Item 320 - Letter from Edward Marsh to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

Holly Lodge, Richmond Park, S.W. - Does not think he would be able to come to Wallington, as he has to go Scotland a few days earlier than he intended to at first. Yesterday was 'delightful': it poured with rain so he read 'all day without stopping': '"Vita Nuova", [Brooke Foss?] Westcott, Montaigne, "Sir Charles Grandison" and the life of F. W. Robertson'. Asks whether Bob has read the last: it is worth it for Robertson's letters; 'the life part, by Stopford Brooke' is 'quite well done'. Got an 1818 edition of Montaigne in five volumes at his mother's shop, 'not so nice in some was as Quaritchs', but still very nice' and is reading it with 'delight'; also got Leighton's Rabelais, which 'gave great satisfaction'. He and [Desmond] MacCarthy went to see the "Sign of the Cross" on Saturday; found it 'much more amusing than the Alhambra', which he thinks 'dealt the final blow to [his] curiosity about Music Halls'. Asks 'Am I not saucy?... (this is all exactly in the style of Harriet Byron [in "Sir Charles Grandison"]. His mother says 'she is as well as she ever was', and does seem to be, but she has also agreed 'to take care of herself' so he hopes 'all will be well'.