Chemistry in Britain: Invitation to write obituary of Raphael Consden (declined). 1980.
CRC Press: Invitation to write section for CRC Handbook of Nutrition and Food. 1976.
Kensington. Wants to know a quotation from Bacon, will take him out on Sunday if he so wishes
RJ sends WW the sheets to his lectures [see RJ to WW, 17 July 1845].
Congratulations on engagement.
'Monetary reform in Turkey: The Commission's proposals'.
The Royal Institution - Thanks her for the book with the portrait of Sir James in the front.
Is very touched by Trevelyan's dedication of his plays ["Three Plays: Sulla, Fand, The Pearl-Tree"] to him. It is his fault that Madame G[ermanova] did not send the receipt earlier, since he kept putting off his departure for England; now he will leave on Friday, taking the car on the wish of the Singhs with whom he is staying. Will be at 6, Carlton Mansions, Pall Mall S.W.(1), where he stayed with his father. Originally enclosing photographs for Mrs Trevelyan. Asks if Julian was there.
Rocca Bella, Taormina. - has heard the news of the Frys' move to Hampstead from Mrs Enticknap; it is very sad, but hopes they will soon forget Dorking. Will be back in England by Easter to be at [G.E.] Moore's Easter party, which he thinks is to be in the New Forest. Asks Fry if he could come, and persuade Goldie [Dickinson] to come also; has written to [Bertrand] Russell to suggest his coming. Will go to the Berensons next week. Saw a great deal of the Waterfields at Palermo and has got to like [Aubrey] Waterfield very much; wishes Fry could appreciate him more, as Berenson now seems to. Must see Fry as soon as possible as he must settle with Johnson [publisher of Trevelyan's "Polyphemus and Other Poems"].
Northlands, Englefield Green, Surrey. - Thanks Bessie heartily; got Mrs Fry here yesterday [see 8/101], and feels she can like and trust her; sorted out plate and linen with her and she goes to 'take possession' [of Donald Tovey] on Thursday. Bessie is almost the only person she can 'bear to hear mention the war'; comments about the 'Slav war'.
Mill House, Westcott, Dorking. - He and Bessie send many thanks to his father for the 'duck and hare': they did not realise until they received his mother's letter [11/109] that he had shot the hare himself. They had it for dinner yesterday: George and Janet were visiting, and have just left, both seemed 'very well and cheerful'. George 'seems relieved to get the history [his England under the Stuarts] off his mind'; has been reading the chapter on Queen Anne and it 'seems very good', though George is dissatisfied and thinks it 'too sketchy'. He can always 'treat the subject more elaborately someday' if he wishes. Thinks the book should be successful.
Last time they were at the [new] house, ten days ago, the roof was being finished, almost a fortnight earlier than expected. They have been making arrangements for some of the work on the garden to be done this winter: a 'trained lady-gardener... is to be responsible for the work'. The house looks good and has been 'well built'; since no alterations to the plans have been needed so far, there ought not to be any extra expense.
The 'Sunday Tramps, led by George' came for tea yesterday: 'young [Thoby] Stephen, and J. Pollock, and [George?] Barger, a Dutchman, and [Sydney] Waterlow, and R. Mayor'. All but Mayor are tall, and in their 'rather low rooms they seemed to Bessie like giants; they have never had 'so many and tall people' in the house together. Encloses two Chinese poems; the 'longer one, by a kind of Chinese Horace' was suggested to Robert by his father shooting ducks, but he sees from 'Professor Giles' translations' that it is actually geese; the rest of that poem 'scarcely applies' to his father, but the shorter, 'on Retirement', may. Understands that the translations are 'fairly literal, though the metres of the originals are quite different'. He and Bessie both send love, and Bessie thanks Caroline for her letter. Robert's book [The Birth of Parsival] has already been printed, though probably will not come out till February.
Separate sheet on which two poems [from Giles' Chinese Poetry in English Verse] are copied out: Discontent by Han Yü [title not copied out] and In Retirement by Li Chia-yu.
73 Longton Avenue, Sydenham, SE26. - She and her husband thank Trevelyan 'most warmly' for another volume "From the Shiffolds", which they greatly value; has 'read & reread' the others. Was just about to write to Mrs Trevelyan when the book came; much appreciates how 'beautifully printed' it is, given her bad eyesight. Will include a letter for Mrs Trevelyan with their 'little news'. She is aging and her memory is certainly getting worse, though she recalls things from the 'far past' such as going for a walk with Trevelyan and her sister while their mothers talked. She tore her 'poor summer frock.. nearly from waist to hem' when they climbed a fence with barbed wire, and she remembers Lady Trevelyan mending it 'in the lovely Wallington hall'. Seems a 'far cry' from then to her golden wedding anniversary, which she and her husband celebrated in March; 'what a new world, not alas "brave new world"' it is now. Adds a postscript saying that her husband's arm 'made a perfect recovery': the surgeons said it was '"like a young man's"'.
Pembroke College, Cambridge - Is glad to hear he is not leaving Cambridge, is sorry Frazer is afraid he will regret the decision; plans to meet for lunch on the 14th.
Accompanied by the envelope.
Nymeguen, 85 Waldeck Pyrmontsingel - Re: her wish for Kruyt to arrange some lectures in Holland after May, he has not much influence with scholars in Holland as he was in the Dutch Indies most of his life, but where he has enquired he has been told they cannot arrange lectures so soon; the books are not translated in Dutch, but scholars read them in English, and publishers are afraid a Dutch translation will not sell.
Postmark Liverpool S. D. - Can't get down to see Trevelyan; invites him to stay on his way north, they have some cider. Will be in Darlington on the 30th but hopes to return on the 31st.
Addressed to Trevelyan at the Friends War Victims Relief Committee, France. - His next chess move. Trevelyan's [chess] board is quite correct.
Wallington, Cambo, Morpeth. - News of Julian, who 'evidently thought that it was an innovation [sic] not to find [Elizabeth] in the library', and Sir George, who is slightly unwell; thinks 'the excitement of the election' has over-tired him. Tomorrow it is the Rothley treat, and the Cambo treat is on Thursday. Hopes Elizabeth is having a good time at Rounton [Grange, home of the Bells]; misses her and loved having her for such a long stay.
Barford, Churt, Farnham. - Bertie Russell has written to him about Trevelyan's tragedy ["Cecilia Gonzaga"], which he 'evidently enjoyed', saying that he quoted Murray as 'saying that blank verse was "played out"''; if someone had told Murray this when he had just finished a poem in blank verse, it 'would stick in [him] like a thorn!'. Is therefore writing quickly to say that all he meant was that he currently has a feeling that he does 'not know how blank verse ought to be written', and cannot write it himself without suspecting he is 'imitating some particular style - Tennysonian, Elizabethan, Swinburnian, Browningist'. Does not feel quite the same about heroic couplets, which 'after being ridden almost to death, has [sic] had a long time of neglect in which to get fresh again'. Blank verse is 'clearly best for a play'; sends best wishes to Trevelyan.
Written from Bonn.
Chronological continuation of the previous notebook [MS-101]. Contains some coded diary entries and at the front a note that on Wittgenstein’s death the volume should be sent to Leopoldine Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell: 'Nach meinem Todfe an meine Mutter...'
(London Hospital, Whitechapel?).—Discusses Montagu’s appointment (as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster). Hopes he will enjoy himself in Paris. Wants to see him when he returns.
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Transcript
Sunday Jan 31st 1915
You were right as far as dates go. I looked through my letters & I see that the first time it was mentioned was on Sunday 24th from Walmer {1}. Still I dont think that proves that it was entirely a plot of Lloyd Georges. I know the P.M has wanted to have you in for sometime. He’s very fond of you. He says in one letter “It is one of the few real pleasures one has to feel one can open the door, without any misgiving as to capacity or merit, to a really great friend”. I find I also did the old boy an injustice; {2} he never said he’d seen Mcnamara {3}. I do hope you’ll find there are some compensations for leaving the Treasury, tho’ of course neither I, nor anyone else wd think it strange for you to mind going. I am glad all the same because I am certain that you wont stick in the Duchy for long, & as I’m very ambitious for you(!) I welcome this step very greatly. But you mustnt let the P.M. put Addison in. It wd be too great an anti-climax.
I hope you’ll have a delicious time in Paris. I must see you when you come back & hear all about it. Perhaps Monday. Next time I have my day off I’m determined, if you can, to dine with you, get a “late pass” & try & win or lose a little money. Will you arrange that?
Yrs ever
Venetia
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Written in pencil, except for ‘real pleasures … door, with’, which is in ink. Probably written at the London Hospital, Whitechapel.
{1} The reference is to a letter from Asquith, dated 24 January. See H. H. Asquith: Letters to Venetia Stanley, No. 274.
{2} Semi-colon supplied.
{3} T. J. Macnamara, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty.
The letter is 'addressed to the leading London newspapers' on behalf of various members of Cambridge University. Those to whom the fly-sheet is sent are requested to send their names at once to Henry Sidgwick if they concur the arguments set down in the letter. Explains that the Council of the Senate of Cambridge University, 'acting on the recommendation of the General Board of Studies, have proposed the appointment of a Syndicate to consider the expediency of allowing more widely than at present an alternative for either Greek or Latin in the Previous Examination' and that a number of residents 'have appealed to non-resident Members of the Senate to aid them in resisting all enquiry into this question.'
Sets out 'one or two reasons against this very unusual step'. Refers to the report of a Syndicate of eleven years previously, whose members included Dr Kennedy, the Professor of Greek, and which proposed the removal of the obligation on candidates for honours of studying both Latin and Greek on the grounds that the obligation of students to study both languages tends to exclude from the University a number of able students, educated in schools in which Greek is not taught.
States that since that time, with the development and extension of 'the "modern" system', about half the boys educated in the schools represented at the previous Headmaster's Conference 'are now taught only one classical language. Argues that with the obligation still in place, the University is prevented 'from receiving a number of boys thoroughly capable of profiting by academic study and training', while the time spent by other boys on both classical languages could better be spent on other subjects.
Asserts that the removal of the obligation, would not, as those who are attempting to block this move claim, result in an end to the study of Greek in all but the leading schools. Acknowledges the charms of Greek literature, 'its historic prestige, and its established position in the education of Europe', and claims that the teachers at Cambridge who desire this change 'certainly do not aim at the extinction' of the language. Refutes the argument that ignorance of Greek would injure all professions.
Adds that it is not proposed that the above considerations be taken as grounds for an immediate decision in favour of the proposed change, but merely as food for thought. Appeals to 'all open-minded Members of the Senate to assist...in defeating this attempt [to stop the proposed change].' Announces that voting will take place in the Senate-House on the following Thursday, 29 October at 2pm. The names of those on behalf of whom the letter is written are added at the end, added to which, in ink, appears the name of C.A.M. Fennell of Jesus College.