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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.

Notes on: The Nature of Capital and Income, Irvine Fisher; Sweated Industries, Clementina Black; Some Chapters in Industrial Democracy, Sydney and Beatrice Webb; The Scope and Method of Political Economy, John Neville Keynes; The Labour Movement in Australia, Victor Selden Clark

1, Wellington Place, Tunbridge Wells:- Thanks his mother for her letter, which arrived yesterday. Is staying the night at Tunbridge Wells; his hosts [his aunt Anna Maria Philips and Sophie Wicksteed] are 'both in good spirits, and Sophie certainly not ill'. Is going for a few days next week to Failand near Bristol, the 'country house of Roger [Fry]'s family'. Will then go on to Welcombe, he thinks taking the places of the Webbs [Sidney and Beatrice, friends of his brother Charles?], 'for we have to wait our turn like aspirants for office'. Will be glad to get away from London, where he has been leading 'a miserable bus-riding rattle-of-bus-fretted existence since September'.

Thinks it will become a 'downright cruel winter' soon, as it is quickly getting colder 'after a long merciful delay'; if it does, London will be 'uninhabitable for a season, at least to work in', and he does not expect he will return. Will not come to his parents in Rome, as it 'would be absurd' not to see the sights which she 'describe[s] so temptingly' on his first visit, and this would 'not fall in with' his intention to work. Believes [Edward] Marsh is in Rome, or 'will be soon', since Robert 'just missed him in London'.

Will send the Pageant [magazine recently published by Ricketts and Shannon, see 46/38] if she likes, 'though there is much bad in it'. For him, its 'chief value' is that it has 'several old [D. G.] Rossettis and Mi[l]ais', as well as Rickett's Oedipus. Shannon's drawings have 'both been badly reproduced, and are by no means his best work'; in fact several contributors, such as Swinburne, Bridges, and Robert's friend [T.S.] Moore 'have not done themselves justice'. Does not know if his mother has 'ever tasted of Maeterlinck's strange vintage before'; he himself 'neither scoff[s] nor adore[s]' but the play in the Pageant is 'fairly typical' of him; thinks his poem, as well as Verlaine's, good. The Pageant should 'amuse [her] as decadent in an extreme though not particularly offensive form'.

The 'American affair is deplorable': fears it 'may lead to real trouble', though the general view in England, both among individuals and newspapers is that 'Jonathan will begin to see in a few days that he is making an exhibition of himself ['Uncle' is written before 'Jonathan' then crossed out: perhaps Robert Trevelyan confused 'Brother Jonathan', a representative figure of New England sometimes used to stand for the entire United States, with Uncle Sam - or was about to use the latter term then changed his mind]'. Glad she finds Italian politics interesting; he 'used to read the political articles in the Sera and Tribuna' to 'pick up a little of what was going on'.

11 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, S.W.3. - Thanks Bob for the book [his "Collected Works"], in which he has been 'browsing'; knew most of the poems already, but thinks they 'gain by being all put together', as well as showing that Bob's 'talent has many facets'. Some poems were new to him, such as the 'exquisite translation from that naughty old Strato of Sardis'. Bob should be 'cheered' that his most recent work is his best: the last epistle to Desmond [MacCarthy] is 'perfect in tone and diction', while he finds everyone thinks the elegy on Goldie [Lowes Dickinson] is 'the finest elegy written in this century'. He would have said so if he had been writing Desmond's review. Hopes Bob will 'be up soon'; congratulates him on his 'oeuvre', the 'fine mellow fruit of the ripening years'.

Ford Place, Arundel. - Thanks Trevy for the 'brilliant & delightful book' ["The New Parsifal"]: found it 'witty beyond words, dramatic & exciting' with the 'rush of splendid verse; of which Trevy is the 'only modern master'. Believes there is a 'lot of fine aesthetic thinking' in it as well. Was even more impressed when reading it than he was when he heard it read: all the things he criticised then 'justify themselves in print'. Has ordered some copies and will do what he can to 'make it known'. Asks if he should write to the 'editor of the Webb's paper, the "New Statesman"' [Clifford Sharp]; has 'no influence with the "Nation"', and supposes the "Times" is 'all right' [has been communicated with].