Item 184 - Letter from Donald Tovey to Elizabeth Trevelyan

1 item

Merton College, Oxford. - Notes in the address that he is at the Congress of Universities, 'all incontrovertible talk & academic millinery'; his hired gown is 'a most appetising strawberries-&-cream affair'. Is 'very unsettled in plans and mind'. Unlikely that he will be able to get to the Shiffolds again this summer, and is going to try to organise time abroad from which he could come back at once if necessary. Dr Haydn Brown is sure he can cure Grettie if she will see him, and Tovey must do what he can to accomplish this; her relatives are 'quietly behaving in the most abominable way'. Has got a letter from her aunt Mary which will justify him 'in the most drastic measures which may be necessary' to keep the family away if Grettie ever returns. They deny she has been ill, except as a consequence of Tovey 'being impossible to live with' and claim that he is trying to 'get her shut up on false imputation of insanity'. However, all documentary evidence shows only his 'loyalty and care for her reputation as well as her health'. They support 'poor G.'s ravings', which alarmed the Principal's wife so much that she did not invite him to a recent lunch of Deans of Faculties, and told Mrs Morley Fletcher why. Tovey feels the 'only salvation' for his wife is to spread the story that what she says is 'the delusions of a fever' so it will be forgotten when she is cured, whether she comes back to Tovey or not. Asks if Johannes [Röntgen] has gone to Switzerland; he may possibly go there himself, and if so hopes to see Johannes and 'the future Mrs J.R.'.