The Master's Lodge, Trinity College, Cambridge. - Thanks Bob for "Aftermath": glad he has been able to 'salvage' so many poems of which George is so fond [from the fire at the publisher's warehouse which destroyed the stock of Bob's recent "Collected Works"]; they have both suffered from the 'family connection with Longmans, though he does not mind much for himself, as he is 'past caring whether anyone reads one's books... in this night of time' and has 'no more desire for continued existence as a writer than for life after death'. The Geoffrey Youngs are staying in the Lodge for a few days, preparing to move into 'half a house near by'; good to have them back in Cambridge. Tells Bob to visit some time in summer. He and Janet hope to go to Hallington at Easter, staying in the gardener's cottage; the Hall has begun again as a hospital, and they will see 'more of it and its inmates than when it was an RAF affair'. Hopes that they have good news of Julian from Egypt. Notes in a postscript that Aubrey and Lina Waterfield's son John has been killed in Malta.
c/o A[ubrey] Waterfield, La Fortezza, Aulla, Massa Carrara, Italy. - Asks Julian to send the Butler back to the Lond[on] Libr[ary]. Arrived yesterday, and will go to Florence with the Waterfields in a week or two. They would like Julian to come out to Italy with their daughter Kinta, and perhaps their son John; Kinta is a 'lively schoolgirl, but quite nice'; likes John, who is at Oxford, very much and thinks Julian would too. Either way, thinks Julian should travel straight to Bologna and he will probably meet him there. Hopes that "As You Like It" will go well. Elizabeth writes that the beech tree at the top of Water Lane has been half blown down, which is 'very sad'.
c/o Aulla [on headed notepaper for Poggio Gherardo, Settignano, Florence]. - Is going to Florence, probably next Monday, and will stay at Poggio Gherardo with the Waterfields; around 8 December will then go on to the Berensons at I Tatti, where Julian will join him, until about the 22nd or 23rd; they will then return to Poggio or perhaps visit [Umberto] Morra at Cortona for a while. Nicky [Mariano] writes that the Berensons hope Julian will come on the 10th or 11th. Suggests arrangements for reaching Florence via Bologna; Julian and Elizabeth must decide when he will start. Tells him to remember the Italian, French and Swiss money he left with Elizabeth, and the Baedeker; would be best if he brought dress clothes as the Berensons dress for dinner; also tells him not to put his feet on the train seats or he will be 'reproved and fined by the black-shirt who wanders along the corridor, seeking whom he may bully', and to check whether he needs to disembark for his luggage to be examined at borders or whether this will be done on the train. He should bring pocket dictionaries, but not more of other books than he needs, as 'there are millions of books here'. A shame that he will not see Aulla, which has finer scenery than anything else he knows of in Italy. Hopes the ballet goes well, and the scenery [painted by Julian?] is a success. John Waterfield and his sister [Kinta] will come out later, and Julian will see them at Poggio. Spent two nights at Lerici last week, and saw Shelley's house. Expects Elizabeth is now in Scotland, and will soon come to Cambridge; sorry that Julian is missing Donald [Tovey]'s concert.
May try to come to Cambridge before the end of the month. Bessie went abroad on Thursday. C.A. [Clifford Allen] is much better, it will be some time until he and Joan can travel abroad. Joan has chicken-pox and is in quarantine. Does not know about the Waterfields: they have had a lot of paying guests at Aulla, until one, 'a young man from Oxford, suddenly lost his memory and more or less went mad, and is being looked after at Poggio [Gherardo] with nurses'. Expects the Waterfields will go to Aulla soon if the young man can be sent home, but then [their children] Johnny and Kinta will probably come out to visit. Had thought of arranging for the Allens to stay when Clifford is strong enough, but it is unclear when that would be. The Waterfields want him to visit, but he cannot go abroad until the building plans for the Shiffolds are settled, probably by August; may then go to Aulla for a while and on to the Berensons at Vallombrosa. Thinks Julian should write to Lina and ask if he could stay as a paying guest, though he should remember there is not as much space at Aulla as at Poggio, and if the Allens could go they should have preference. Currently here alone, but will go to London on Monday for [Wagner's] "Rheingold with the "Walkyrie [sic]" on Thursday. Desmond [MacCarthy] printed his epistle to him in the May "Life & Letters", but forgot to use the corrected proof, so there are '5 monstrous misprints'. Hopes Julian is finding some time to do some reading. Unsure whether he will be able to come to Cambridge next week. Asks when Julian's exams are, and how he likes Granville Barker's "Shakespeare"
c/o [Bernard] Berenson, Poggio allo Spino, Consuma (Prov. di Firenze). - Glad Julian is having a good time at Aulla, and would have liked to join him but cannot manage it. Will start for home around the beginning of September, and may stop at Paris for a few nights. Julian unlikely to have time to stop here on the way to Venice or Ravenna, but there may be room, or he could stop at the hotel at Consuma; Nicky [Mariano] will have written about that to Lina [Waterfield]. The countryside here is in some ways the finest he has seen in Italy, hard to be beaten 'even by Aulla'; Julian should see it some day, perhaps next year. Went to Laverna [sic: La Verna], where St Francis received his stigmata, on Monday by car. [Umberto] Morra has left, but [Alberto] Moravia is still staying at the hotel and comes to the house every day; the Anreps [Alma and Egbert] are here most of the time. His hotel in Rome was the Albergo Elyseé; if Julian stays there he should ask whether he can get a room looking over the Borghese gardens; his own looked the wrong way, but he used to go to [Guglielmo degli] Alberti's. Sends love to A[ubrey], Lina, Kinta and J[ohn], and to Adelina and 'the Fortezza itself'. Morra almost certain to be at Cortona and glad to see Julian.