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Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Read Robert's letter to Caroline [16/6] with great interest; glad he is sailing with the Pentlands; remembers travelling to Southampton in early 1859 with his father, who was 'leaving England on the same errand' [going out as Governor of Madras like Lord Pentland]; comments on his father's 'avoidable catastrophe'. They will take good care of Elizabeth and Julian when Robert is away. Interested to hear about the Indian poet [Rabindranath Tagore]; wonders whether his plays are on modern themes. Pepys made a note about deciding a bet between two of his friends on whether a tragedy needed to be true; Pepys thought not and Dr Fuller agreed with him. He and Charles shot a hundred and one rabbits one morning recently, round Sir E[dward] Grey's covers.

Tells Bob to write if he does not get his boots: George would be sorry to see him 'like a French grenadier of 1796'; ads that he himself 'would have fought with greater pleasure in that army than in any other... just for the first four or five glorious years'. Had a 'great field day' here last weekend; wisely Sir George did not come to the meeting, which would have been 'rather an ordeal' as there were so many people, but 'held his own at a breakfast' in George's rooms on Sunday. Has discovered that almost everything by Swift amuses him; spends an hour on the Backs reading Swift or Pepys every day; would not advise Bob to try as the 'political allusions' are crucial, but it is a 'splendid insistence' of what Bob said about 'history as - what shall we say - the dressmaker [emphasised] of literature'. Is busy reading and thinking, as he is giving a paper to the 'Sunday Essay [Society]' this week and 'a greater society' [the Apostles?] the week after, the first papers of the sort he has written.

Remembers his promise to Evelyn and Samuel Pepys to publish his sermons and will do so as soon as he is able.

[Beginning of letter missing]. Numerous people always die of heart complaints during general elections; the "Lancet" used to write an article on the cases; expects they will all die at once on the 29 or 30 of December [since the count will be on the same day in all seats for the first time]. Is finishing his letter on the back of another regarding an address to [Edwin] Abbott, who was 'Senior Classic' in his year; Sir George quoted in Latin [Virgil Aeneid 1.475] when he signed to express his inferiority to Abbott, which pleased him. Looking forward very much to seeing Julian and Elizabeth.

Sir George's letter is written on a typed one from W. G. Rushbrooke, St. Olave's Grammar School, Tower Bridge, S.E.1., dated 11 December 1918; this thanks him for signing the address to Abbott, Rushbrooke's old headmaster, but also thanks him for giving him the chance 'to come into touch with the biographer of Lord Macaulay and the author of "Horace at Athens"'; sure his signature will give Abbott great pleasure, which is important as his health is now very frail. Sir George has annotated the letter, noting that St. Olave's was Pepys's old church, that Rushbrooke was 8th Classic in 1872 and fellow of [St] John's [Cambridge], and that Abbott is an Achilles who has 'never sulked in his tent'.

(Sheffield.)—Refers to Pepys’s use of the expression ‘my lord’, in illustration of its use by Nashe.

(Dated 4 Oct. Postmarked at Sheffield on 4 Oct. 1909.)

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Transcript

4 Oct.

I think you somewhere in Nashe raise the question about the use of the expression ‘my lord.’ {1} It is said by Moorhouse in his book on Pepys {2} that Pepys in the diary uniformly calls Sir Edward Montagu ‘my lord’, even before he [be]came Earl of Sandwich.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I got a good holiday in the Highlands, Oban, Skye &c.

[Added on the back:] But apparently he was one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury in 1658.

[Direction:] R. B. McKerrow Esq | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield S.D.O. at 9.45 p.m. on 4 October 1909. Marked in pencil ‘Nashe’.

{1} The expression is referred to several times in Vol. IV: see pp. 87 (note on i. 153, 22), 194 (note on i. 329, 22), 416, and 419. It is not clear which instance Moore Smith had in mind.

{2} E. H. Moorhouse, Samuel Pepys, Administrator, Observer, Gossip (1909).

Four letters: "Refers to I. Newton letter to Sam. Pepys 23 Dec. 1693 bought by R. J. Edleston from F. Barker (who bought it from [?] 'Bibliotheca Phillippica' 4th July -6 July 1892) and later presented by Miss Edleston to Trinity College Library in 1953." - note on second page of Add.Ms.c.1/100.