Item 125 - Letter from E. P. Arnold to George Otto Trevelyan

Wixenford, Eversley, Winchfield:- Sends 'two capital reports' [not included]. Cannot predict the result of the Harrow examination: Bobbie 'is not a quick worker, and he is too liable to lose his head just when put to the test', but he has 'at times done quite as good and probably better work' when compared with Hicks. Arnold has asked Bobbie to show Trevelyan a piece of Latin prose which 'struck me as quite promising', and he has 'made a good start' in verse, though Arnold wishes they 'could have had another month'. At the moment Bobbie 'is slow and his ideas are often too far-fetched though his attempts show power'. Is sure that, 'whatever he does next week', Bobbie will 'soon prove himself at least fit for Lower Remove'. Is 'thoroughly satisfied' with him, and also with George 'who is very promising, and more wide awake than his brother'. Bobbie's 'influence in the school has throughout been excellent [underlined]'.

Asks if he may beg 'a favour': they [Arnold and his wife] will be in London tomorrow and Tuesday evening, and if possible Arnold would 'so much like to go' to the House of Commons on Tuesday evening as he has 'never heard a debate', though he is unsure whether the House will still be sitting. If so, and Trevelyan can help, he directs him to send the 'order to 24 Norfolk Crescent, Hyde Park; Trevelyan should not trouble to write if it is impossible.