Garden Corner, West Road, Cambridge. - Very sorry Bob was not able to come: was looking forward to seeing him 'after too long an interval'. Daphne [Sanger or Phelps?] and Humphry went to see "Antigone" [Bob's translation of Sophocles' play, performed at the Cambridge Festival Theatre] and said though it was 'in some respects well acted', the words were 'badly and rather inaudibly said'. George himself 'feared to go after Prometheus'. Has just read Bob's "Three Plays": "Sulla" captured his imagination most; supposes the Romans were 'both more brutal and more artistic than the English', and this combination 'has always disgusted [him]'. Wishes Bob good health 'to enjoy the new Shiffolds'. Hopes that he and Elizabeth will come for a visit to Hallington this summer.
Hopes Julian has reached Taormina by now and is enjoying Sicily, though fears the almond blossom may be over. Has just heard from Nicky [Mariano] that she and B.B. [Bernard Berenson] may go to Zürich at the end of March to see the Lombard exhibition, but will definitely be back by 15 April. Sure they would like to see Julian, and would probably ask him to stay at I Tatti if he wrote to Nicky. All well here: Bessie likes Mrs Alexieff and gets on quite well with her secretary. He himself is 'fairly all right, though sometimes a little out of sorts'. Hopes Julian will like Sicily as much as Goethe did; he was afraid to go to Greece because of brigands, so went to Sicily and 'made up his mind' it must be just like Greece. Tells Julian to ask his friend [Daphne Phelps] whether she is related to his own old friend T[homas] T[ettrell] Phelps, whom he has not seen for years. Expects Julian has been to the Isola Bella, which used to belong to Mrs Cacciola [Florence Trevelyan]; he used to go and bathe there with Roger and Helen Fry. Roger painted a picture of Mount Etna seen through the Greek theatre, which Goldie [Lowes Dickinson] had in his rooms. Hopes Julian's car is 'behaving itself'. Bessie will write soon.