Metelliano. - Has wanted to write for a long time: it comes easier here, where he has more time for remembrance of Trevelyan. His life has changed, since he has lived in Rome since the beginning of the war and still has editorial work for a weekly publication. Has been staying at the Braccis' house, empty for a long time but now they have returned. His journeys to Cortona are 'adventurous and accidental' since the railways are not yet functioning properly and 'lifts' are rarer since the departure of the Allies; it feels almost as remote and unconnected as it would have done in the 18th century. All is well: the house is 'soiled and worn by the occupation' but returning to normal, his books undamaged, his people well though older. Sees the Sprigges often in Rome and has long talks with Sylvia which always bring in Trevelyan; enjoyed "Windfalls" and Sylvia is to give him Trevelyan's [edition of] Chinese poems. Has been asked to contribute to a book of essays on Virginia Woolf, in Italian but with some English contributors, and is re-reading her critical work.. Has not yet seen Lina [Waterfield], nor B.B. [Berenson] since January, when he was very well. Hopes that Trevelyan will soon return to Italy.
Feels he must write to Leonard 'a few words of sympathy in your unhappiness' [Virginia Woolf committed suicide on 28 March; her body was not recovered until 18 April]: knows it is of 'little use', but all the Woolfs' friends would like Leonard to know how they feel. He and Bessie know 'what a perfect and loving friend and helper' to Virginia Leonard has been over many years. Feels sure she had 'much happiness in her life - as a creative artist she must have had that - but without [Leonard] she would have had far less happiness, and given far less to others by her writings and by her personal genius'. Virginia was a 'great spirit', one of the 'finest' he has known, and that would have been true if she had written nothing. Even during this 'time of calamity', nothing could affect him more. Nobody has a 'finer courage and wisdom' than Leonard, which is the 'only thing that can help'.
The trustee in [Sir John] Withers's firm is H[enry] G[eorge] A[usten] Duckworth, a cousin of Virginia Woolf's; is sending him the letter from Drummonds [Bank] and expects he will deal with it. Hopes to see Julian at the concert on Thursday; is going with Betty Muntz, and hopes Bessie will also come. Saw Ursula last night. Donald [Tovey]'s symphony at Edinburgh went quite well, though the attendance was not large. Has been 'so rushed with proofs' and his visit to Edinburgh that he has not had time to look at [a book by Georges?] Duthuit; will either send it back soon or bring it to the concert.
Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - Bob thought Virginia might like to have 'some additional memories of Helen Fry' [to help with the writing of the biography of Roger Fry], since she perhaps saw her 'from a slightly different angle'. Saw a 'great deal' of Helen when the Frys' children were born and they lived in Dorking, while the Trevelyans were 'two miles away at Westcott'. She was friendly, but they 'never became intimate then', and Bessie 'always felt slightly in awe of her mysterious aloofness'. Their relationship 'suddenly seemed to change when the return of her illness approached', when Helen 'began to talk more intimately about the children', one day visiting Bessie 'to talk about her fear that the doctor and other people would think she was not a good enough mother to the children or wife to Roger'; believes 'this anxiety was a constant trouble'. Saw her 'more rarely' when they moved to London and Guildford. The Frys stayed at the Shiffolds when 'Roger had been disappointed about the post in America [atthe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]'; was clear Helen 'took this morbidly to heart', and seemed to Bessie to think 'she herself had been at fault'. Even when their relationship was 'more easy and confidential', Bessie 'still felt her charm as aloof and mysterious'. Goldie Dickinson used to talk about Helen to Bessie 'years afterward', and though he was 'perhaps, their closest friend' and Helen had been 'very fond of him', he always felt Helen 'so mysterious' and wondered 'what she really thought and felt'.
His friendship with Roger Fry [presumably written to aid Virginia with her 'Life' of Fry; see also 17/85 and 17/97] in the days when they lived together at 29 Beaufort St between April or May 1895 and the autumn of 1896, when Roger married and Bob moved to Haslemere. Saw little of him before then, and 'knew next to nothing of art and artists', but 'no one could have been kinder in the way he introduced [Bob] to his world', or 'more patient of [Bob's] ignorance'. He was often busy with Extension Lectures on Italian art, and as illustration had 'already collected a great number of photographs' which was much harder then; thinks he had already succeeded D. S. MacColl as the "Athenaeum" magazine's art critic ; he did not therefore have as much time as he wished for painting, but 'worked very rapidly' when he could. He was painting 'several of his best early landscapes' and a few 'perhaps not very successful portraits'. One was of Mrs Widdrington, the 'sister [sic: actually mother] of Sir Edward Grey's wife [Frances]', who was a 'great friend' of Roger's and the mother of Ida Widdrington; Roger had been 'very much in love' with Ida not long before, but 'perhaps wisely, she would not marry him. She was a very vital and amusing girl, who loved hunting, farming and acting' and she and her mother remained friends with Roger for years. After that Roger 'had fallen very much in love, and none too happily, with Kate Kinsella (now Kate Presbitero)'; Bob thinks she 'treated him rather cruelly, not wanting to give him up altogether, and luring him back to her from time to time'. 'Fortunately (or perhaps in the end unfortunately) [because of her mental health problems]' he got to know Helen Coombe while he was living with Bob, and they fell in love with each other. Roger's parents 'strongly disapproved of his becoming an artist' - he told Bob that they had offered him a hundred pounds extra a year 'if he would promise never to paint from the nude', which he 'naturally refused' - and this made him fear they would not be pleased by his choice of wife, so he told them nothing about Helen 'for a long time...' [the rest of the draft is missing].
Was very 'interested and pleased' by Virginia's letter [17/91]; was afraid her 'natural "novelist's prejudice"' might have made her more critical than she was; her criticism seems 'probably just, and certainly helpful' as it makes it clearer to him both what he 'would like to do, and what I can and cannot do'. Would like, as she suggests to 'deal with Monday and Tuesday', and has 'tried, both in prose and verse, and failed, and shall no doubt try again'. Greatly admires some of Virginia's 'own experiments in that direction', and sympathises with 'Goldie [Lowes Dickinson]'s enthusiasm in the letter Forster puts in his Life'; if he himself had that sort of gift, he would 'probably have shown it before now'. Virginia has found a 'method of expressing intimate imaginative experiences and feelings and sensations in a very beautiful way' and though he would like to has so far not succeeded in doing so himself. He deliberately 'kept the immediate world of things seen and felt from the dialogues' and largely also out of the St Francis story as well. Feels that if a dialogue is 'to come alive at all', it must 'do so chiefly by its intellectual and dialectical interest' from which 'novelistic, or even poetic elements' are a distraction and make the reader 'expect something that he ought not to look for'. Wonders whether he could find a way to convey 'immediate experiences of things and of human beings' or 'a narrative method which would deal primarily with ideas, and character as expressed through the intellect' yet 'not altogether exclude novelistic or poetic vision'. Thinks that 'a certain spice of the comedic and the quasi-Rabelaisian' could help him, and is trying something of the kind at the moment; does not know whether he will succeed, but Virginia's letter will help him 'think more clearly' about what he wants to do.
Hogarth House, Paradise Road. Richmond, Surrey. - Asks if Bob can give a half-hour talk to her Guild of Co-Operative Women, 'Margaret [Llewelyn] Davi[e]s' affair' on 5 June. Any subject, such as travel or politics; 'not literature perhaps'; the audience 'consists of about twelve months [typing error for mothers] of families' who 'listen with great attention'. Hopes he will dine with them first, and stay the night.
Hogarth House, Richmond. - Thanks Bob for the 'correction in N.W'; thinks he is right and will alter it; is 'altering Op 112 to 111 [in the American edition of "The Voyage Out"], the 'goats certainly are mysterious and she thinks something 'must have dropped out', but does not 'see what to do with them now'. Leonard bought Bob's "The Death of Man" at Unwin's yesterday; it looks 'very well printed and bound'. Hopes Bob will 'take to prose', though this does not mean abandoning poetry; likes "Wind", the only poem in the new book which she has read yet, 'very much'; also if Bob can keep Desmond [MacCarthy] 'supplied' he may 'keep his spirits up': thinks Desmond 'is already a little burdened' since Jack Squire has now 'left the whole thing [editing the "New Statesman"] to him. Asks to be remembered to 'Mrs. Trevelyan, whom I dare not call by her Christian name'.
52 Tavistock Square, W.C.1. - Should have thanked Bob before for her 'share in [his] collected poems'; she and Leonard have been abroad, and moved house. Did not 'realise how much [she] liked' the poems, which 'come through... as though all superfluities had been consumed and what's left is very satisfying'; she admires that very much, and does not find it 'often among the moderns'. Also often finds in them a 'special colourless (perhaps I mean unexaggerated or impersonal) beauty' which is 'lasting and possessing'. Particularly likes to 'trace the character of the writer, the peculiar humour and idiosyncracy [sic] of his mind', which she finds more often in prose. Wanted to thank him now, as she has 'just been made angry - tho' that's too strong a word - by a silly review by Stephen Spender'. Leonard is out, or he would also thank Bob.
Contains: "Virginia Woolf" and "Seriousness" by R. C. Trevelyan; poem, "Briefly My Morning", by G. Rostrevor Hamilton; "Interview", by Ida Procter; an essay on "Nursery Rhymes" by M. E. Bosanquet; poem, "The Pause", by John Griffin; poem, "Segesta, Sicily", by S. S. [Sylvia Sprigge].
Request at the end of the "Chronicle" from the New York Public Library for the first two numbers to complete its set.
He and Bessie were both made very happy by the news [of Julian's engagement to Ursula Darwin] in his letter this morning; it is not a complete surprise, but even if they had known nothing about Ursula they would have had 'confidence in [Julian] doing the right and wise thing'; as it is, they both 'know and like' her - Bessie more than Bob, but he is still sure that 'in every way she deserves [their] affection - and he is sure that she and Julian are 'just the sort of persons who ought to make each other happy'. Also good that they 'know and like [Ursula's] family and relations', and that the marriage may mean Julian returning to live in England though again that is 'relatively unimportant'. Sympathises with the wish to have things arranged 'quietly and without fuss'; they can discuss all that when he comes to England. Ought to write Julian a 'letter in verse (and no doubt an epithalamium)' but is too 'busy writing an Ars poetica in the form of an Epistle to Virginia Woolf', and the epistle he had planned for Julian was to be 'about the difference between generations etc and perhaps about art'. The engagement is 'almost too serious for so frivolous a medium as verse'. Would like to write longer, but must catch the post; sends love and wishes for happiness, and will also write to Ursula to send the same.
52 Tavistock Square. - Read Bob's stories 'with great enjoyment'; perhaps liked 'the unchristened one on Love best'. Thinks they are 'full of interesting and subtle things and beautifully smooth and finished'; knows her doubt about the 'dialogue form' comes from her 'novelists [sic] prejudice', since when characters are brought in she wants to 'know quantities of things about them' but in Bob's method of using them here they are 'kept severely to the rails'; with, as she also used to feel about Goldie [Lowes Dickinson]'s dialogues, 'something too restricted, too formed'. She does however appreciated the 'subtlety of the thought, and the melody of the expression', and is 'puzzled' as to what other form could 'carry the idea'. Always wants Bob to 'break through into a less formed, more natural medium', and wishes he could 'dismiss the dead, who inevitably silence so much and deal with Monday and Tuesday': the present, perhaps in a 'dialogue between the different parts of yourself'. She and Leonard are 'just off to tour in Ireland'.
52 Tavistock Square. - Has taken a long time to write about Bob's poem [in "Rimeless Numbers"?], though it 'delighted' her; summer in London is 'distracting'. Glad she 'let [Bob] off, partly at least, writing the "Epistola ad V.W."]; does not think she finds it 'so sympathetic' only because Bob 'uses so kind a word' about her; he is welcome to use the quotation, though if she had been 'writing more explicitly' she would have attempted to 'convey [her] respect and admiration for the de, as well as [her] slight distrust of their dominion over us. Thinks Bob's method allows him to be both 'personal and poetic', with a sense of the '[addressee's] influence, which breaks up the formality... very happily'. Likes the 'country part' in particular. As for the 'argument [of the poem]', supposes her 'plea for adventurous prose is not disinterested' and expects she would have been happy to leave prose alone had she been able to write poetry; in reading she sees 'quite plainly what poetry can do and prose can't', so the envy is not just on Bob's side. Comments on the 'lurid yellow light' of a thunderstorm in which she is writing.
Is going to Italy on 6 January; if Julian is in Paris that week he might stay there for a couple of nights before travelling on. Betty Muntz is arriving from [Le] Havre on the morning of the 6th; she will spend the day in Paris then travel on to Florence, Cortona and Assisi with Bob; she will have two or three weeks in Italy, he will stay on until the end of February. Bessie has just had two teeth out, but otherwise is well; she is reading [Robin] Fedden's book, which Bob has not done yet. The [Oliver] Lodges and their baby [Rosalie Belinda] are well, as is C.A. [Clifford Allen] who is starting a debate in the House of Lords today 'more or less attacking the Government about aeroplanes'. Bob thinks he rather agrees with Mussolini that the League of Nations should be detached from the Versailles Treaty. Hopes Julian will be able to sell his film; supposes his engravings will soon be at the Leicester G[alleries]. Hopes to see [Maria] Germanova in Paris; saw Nijinsky's daughter [Kyra?] at Lady Ottoline [Morrell]'s, who pronounced Germanova's name with an accent on the second syllable instead of the third. Must write to [Hasan Shahid] Suhrawardy. Asks if Julian would like him to bring any books, such as Virginia [Woolf]'s "Flush", which is 'quite good'.
Monk's House, Rodmell, Lewes. - Returns Percy Lubbock ["Earlham", see 17/88] with thanks. Cannot make out why 'in spite of every appearance to the contrary' and Logan [Pearsall Smith?]'s recommendation, she thinks it 'a thoroughly bad book'. Percy is 'obviously intelligent, scrupulous [a long list of his virtues follows]' and his style is 'by no means despicable [another list of virtues follows]'. Suspects there is 'something hopelessly prosaic, timid, tepid, in his goal. The spirit of Earlham is undoubtedly the family butler'; detects a 'conspiracy to misrepresent the human soul in the interests of respectability and... of the defunct Henry James' and wonders why Percy, 'who is comparatively young' has ended it; it makes her 'long for glaring suburbs, brass bands - Brighton Piers'. Acknowledges she exaggerates, but it is strange how good and bad the book is; wonders whether 'Percy himself is corrupt'; has just met him. She and Leonard return to Richmond on Monday, and hopes Bob and Bessie will soon visit; wants to discuss his Aeschylus [translation of the "Oresteia"]; accepts his spelling of 'quire'. Would not 'yield to Logan. If he thinks "Earlham" a masterpiece, he is not to be trusted about the letter K'. Hopes Robert is writing a poem; is 'dipping into "Georgian Poetry [1920-] 1922"' [edited by Eddie Marsh] and getting 'bored to death with apple trees and acorns'. Notes in a postscript that she and 'Bertha Ruck' are now 'great friends' [Berta Ruck was offended by Virginia's near-use of her name on a tombstone in "Jacob's Room"]; 'Tom Gaze [a typing error for Tom Gage, another tombstone name?] turned out to be Lytton [Strachey]-Carrington'.
Asks Bob if he can lend her Percy Lubbock's "Earlham": Logan [Pearsall Smith?] 'says it is a masterpiece, but she cannot get it from Mudie's [Library]. Encloses stamps and will return it in a fortnight; gives her address at Monk's House. Is taking Bob's translations [of Aeschylus's "Oresteia"] with her to read. Thinks he should not use 'quire' for 'choir'; it makes her, as a publisher, think of '24 sheets post 8vo'.
Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Thanks Bob for writing; agrees with most of his criticism of "Jacob's Room". The 'effort of breaking with strict representation is very unsettling' and many things were not as 'controlled' as they ought to have been; also expects it is true that the 'characters remain shadowy for the most part', though here 'the method was not so much at fault as [her] ignorance of how to use it psychologically'. Finds it difficult to explain this in writing and hopes they will see Bob. Apologises for 'obscurity' if this belonged to the sentences and 'not only the approaches, and transitions and situations generally'; thinks that 'needless difficulty' in writing has no excuse. Very glad that Bob liked much of the book and thinks it a 'fruitful experiment'; this is an encouragement to go on, as she wishes. Hopes he will soon visit and they can discuss more. Ashamed to send this letter, which she has had little time for, but was 'so pleased' with Bob's that she wanted to answer it. Leonard sends love; after getting through the [general] election [standing unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for the Combined English Universities], he now has to do jury service at the Old Bailey; they are afraid it is the 'Ilford murder case' [the murder of Percy Thompson, for which Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were convicted and executed].
Monk's House, Rodmell, near Lewes, Sussex. - Was 'delightful' of Bessie to write about Virginia's life of Roger [Fry]; in her comparison of it to a 'piece of music', she appreciated 'exactly what [Virginia] was trying to do'. Virginia is 'not regularly musical', but 'always think[s] of [her] books as music before [she] writes them'; this was particularly true in the autobiography, where there was 'such a mass of detail' that the only way she could manage was by 'abstracting it into themes' which she attempted to 'unite' in the first chapter, then introduce 'developments & variations' before bringing everything together at the end, just as Bessie saw. Thinks she is the only person to have felt what she was trying to do. Was often 'crushed under the myriad details'; found the necessity to mute or only hint at some things difficult; there was also 'always a certain constraint, which one doesn't feel in fiction, a sense of other people looking over one's shoulder'. Very glad that Bessie and Bob, who both knew Roger well, think it is a 'true portrait of him'; Bob 'went all through his life', even though as often happens they did not see each other as often towards the end. Understands Bessie being shy of Roger, she was not 'exactly shy' herself, but 'sometimes felt overpowered, & so, uneasy'. However none of her friends 'made such a difference to [her] life as he did', which she needed to 'keep under' when writing about him.
Hopes they will meet up; they [she and Leonard] will be often in London this winter, but 'everything's difficult now'. Very sorry about Bessie's eyes; asks if it affects her music.
Monk's House, Rodmell, near Lewes, Sussex. - Thanks Bessie for her letter about Helen Fry [see 17/97], which is helpful as it supports the 'vague feeling' Virginia is getting from Helen's letters; she thinks 'the dread of insanity must always have been in the background, and probably made her morbid and afraid of people'. It is 'terrible', as sometimes there is a sense of her 'brilliance and a curious individuality'. If Virginia does get anything written [of a biography of Roger Fry], and 'the difficulty increases as one goes on', she will not be able to say much about Helen, but wants to give an 'outline'; what Bob and Bessie have told her is very helpful. Hopes to see them when she returns in the autumn.
Metelliano. - Asks Trevelyan to explain to Mrs [Margaret?] Lloyd why he has not been able to reply to her letter. Further discussion of the Braccis' plans for their son Braccio to spend a month in England (see 5/84): it seems that they would like him to stay with the Spring-Rices' but do not want to commit to having Miss Lloyd as a paying guest. Will see Alberti at Montepulciano, returning from a journey to North and South America. Everyone is very grateful for Mrs Lloyd's kindness. Has received Virginia [Woolf]'s book ["Three Guineas"?], and sent a spare copy of his article "Silenzio di Don Giovanni", in "La Cultura", to Trevelyan, and will send another he has written on [Giosuè ?] Carducci. Very interested in Trevelyan's translations of Leopardi, and hopes to see some soon. Has not yet heard anything about [the Berensons'] 'new Consuma' at Vallombrosa. Is sad about Mary's state of health.
37 Weetwood Lane, Far Headingley, Leeds. - 'The Wolves' have sent Trevelyan's "Cheiron" [published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press]. Discusses it with great praise in detail. Has also recently received a Noh-play from Gordon [Bottomley]: 'just a little bit of a strain'. Is trying himself to get a book together, but of mostly old work. Trevelyan and Bessie's 'sympathy and generosity' has touched the Abercrombies greatly. Mikey has been ordered away from Leeds on health grounds.
Metelliano. - Hopes that Trevelyan will come to Italy this summer; if he says when he will be at La Consuma, Morra will arrange to be there at the same time. Asks if he should keep [Woolf's] "The Years" until then; has read it, written his article, and sent a translation and one of part of another article speaking more generally about Virginia to Judith [Stephen] to share with her aunt if she sees fit. Has heard from Iris Origo that Leonard Woolf is careful not to let Virginia see criticism than might upset her, and his opinion of "The Years" is 'not very favourable'. Is going to Venice on the 5th to meet B.B. [Berenson] and Nicky [Mariano] and see the Tintoretto exhibition with them; tomorrow he is hearing [Mozart's] "Nozze di Figaro" in Florence, which sounded very good through the radio.
I Tatti, Settignano, Florence. - It is very kind of Trevelyan to say he will send Morra Virginia [Woolf's] new book ["The Years"]; he has promised to review it by the middle of May. Met Trevelyan's brother George here recently and was amused by the resemblances and differences between them. George's wife [Janet] seemed 'very pleasant', and B.B. is revising his first thoughts about her. Alberti is here. Mary's health is up and down but she does not 'look at all badly'. Will return home when B.B. and Nicky [Mariano] start for the Aegean.
Brief account of how Fry inspired a love of art in Trevelyan (previously, like "most Cambridge men.. completely ignorant of art') when they shared a house in Chelsea, and of Fry's life and character. Describes Virginia Woolf's biography of Fry as giving 'a very fully account of him, which seems... not only imaginative and sympathetic, but just and true'.
Cud Hill House, Upton Saint Leonards, Glos. - Bob has given him great pleasure [by sending him his book "Windfalls"]: finds himself drawn first to the essays with personal names: Browning, Virginia Woolf, Meredith; these are all '[d]elightful', with '[s]uch sensitive discrimination in the literary criticism', combined with 'personal pictures - so vivid', such as 'Meredith's thumps with his stick in honour of the lovely Lucy Duff Gordon'; asks which of Meinhold's works Duff Gordon translated. Praises Bob's literary criticism: calls his defence of rhetoric 'timely needed & excelled'; might not have had Marlowe and the University poets 'without the Schools of Rhetoric of Oxford & Cambridge', and without Marlowe, there might have been no Shakespeare. Comments on 'how neatly' Bob 'refute[s] Edgar Poe's heresy!'. Likes what Bob says about Shelley's "Music when soft voices die": has sometimes read the last stanza as 'addressed by Shelley to himself'; cites 'Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind...' [from "To Jane: The Recollection"] as another instance of self-address. Diana [his wife] and the children are going to Sennen at Land's End on Monday; he himself is not, since he always finds South Cornwall 'too damp'; will go instead to the 'Brit[ish] Ass[ociation for the Advancement of Science]' in Broghton from 7-14 September. His eldest son [Oliver] is engaged to be married to Rosemary Phipps, a 'charming girl' living at Fairford on the upper Thames; she and Oliver have been to visit. Tom [his other son] is staying with Lodge's sister [Barbara Godlee?] near Manchester, but will join the rest of the family in Cornwall. He is 'very musical-studying'. Bob's grandson Philip is here, playing in the garden with Colin; he is a 'dear little boy'. Sends love to both Trevelyans; hope Bob's has a 'good holiday & enjoy[s] Italy'. Asks if 'the cause of Virginia Woolf's death [was] ever known'. Adds a postscript to say her heard a 'marvellous Beethoven piece' on the radio last night, the String Quartet in B flat, Op. 18 no. 6.
Thanks Trevelyan for his gift of Forster's book ["Abinger Harvest"?]; has not read it yet. Asks him when Virginia [Woolf's] new book ["The Years"?] will be available; if in October, he might write a note on it for the first number of a new quarterly review. Expects Trevelyan has already seen B.B. [Berenson], who has written to him from Salzburg, 'rather tired'; hopes he will 'find a pleasanter less pessimistic atmosphere' in London.
The Hogarth Press, 52 Tavistock Square, London, W.C.1. - Bob need not worry about the copyright of "Poems and Fables": they will not object to them being used [in Bob's "Collected Poems"?]
The Hogarth Press, 52 Tavistock Square, London, W.C.1. - They have both read [Hasan Shahid] Suhrawardy's poems; there are 'some interesting things in them' and they think some are 'pleasant', but do not agree that they are good enough to make a book. He thinks there is a 'certain weakness about them all' and a 'tendency to be slightly ridiculous'; does not know if this is because Suhrawardy is 'not an Englishman, and therefore is not fully aware of shades of meaning'. They are very sorry. They will be in London now, so Bob would be welcome if he 'care[d] to look in one day'.
Hogarth House, Richmond, Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Thanks Bob for his letter; glad he liked the "[Two] Stories [the first book published by the Hogarth Press]. He himself thought Virginia's ["The Mark on the Wall"] 'extraordinarily good'. Quite agrees with Bob's criticism of the printing; they 'still have a lot to learn', but he thinks they are improving, and it is 'distinctly easier' with their new type. They are also going to get a better machine. Sends Bob a 'rectified' copy and apologises. They took Bob's "Pterodamozels" to Asheham to read; he likes it very much. Notes in a postscript that 'the above' [used for address and telephone number?] is their new type.
Hogarth House, Richmond, Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey. - Letter originally accompanying two copies of 'the little book which we did not print for sale [Virginia's "Kew Gardens"?]'; now it has been reviewed they are getting orders from booksellers, so are charging for it. Peace 'not very pleasant here. Snow & slush outside & no trains, & no coal within'. Virginia has 'not been very well, but is better again'. Will be good to see Bob again if they 'escape the cataclysm of the Social Revolution'.