Mostrando 4236 resultados

(With an envelope.)

—————

Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
22 Nov. 1935

Dear Semple,

Your letter found me in a nursing home, whence I issued forth three or four days ago. My heart can no longer sustain the 44 steps to my rooms in Whewell’s Court, and I have had to descend to the ground floor in the Great Court. Ever since June I have been very weak. I have lectured however all this term, motoring in from the Home.

I was sorry that you had missed the award, though the ladies will probably be smitten with Onians {1}. I have no distinct idea of his work, and I am afraid that I had never been conscious of Williamson’s existence.

Yours sincerely
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] W. H. Semple Esq | 29 Upper Redlands Road | Reading

—————

The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 8 p.m. on 22 Nov.

{1} The chair of Latin at Bedford College, a women’s college in the University of London, had fallen vacant on the death of the incumbent, Harold Williamson, on 7 June. Semple evidently applied for the post, but it was awarded to R. B. Onians.

Has been receiving treatment for deafness in Switzerland and supporting her husband’s election campaign. Thanks her for the photographs (see 2/35). She will not be able to attend the conference in India, but is very interested in the progress of the women’s movement there.

—————

Transcript

24th. November. 1935.

My dear Mrs. Hamid Ali,

I am afraid you will think that I am most remiss in not having replied to your letter before. I was away in Switzerland when it came receiving treatment from a specialist for deafness, and while I was there the General Election was announced and I had to hurry home to take my part in it and support my husband’s candidature in East Edinburgh. I am so glad to say that he was elected Member of Parliament for that constituency.

I am perfectly charmed with the photographs that you send me. I think the photograph of you and your husband is delightful and most beautiful, especially of you. I was also greatly interested to see the pictures of your home. Thank you so much for sending them to me. They will serve as a very delightful remembrance of the very great pleasure it was to my husband and to me to meet you and to hear something of your wonderful work.

It is very kind of you to invite me to the Indian Conference, but I am sorry to say that my health prevents me from accepting such an attractive invitation. The treatment in Switzerland for my deafness has not up till now been a success and I am extremely deaf, and until this condition passes away I am not fit to take part in any public life at all. I believe it is only a temporary condition, but I have no idea how long it is going to last.

I shall be with you in thought at your Congress, and I shall follow your deliberations with intense interest. As you know, my whole life has been given to the woman’s movement, and there is no development of the woman’s that I follow with such interest as that in India. The movement there fulfills† all that I had hoped and dreamed of in my young days. It is so valiant and courageous, so definite and determined and at the same time so entirely free from bitterness or narrowness of conception. People in the very highest position have testified to their belief that it is the most important and most uplifting movement in India, and I am happy to think that such general acknowledgement and admiration has been accorded publicly. I trust and pray that the woman’s movement will keep itself free of all political contamination and will maintain its character and will ultimately set an ideal which will be followed by the rest of the country. India has such a very great future.

With warmest good wishes,

Yours very sincerely,
[blank]

Mrs. Hamid Ali,
The Residency,
Satara,
India.

—————

† Sic.

(With an envelope.)

—————

Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
5 Dec. 1935

My dear Gerald,

I am two letters in your debt, and I do not quite know at what point your knowledge of my history breaks off. I am now in ground-floor rooms, B 2 Great Court, which are exceedingly comfortable, and the bathroom, which the College has equipped at its own expense, strikes the beholder dumb with admiration. I have no separate dining-room, but the study is larger than the old one, and so is the bedroom. The rooms are rather dark, and in hot weather there is likely to be some lack of air, as the wistaria interferes with opening the windows wide. The situation is very convenient for Hall, and I have a lecture room in the diagonally opposite corner of the court. My walking is weak and slow, and for getting to sleep I am using diminishing doses of a bromide, supplemented with champagne; but I still wake too early in the morning and pass a disagreeable hour or two. The clock does not annoy me at all.

I am glad to hear of your progress, and will hope for your success in the great examination. If you fail this time I shall nevertheless be sure that you have done your best. I must tell you again not to worry yourself about the expense, which I can quite well support; and I do not want you to go taking some geological post which is not good enough. As your mind runs so much on Fortnum & Mason perhaps you might send me a smoked ox tongue. Space here is rather cramped, and keeping potted fish cool might not be easy.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] G. C. A. Jackson Esq. | St Thomas’s Hospital | London S. E. 1

—————

The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 11.30 p.m. on 5 December.

Longmeadow, Street, Somerset.—Commends Pethick-Lawrence’s speech on Italy and Abyssinia. Discusses in detail the international situation and the pacifist position.

(At the head is a draft reply. Cf. 6/254.)

House of Lords.—Invites him to a meeting of an interparliamentary group formed to foster co-operation among members of different parliaments in the defence of peace and democratic liberties (i.e. the Inter-Parliamentary Union). A report of the group’s conference in Brussels will be given by Eleanor Rathbone on Friday.

(A mechanical copy of a typed original, with typed and handwritten additions. At the foot Pethick-Lawrence has drafted a reply, the text of which is substantially that of 2/295.)

Is largely in agreement with him (see 6/242). ‘The Government’s actions have landed us in a mess from which there is practically no honourable escape.’

Cannot attend the meeting (of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; see 2/285).

(Carbon copy.)

(With an envelope, addressed by A. S. F. Gow.)

—————

Transcript

Evelyn Home | Trumpington Road | Cambridge
Monday Jan. 6

My dear Gerald,

To-day I am so much better that I can ansswer† civilly to letters like yours. Hitherto my in-digestion and nausea have been too disabling. I shall try to send you a cheque for £450, which if I mistake not is the regular ammount† and which I beg you to accept, if so, without demur, as I can quite sustatin† it. My head has sometimes got confused bentween† your family and my nephews.

I have not yet dared to eat anything you sent me from Fortnum & Mason, but I hope it is keeping all right. Brawn is a thing I am very fon† of at Xmas if it keeps properly.
Thanks for your visit.

A. E. Housman

This is sent by the kind offices of Mr. Gow of Trinity

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson esq | St Thomas’s Hospital | London | S.E.1

—————

The envelope, which bears a 1½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 8 p.m. on 7 January, and has been marked in pencil, ‘Address in Mr. Gow’s handwriting. Written from Evelyn Nursing Home Cambridge.’ The letter is written very uncertainly in pencil; the direction on the envelope is in ink.

† Sic.

New Alliance Club, 8 Cavendish Square, W.1.—Thanks her for her congratulations (on her DBE), and reflects on their personal connections and the significance of the honour.

Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
17 Jan. 1936

My dear Gerald,

Acquainted as you are with Fortnum and Mason and familiar with the female medical soul you are just the man to execute the job. After a stay in the Evelyn Nursing Home, where they are always extraordinarily kind and attentive, I send the nurses a present of something to eat, such as strawberries in season, or boxes of chocolates. Will you expend the enclosed cheque for £2.0.0 in purchasing and having sent from them a selection of sweetmeats (crystallised fruits or anything which you think will be relished, and perhaps not exactly what is most commonly to be found in Cambridge—though do not be particular about that, as they are all fond of chocolate) addressed to the Deputy Matron and enclosing the enclosed letter from me?

Thanks for all your enquiries during my illness. I was obliged to neglect all correspondence and am only now beginning to write. I gave my first lecture this morning, and had no difficulty in the actual delivery, but crossing the court was a labour and indeed so is almost any physical action.

I think your idea of a holiday before the examination is very likely a good one.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

—————

{1} A line has been drawn below this amount to draw attention to it. Cf. Nos. 41 and 47.

Hyderabad, Deccan.—Thanks him for his letter of congratulation (on his appointment to the Privy Council).

54 Cours Napoléon, Ajaccio, Corse - He is pleased things are going well for her; is working with maps of Corsica, and some have Dutch text he cannot read (Jan. 19); he thanks her for various things she has sent in the post: the 'Times', with its coverage of Edward VIII (Jan. 28), an issue of 'Punch', with an image [?] of Canon [Alexander] Nairne at Windsor (3 Feb.) and pictures for Martine [Giamarchi]. He has sent a parcel of responses to the questionnaire to Varagnac; is happy they had a good evening with Wickham Steed (16 Feb.).

(With an envelope.)

—————

Transcript

Trinity College | Cambridge
31 Jan. 1936

My dear Gerald,

I ought to have thanked you before, and this letter will hardly catch you before you start on your holiday; but, next to walking, nothing tires me so much as writing, and I tend to fight shy of it. The nurses went into ecstasies over the sweets, and over admiration of your taste, for I told them that I had left the choice to you. Harrod’s provender was also good. The doctor told me to-day that he is not coming again for a week.

I had a letter the other day from Rupert, who seems to be profiting by the retirement of some competitors. I hope that you will enjoy your holiday and that it will freshen you up for the examination as desired.

Your affectionate godfather
A. E. Housman.

[Direction on envelope:] Gerald Jackson Esq. | St Thomas’s Hospital | London S.E.1 [Redirected to:] Hotel Trantheim | Engleberg | Switzerland [At the top:] Please forward

—————

The envelope, which bears a 2½d. stamp, was postmarked at Cambridge at 9 p.m. on 31 January, and has been marked in pencil, ‘Written 3 months before his death on April 30th ’35’.

(Carbon copy of a typed original.)

54 Cours Napoléon, Ajaccio, Corse - In the letter of 18 May, he is worried about her silence after she announced her trip to Switzerland; is putting out a new survey for the Encyclopédia Française for Varagnac; their questionnaires have attracted the notice of ethologists and folklorists; he is not making as much progress in his map work as he could like; Varagnac asked for news and told him of the admiration of all his friends for 'Fear [of the Dead]' III. In the letter of 31 May, he says he will quote from the preface to 'Fear' III, to encourage his volunteers to embrace errors and not doubt their abilities, as his humility should be an example; his plans to go to the country are delayed; Martine [Giamarchi, his great niece] is very happy to have the picture magazine. In the letter of 9 June, he thanks her for her card pointing out that it has been 57 years since the composition of 'Plato’s Ideal' in 1879, and used the preface to 'Crainte' in speaking to his Normaliennes who are working on the ethnological and folklore surveys; he has written to Geuthner; there are two translations of Condorcet, Chouville and Mme de Pange.

Transcript

Observatory, Cambridge
21 May 1936

Dr W. M. Smart’s application for the Chair of Regius Professor of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow has my warmest support. He is a man of established reputation in astronomical circles who would fill the office with distinction; and he has proved himself very successful as a lecturer and teacher. He would be much missed from this Observatory and from the University; but promotion to a professorial chair would be a fitting recognition of his work.

Dr Smart has been Chief Assistant in the Observatory and John Couch Adams Astronomer since 1921. There is only one other Assistant. The policy of the Observatory has been to avoid routine undertakings and to develop new methods. Two main lines of work have been developed during his tenure—an improved method of determining photographic proper motions of stars, and measurement of stellar magnitudes with a photo-electric cell. As regards the former it may, I think, be claimed that the Cambridge results set a new standard of accuracy for large series of proper motions. Photo-electric work is still confined to two or three observatories (Cambridge being the only British one). After a long struggle with pioneer difficulties the work is now proceeding with great success, and astonishing accuracy is obtained. A large share of the credit for these results is due to Dr Smart.

On the theoretical side his earlier work was in celestial mechanics. But in connection with the practical work above-mentioned his more recent interests have {1} been mainly in proper motions and other branches of stellar statistics, to which he is one of the most active contributors. He is a member of the Commission of the International Astronomical Union on Stellar Parallaxes and Proper Motions.

His teaching work covers elementary lectures on astronomy, advanced lectures on celestial mechanics and on stellar motions and a practical class at the observatory. Judging from the response of the students he is a stimulating lecturer. He normally supervises one or two research students.

An important part of his experience is his work as Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society during the last five years. This brings him into touch with astronomers in all parts of the world, so that he is in full contact with all modern developments. It is perhaps not irrelevant to mention that he is Treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Society Dining Club—an office (of which the duties are by no means confined to the care of money) which is a tribute to his popularity with his colleagues.

To sum up:—He has shown himself able to make the most of the resources of a small observatory; he is well-known and esteemed internationally; he is successful with students; and is well used to administrative activity.

—————

The various cancelled words and passages in this letter have not been recorded, except for the mistaken deletion noted below.

{1} Struck through by mistake.
 

Board of Trade.—Has received the report of the Fixed Trust Committee. Thanks him for completing the task so soon. The proposals in the report will be carefully considered by the Board of Trade.

(Place of writing not indicated.)

(Dated Wednesday.)

Fourways, Gomshall, Surrey.—Has received her letter and responds to her reflections on the relation between the spirit and the body, particularly with regard to physical health.

11 Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn, W.C.2.—Relates what he learnt about cosmic rays during his dinner with Korff.

(Place of writing not indicated.)

11 Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn, W.C.2.—Reflects on their spiritual relation to one another, in her present ‘hour of pain’.

Paul End, Penn, Bucks.—Thanks him for a letter describing his visit to Denmark.

(Place of writing not indicated.)—Commends his suggested solution to the abdication crisis.

Paul End, Penn, Bucks.—Thanks them for a photograph of themselves. Comments on the abdication crisis.