TRANSCRIPT:
India Office, Whitehall, S.W.
Nov. 1st 1911.
My dear Venetia
(I have somehow slipped into addressing you by the most beautiful name in the world [which happens to be yours] {1}—if you dislike it you will of course some time or other say so (… read more
TRANSCRIPT:
India Office, Whitehall, S.W.
Nov. 1st 1911.
My dear Venetia
(I have somehow slipped into addressing you by the most beautiful name in the world [which happens to be yours] {1}—if you dislike it you will of course some time or other say so (please dont)—it is I suppose because I think of you thusly).
I have provisionally fixed Thursday week {2} for Oldham and will gladly stay at Alderley for that night.
How kind you were at Penrhos and how much I enjoyed it and you!
But I think you were too kind about the Caligula arch incident {3}; if a man or woman has tolerable or even at most conventional courage a small lacuna therein however eccentric can be pardoned. A brave soldier is not a poltroon because he is afraid of cats, nor would let us say Geoffrey be a coward because he might blanch in the dark—but I fear I am coward all through and through—physical and I fear nowadays moral. I venture little and I win about as much.
Nevertheless I am having heaps of fun here and am rather above myself with fight and energy—and its always fun writing to you—but I must deny myself more of it—because I’m keeping people waiting
Yrs ever
Edwin S. Montagu
—————
Black-edged paper.
{1} The square brackets are in the MS.
{2} 9 November.
{3} There is a Caligula Arch at Pompeii. Perhaps there is a copy, or a similarly-named arch, at Penrhôs.
read less
