Included are letters from Stanley Baldwin (C/13, C/16), Sir Richard Threlfall (C/13), Sir B.H. Liddell-Hart (C/14), Neville Chamberlain (C/14), Sir Anthony Eden (C/16), Edmund Charles Blunden (C/14), John Buchan (C/14), Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (C/14), Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (C/15), Thomas Coke, 4th Earl of Leicester (C/17), W. Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington (B/80), Robert O. A. Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (C/13), Karl Przibram (C/15), Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (C/16), Ernest Rutherford, Baron Rutherford of Nelson (C/15), John, 1st Viscount Sankey (C/13 and C/14), Sir William Napier Shaw (C/13), Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland (C/16).
22 Willow Road, Hampstead. - Finds it hard to write what he feels about the suggestion put to him by [John?] Withers: Bob's 'constant and affectionate interest' is 'one of the most precious things' in his life; if it were necessary he would accept [the offer of help], which he cannot imagine doing from someone like Bob; expresses his gratitude and 'the sense of perfect reliance and affection'. His father has given him some help, and B.B. [Bernard Berenson] has managed to sell the Venetians; Fry has also nearly finished three restorations. When he has done so, and written some reviews, he intends to get to work on Bob's 'rabbits' picture [see 13/17]. Helen is not quite recovered, but nearly; the nurse has gone and she is taking an interest in household things; Edith [her sister] is making sure everything runs smoothly.
The Old Masters [exhibition at the Royal Academy] are 'the chief interest in now' London; disagrees with the attribution of a picture in it to Dürer, but [Charles] Holmes 'committed the Athenaeum' to it while Fry was away. Bob might like to join the new Arundel Club, fpr the reproduction of works of art in private collections. The "Burlington [Magazine]" is doing well and Holmes is showing 'infinite energy & business capacity' [as editor]. Relates a scandal created when [William Bell] Paterson asked Fry for his opinion on a painting, which Fry judged to be largely modern paint over the possible outline of a Giovanni Bellini; the painting turned out to have been sold by K[err] Lawson to Coates [unidentified] for a large sum; 'always feared that K.L. was not over scrupulous about his ascription of pictures' and thinks this may damage him 'considerably'; Kerr Lawson has 'sent his "Titian" as a Bonifazio [Veronese] to the Old Masters [exhibition] and ought to sell that.
Would be 'jolly' if Bob could write [Fry's sister] Margery's masque [for the opening of the new library at Somerville College, Oxford, see 4/55 and 4/104]; hope he has forgiven the suggestion he could 'polish it off quickly', as Fry likes to 'think of a poet as a perennial fount, bubbling up and overflowing with limpid words', and praises his skill with mythology. Has written 'an extravanganza on Blake for the Burlington' ["Three pictures in tempera by William Blake', Burl. Mag, Mar 1904 4 p 204]. Julian is very amusing, and has begun to sing a little; Edith has a cello here and Fry is accompanying her 'in very simple things' - tells Bob not to let his wife know - which Helen enjoys.
27, Pentland Terrace, Edinburgh - Encloses a translation of the fire myth from the village of Moligilagi of two women of the Lukwasisiga clan mentioned in the letter of 1 September, and an account of the thunder (Pilapala) myth; is working on Social Psychology, problems connected with 'Phantom of the Collective Soul'; has been reading [William] McDougall's 'Group Mind', [Wilfred] Trotter's 'Herd Instinct' ['Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War'], and [Martin] Conway's 'Crowd' ['The Crowd in Peace and War'] and finds them full of interesting suggestions, sometimes sound, sometimes preposterous, 'all ignore the need of looking to facts for main inspiration'; the two most dangerous blind alleys at present are the 'Collective Soul' school and the branch of the 'Culture contact' school 'which denies all value and possibly psychological analysis'; may be in London soon to meet a French Jewish trader from the Trobriands interested in the native ignorance of procreation, who speaks the native language quite well.
Accompanied by the envelope.
Flendyshe, Fen Ditton, Cambridge - Thanks him for two more volumes of the third edition of 'The Golden Bough', describes the bookshelf of Frazeriana they will join; thanks him for his congratulations for the Festschrift, marvels at the quality of the papers; returns the [Roscoe petition?] signed, and has another signature from Sir W. Martin Conway.
Included are letters from Stanley Baldwin (B/67), Lady Betty Balfour (B/70), Harley Granville Barker (B/69), Sir J. M. Barrie (B/68), Edmund Charles Blunden (B/71), Evelyn Boscawen, 8th Viscount Falmouth (B/71), Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh (B/67), Max Planck (B/67, B/70), Sir J. H. Jeans (B/71), Sir W. H. Bragg, (B/73), Godfrey Benson, 1st Baron Charnwood (B/67), Prince Chula of Siam (B/72), W. Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington (B/71, B/73), Sir G. H. Duckworth (B/68), Frederich Homes Dudden (B/66), Lilly Frazer (B/72), Violet Grimston, Countess of Verulam (B/73), Graeme Haldane (B/72), Roy Harrod (B/72), A. E. Housman (B/73), David A. E. Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford (B/70), Sir Henry McCardie (B/63), Margaret (Daisy) McTaggart (B/68, B/70), Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven (B/70), Katharine, Lady Parsons (B/66), Marga Planck (B/67), A.O. Rankine (B/73), John, 1st Viscount Sankey (B/72), Lady Marjorie Sinclair, Baroness Pentland (B/71), Lady Elisabeth Babington Smith (B/66, B/69), Lucy Babington Smith (B/69), Susan Babington Smith (B/69).
Included are letters from Sir B. H. Liddell Hart (B/74), A. E. Housman (B/76, B/81), Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (B/77), 3rd Earl of Leicester (B/81), Ernest de Selincourt (B/81), Charles I. C. Bosanquet (B/79), John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (B/77), Hilda Margaret Pickard-Cambridge (B/81), Lionel E. L. Charlton (B/81), W. Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington (B/80), George Stuart Gordon (B/78), Winifred E. L. Hawke (B/80), George Cecil Jaffé (B/77), Kenneth Escott Kirk (B/79), James William Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater, Sarah Hamilton Lusk (B/75), Theodore Lyman (B/70), Francis John Lys (B/74), Margaret (Daisy) McTaggart (B/76, B/78, B/80), Robert O. A. Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (B/78), Stephen Charles Neill (B/76); Sir Harold F. P. Percival (B/79), Ernest Murray Pollock, Baron (later Viscount) Hanworth (B/74, B.79), Constance Babington Smith (B/78), Lady Elisabeth Babington Smith (B/75, B/78), Sir George Adam Smith (B/79).
Included are letters from Lady Betty Balfour (B/85), Charles I. C. Bosanquet (B/88), Anne Chamberlain (B/82), Walter de la Mare (B/83), Constance Elfrida de la Mare (B/83), Charles, 6th Baron Thurlow (B/84), Raymond Wilson Chambers (B/85), W. Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington (B/80), William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay (B/84), A.E. Housman (B/86), Sir Cecil J. B. Hurst (B/84, B/85), Sir Louis Charles Jackson (B/82), Cosmo Gordon Lang (B/82), Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford (B/84), John E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone (B/87), Sir William Napier Shaw (B/85), Henry John Sinclair, 2nd Baron Pentland (B/86), Lady Elisabeth Babington Smith (B/83), Owen Hugh Smith (B/87).