Item 42 - Letter from Elizabeth des Amorie van der Hoeven to R. C. Trevelyan

10 Prinsegracht, the Hague'; addressed to Bob at The Mill House, Westcott, Dorking, Surrey. - Sorry that Bob has a cold; he should 'choose a better way of showing [his] sympathy' with her. Discussion of comforting and sharing things with each other. Bob will have received her uncle's letter; thinks he is right to advise waiting to write to Sir Henry Howard [British ambassador to the Netherlands] until they hear from 'the Paris oracle' [Mr Barclay; see 9/40]. Hopes Bob has a good Easter with his friends; he must decide whether to go to Salisbury Plain rather than Borrowdale [for their honeymoon] as she does not know either place, and just wants the place to be 'retired from tourists... real country'. Describes Bob's enthusiasm for Flaubert and a performance by him from "La vision de St. Antoine" while they were sitting by the edge of a wood. Charming of [Bob's brothers] Charles and George to think of giving them a box to hold music. Spent a long time yesterday working on her will; it will be almost the same as her sister's. Will go to Amsterdam on Saturday if her cold is better to hear a Brahms chamber concert and have another lesson [with Bram Eldering]. Has read a great deal of "Wuthering Heights"; it is 'tremendously fierce & powerful'. Asks whether Bob has copies of certain books, if so she will leave them behind or give them to someone. The Boers have suffered a great loss with the death of Joubert; asks what the feeling is about it in England. Has had to order more photographs of Bob as she has given so many away. Scolds him for not spelling the name of the place where he lives correctly.