(Place of writing not indicated.)—Is glad his lunch at the House of Lords was pleasant. Has enjoyed her weekend and the visit of her brother Harold. Refers to some forthcoming visits. Hopes he will enjoy Ventnor.
18 Mansfield Street, Portland Place, W.—Is unable to lunch with him as she is going to a wedding, but invites him to see her later. Asks if he has remembered Sylvia. She enjoyed last night and admires his house.
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Transcript
18 Mansfield Street, Portland Place, W.
Friday
I stupidly forgot, when I asked you to lunch, that I was going to a wedding in the afternoon which starts at 1.45 {1}. I am so sorry. Will you come in the afternoon or to tea? Let me know if you will come. Have you remembered Sylvia?
What fun we had last night. I think your house quite lovely, you have been disappointingly successful and independant†.
Venetia
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{1} Probably the wedding of William Ormsby-Gore and Beatrice Cecil, which took place at Westminster Abbey on the afternoon of Saturday, 12 April 1913. Venetia attended both the ceremony and the reception afterwards at 20 Arlington Street. See The Times, 14 April, p. 8.
† Sic.
(Dated Friday.)
Chiefly correspondence re inadequate or inaccurate abstracts.
Asks for the name of an insecticide. Feels that there is something fundamentally wrong with his thinking but does not know what it is.
Leddon Cottage, Welcombe, Bideford, Devon.—Praises Greg’s Shakespeare First Folio and refers to current bibliographical work on Shakespeare.
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Transcript
Leddon Cottage, | Welcombe, | Bideford, | Devon.
16 May 1955
Dear Sir Walter,
The arrival of your book on Saturday was the greatest surprise and pleasure to me. It was very kind of you to remember me. I knew from Fredson Bowers that you had a book on the stocks, though I had not grasped that it was on so heroic a scale. I am greatly enjoying your balanced account of how matters stand.
As you say, the march of events is now beyond the ability of print to keep up with, but I judge that it will be a long time before anyone can give a coherent account of the printing of the Folio, as I don’t think the pattern is self-contained. Neither Schroeder’s conclusions nor Hinman’s forthcoming article (of which he sent me a copy) make sense in relation to compositors’ stints and the pattern must include, I think, some book or books being printed concurrently.
I hope all is well with you. We have had a gruelling winter as we were snow-bound or ice-bound for weeks, but at any rate no germs survive the rigours of this coast. We are looking forward very much to having Miss Willcock in Bude permanently after the summer, when she retires, and I hope she won’t be too much absorbed by her house and garden (especially the latter) to have no time for Shakespeare. I get on with my old spelling texts, but there seems no hurry called for until Hinman has finished his work.
It seems a pity in some ways that the project for a new facsimile was abandoned, but I suppose what is really wanted is a composite volume or volumes based on Hinman’s collation. But if the facsimile projected provided an incentive, this is to everyone’s good and I look forward to the companionship and help of your book in my own more trifling endeavours.
With my warmest congratulations,
Yours, most gratefully,
Alice Walker.
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Typed, except the signature and a comma.
Correspondence, 1958-1962, 1964, 1966.
In 1961 Feliński came from the Szczecin College of Agriculture, Poland to work with Synge for a period at the Rowett Research Institute.
Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.—Was glad to meet him and Lady Pethick-Lawrence during their trip to India.
Writes to inform her that he shall come on the following Wednesday. Reports that he shall be staying with Mrs Clough from Monday to Wednesday if his cold does not get worse. Claims that he accepted her invitation gladly, as there is a new edition of Clough's Remains passing through the press, and he would like to talk to her about it. Intends to speak to his mother about Mr Horton and other matters on Wednesday evening, 'before Edward and Mary come'.
Asks if she has heard from William, and states that he has not found time to write to him yet. Asks her opinion on Noel's poems. Refers to the review of them in the Athenaeum, and states that Noel has told him that the two great critics of the age, M. Arnold and S[aint] Beuve, 'have both expressed themselves pleased by the book.' Reports that he has 'got rid of' his last pupil and is writing a paper for his philological journal. Reports that Patterson's book on Hungary is very nearly finished, and that he has seen most of it, and thinks that it will be both worth reading and readable.
7 Camden St. and Town - Thanks him for his paper on mental philosophy. 'At first glance, I see an approximation between my ideas & yours in finding that you can admit the phrase "laws of mental activity" in place of "fundamental ideas". If your meaning of the latter phrase is interchangeable with any sense in which I can use the former, I have read much of your writing at cross-purpose'. He has no doubt on the 'absolute substantive reality of all the primary truths of maths. I have never had any doubt: but I have an idea that different people hold them by different hooks'.
Royal Observatory Greenwich - GA had WW's 'Tide scheme' copied and sent to Francis Beaufort 'to ask if it required nautical corrections'. GA has just heard from Beaufort: 'I inclose it. Therefore I send the suggestions to the Secretary of the Admiralty today; and I refer him to you for further correspondence'.
RJ will come up on Thursday provided Smith or one of WW's men are nominated.
Letters date from 4 May 1843 - 30 Oct. 1844.
Predominantly notes on Abgar, and on engravings by Thomas Higham (these include some typed lists, with MS annotations); some other topics, such as Shakespeare, Donne, Bentley.
Greek, Latin, French
Written from Sherborne.
Collingwood - JH sends WW the beginning of his Hexameter translation of book one of the 'Iliad': 'So far as the question as to the nationalisation of the Hexameter goes I am not dissatisfied with it, as there seems to me to be no appearance of constraint, and no material violation of accent in reading the lines but it assuredly does read bald and homely'. However, Homer's diction is also homely and in comparison to Pope is also bald. The English blank verse comes with a class at the end, while the Hexameter makes up for its terminal weakness by its initial form: 'The one is epigrammatic, the other impulsive. The one belongs to a natural and somewhat artificial literature, the other to a nascent and majestic one'.
Hevesy, G. 1939
Høffer-Jensen, S. 1939-40
Kinsey, B.B. 1939
Klein, O. 1939
Koch, J. 1939
Przibram was Frisch's supervisor for his doctorate in Vienna in 1926. Correspondence 1973 is with Przibram's family and others after his death.
Concerns electron diffraction experiments. Includes correspondence with several others including O.W. Richardson, Lord Rutherford, L. Szilard and F. Simon.