Item 179 - Letter from Donald Tovey to Elizabeth Trevelyan

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University of Edinburgh headed notepaper. - Is now 'pretty sure' that things will improve in the end, mainly because [Grettie's] family now 'understand the facts more intelligently than they did' so he can let them help, his sister in law Mrs Archibald in particular. Is sure that, if he and Grettie could have got away from them altogether, she would have improved in a few weeks rather than months. She is currently staying for a few weeks in the country with her Aunt Jane, while Tovey is in Edinburgh with his sister in law and another aunt. The doctor is their old family doctor, who has returned from the war; Tovey has come to a good understanding with him. The family's 'idea of its duty & its sympathetic impulses' was even worse than he had thought; it is really to their credit that they have 'come round of their own accord'. Has reached the Symphony in Act II in his arrangement of the opera ["The Bride of Dionysus"]; the German version is variable, and sometimes impossible to set. A novelty to have the music in 'a really playable form'. Has written what he thinks will be his last addition to the score, at the end of the first scene of Act I; describes this in detail, and gives the musical notation for the final chords. Hopes that Bob 'is satisfied with the behaviour of the [Paris Peace] Conference'; he himself feels that 'le mieux est l'ennemi du bien' and is thankful that so much progress 'towards common sense' has been made.