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Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Hopes he is enjoying a rest after last term. Eliot’s British Academy lecture apparently contained ‘some startling recantations … which will flutter the Scrutiny dove-cotes’. Recommends O. J. Campbell’s Comicall Satyre and Shakespeare’s ‘Troilus and Cressida’. Moreno is going to lecture in Spain this summer. He was in great form when he visited Downside in January. Has started to collect material for his recusant anthology. Asks for news of ‘the Fribourg affair’.

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Is surprised to learn that Smith is still in England, and hopes that his difficulties will soon disappear. Quotes from his own compilation of prayers ‘for use when oppressed in mind & body’. Discusses types of breviary. Will be happy to help [E. M.] Wilson, as will Father Mark [Pontifex], and would like to meet Moreno [Báez]. He finds Smith’s style easier now and was convinced by his Webster article, but Dom Illtyd feels that elsewhere his arguments, though consistent, are not sufficiently founded in the texts. Has sent Leavis an article by Dom Illtyd expressing the reactions of a scholastic to the philosophical implications of Leavis’s literary position.

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Has heard news of him from his (Smith’s) aunt, whom he saw in Cambridge. Sympathises with Smith’s difficulties at Caracas and reflects on the role of suffering in the Catholic life. Hopes that his aunt will become interested in the Catholic faith. Discusses his relations with Edward Wilson (who has left Cambridge to begin war work), the Morenos, and the Leavises. Agrees that the dissatisfaction sometimes felt by Smith’s readers is largely due to defective critical training. Will draw Dom Illtyd’s attention to Smith’s Marlowe paper. Commends Smith’s point about Blake’s ‘equivocal’ Christianity. Hopes his asthma is yielding to treatment. Discusses his own prospects in the Tripos.

Benet House, Mount Pleasant, Cambridge.—Sympathises with his difficulties. Has passed Part I of the English Tripos in the first class and has obtained a scholarship at Christ’s College. Smith’s family are in good health. Encloses an ordination card. Discusses Father Ryan, who has replaced Father Watkis at the parish church. Moreno’s lectureship has now expired but he is being paid for broadcasts to Spanish America. Praises Moreno’s family and refers wryly to the exploits attributed to ‘the Leavis progidy [sic]’ [Ralph]. Moreno has been visited by Wilson. Asks after Bewley and McLuhan.

Downside Abbey, near Bath.—Is glad things have improved at Caracas and is impressed by the news that Smith has founded an institute. Despite getting a first in Part II [of the English Tripos] and the Stoll studentship [at Christ’s College] he is dissatisfied with his work, though he has appreciated Leavis’s supervision. Will miss his visits to Smith’s family. Father Grant has promised to call on Smith’s aunt. Has decided not to return to Cambridge but to research his chosen subject, the devotional prose of the Catholic recusants, at Downside; the subject of his Stoll paper, the medieval tradition in Shakespeare, deserves to be pursued by Smith himself. The boy he coached for a scholarship is not doing well at Cambridge but Dom Gerard [Hayes] has got a first; Brother Sebastian [Moore?] is also going to read English at Cambridge. Kenelm Foster, a Dante scholar, has come [to the Dominican friary] to take the place of Father Elrington, who has died. Relates an anecdote about Father Reeves, relating to a bust of Edward Bullough. Now that Edward Wilson is engaged elsewhere Moreno must find someone else to translate his thesis. Gives an account of the Corpus Christi procession.

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Responds to his inquiries about the academic dress he (Steuert) needs for graduation. Hopes that Smith’s interview with the [British] Council goes well and that he will be able to get congenial work in England. Moreno is now a lecturer at King’s College, London. Has much to discuss with him. ‘I’m afraid in many ways I’m no longer a thorough-going Leavisite.’