Showing 4 results

1 Essex Court, Temple, E. C. - Has just received Bob's letter about Donald Tovey and the [Lake] Hunt. Donald is spending a weekend at Swan's at the end of the month. so there will be a good opportunity to talk to him about the Hunt. Does not think he will have 'much difficulty in getting him up to the scratch; the difficulty will, if there be any, arise in another quarter'.

Heard from Miss Weisse recently that Donald is 'putting the "finishing touches" to the Opera [*The Bride of DIonysus, libretto by Robert Trevelyan]'; hopes when Bob returns 'he will find his great work completed'.

Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Sends Christmas wishes to Robert and Elizabeth and expects it is very different to theirs; the "Times" says it is the most wintry Christmas since 1895 and although he generally believes nothing they print supposes they are right. Has read all of Robert's book ["Polyphemus and other poems"] and thinks there is 'very genuine refinement and delicacy throughout', while the form is 'very ingenious'. Having a 'largish party' on Friday: Eleanor Cropper, Dorothy Ward, [Kenneth?] Swan, 'Mr Ridge MP,' and Geoffrey Young; the girls 'ought to have enough beaux'. The shooting has finished and it has been a 'record year'. Is reading Tacitus through slowly; thinks his style is 'Carlylean': 'rugged, amorphous, intensely individual - carrying everything off by its being the mode of expression chosen by a very strong man'. Asks Robert to remember them to Madame Palumbo [in Ravello].

2, Cheyne Gardens. - Has sent Bob's letter to [Kenneth?] Swan. Glad that Bob is returning to the Lake Hunt. Has been hearing a lot about India from 'various persons, white and brown' and has become 'quite a Tagorite, under the teaching of Yeats, W[illiam] Rothenstein' and a pupil of Tagore. Tagore has 'stopped Yeats being mad on magic and small green elephants' and without 'his magic nonsense, Yeats is one of the really splendid people'. The [First] Balkan war 'bids fair to end very well'. Wonders 'whether Goldie [Dickinson] will like his Chinaman as little as the Webbs [Sidney and Beatrice] when he meets (and smells) them'. Sees from the address that Bessie has given that Bob will be there for this 'great meeting'; hopes that Goldie will not be like Matthew Arnold, whom H[enry] Sidgwick said judged 'everything by its smell' like a dog. Glad that Bob has had some good bathes, but tells him not to be 'eaten of [sic] crocodiles', since Mary would never be able to read "Peter Pan" again if Bob 'suffered the fate of Capt. Hook'. Has just finished writing "[The Life of John] Bright" and hopes to publish it in May or June.

Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Was judging at the Exhibition on Saturday; 'Sunday we went to Church!'; Sir George read his chapter to her for two hours on Monday. Elinor Middleton, Kenneth Swan and 'M. Burnett' have been staying with them; tomorrow it is the tenants' party. Sir George was very pleased to have Julian's photograph; intends to come to see him in the autumn. Theo and Humphry have had measles and are recovering; Mary shows no sign of it; the children's visit may be delayed a little but George comes on the 31st. The [Henry Yates] Thompsons visit soon. Pleased to have good news of Julian; would like to see a photograph of him in the donkey cart. Hopes they are enjoying Mr [Donald] Tovey's visit and that he is better.

Continues the letter after having been interrupted by Mary and her guests Mr and Mrs Runciman, then 'the children with the poney [sic]'; Pauline is 'beginning to ride nicely'. Has read Rosalind Murray's The Leading Note, which is 'nice and simple, but a girl of that age does not know enough to write a novel'. Hopes Robert is enjoying having 'Ariadne clothed and adorned [by Tovey's composition of the score of The Bride of Dionysus].