely delighted'; has hoped for it for a long time. Must arrange a time to come down to see her and Robert in Surrey; suggest the 19th or 20th. Elizabeth must not 'knock about, or come to London often', and must see about a nurse soon. Asks if she should tell Sir George.

Grand Hotel Valescure, St Raphael [headed notepaper]:- Is settled here ‘in the luxury of a ten francs pension’, waiting for the rain to stop. The hotel is ‘full of friends of Mr Bowen, sent here by him’: [J.W.?] Sandilands, the ‘Grahams of Harrow, and Mrs Graham’s parents Colonel and Mrs Stewart’, and the [Charles Alfred?] Elliotts. At a villa nearby is Bowen’s friend [William Henry] Bullock Hall, on whom Robert and Sandilands called yesterday, and who has leant Robert ‘an essay of his on the meeting of Lepidus and Antony at the bridge of Les Arcs’ which he wants him to send on to his father; Hall ‘cannot talk of anything now for half an hour without dropping into the subject of the Romans in the Riviera’, but is an ‘amusing neighbour’, and what Robert saw of the household ‘promise[s] some entertainment’. Will write to the Rendells [Stuart Rendel’s family?] at Cannes to see if they would like him to visit.

Although there has been no fine weather, Robert‘can see this is just the country’ for him, with its ‘indefinite miles of not too mountainous forests, and a network of good paths and no tourists… an infinite variety of trees and shrubs, and.. the sea not too far off’, with almost all the guests at the hotel his friends. Expects he will ‘stay well into February, and not go anywhere else’. Expects she will go up to London before long. Has little news; will have more when the sun comes out, as the current weather ‘is really very like Sirocco weather in Italy, and makes the mind as well as the soil damp and clammy, though not in so unpleasant a way’. Has however done some work, and will get on well this week. Was ‘delighted to see that Earl Russell has at last triumphed over his wicked old mother in law’. Hawkins 'has behaved very well'. Supposes C[harles] and G[eorge] are still at Wallington.

Hotel Valescure, St Raphael, France [on headed notepaper for 56 Belsize Park, Hampstead, N.W.]:- She may think him a ‘very shifting individual’, but he has altered his plans: he has been here a fortnight and ‘scarcely had one fine day’, with steady rain, so he is ‘tired of the place’ and does not think he would like to stay even if the weather were to improve. The Elliotts left two days ago, the Grahams are leaving tomorrow, and Sandilands [James or John?] thinks of going to Cannes, where Robert ‘certainly would not care to stay’. Thinks of going to Naples and then, if it is not too cold, to Corpo di Cava, where he ‘had so satisfactory a time two years ago’ and can live for ‘fr. 5 a day’, half of the pension at his current hotel. If it is too cold he can ‘go to Capri or Amalfi, either temporally or for good’ Is as ‘well as anyone can be who has been unable to take a walk without getting wet through for a fortnight’. If he starts this afternoon he will reach Naples next evening, ‘after a few hours to lunch and rest at Rome’.

He and Sandilands went to see the Rendels yesterday, and he met Mrs Goodhart for the first time. Clare [Clarice] was there, and drove them up the hill; Daphne was in England ‘keeping house for Lord Rendel’. Lady Rendel had ‘assembled the 8 oldest fogies from the Canne[s] hotels and villas’ and sat them at two tables ‘to play two games of four-handed chess, of which she is the apostle’; this was in the next room to that where tea was taken, and Lady Rendel took Robert to the door to see them, ‘as one might show a hutch full of tame rabbits, or guinea-pigs’. She pointed out ‘one old fellow… deaf and in blue spectacles’, saying he had played the game forty years ago; Robert hopes he has not played it continuously 'for it is a game plainly invented by the Evil One for man’s torment’. Clare has ‘weakly’ agreed to play, but says Daphne has ‘refused to learn the rules’. Asks her to send his letters to the poste-restante in Naples until further notice; supposes she will be in London, or just on her way.