Item 12 - Letter from Georgina Pollock to Lucy Clifford

24 Bryanston Street, W.—Discusses the Cliffords’ health and movements. The doctors do not think that Willi should return to England yet. She and Fred think of coming to join them, perhaps with the children. Gives news of their present activities and engagements.

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Transcript

24 Bryanston Street W
June 13./78

Dearest Lucy

A great many thanks for 2 letters from Malta & Genoa w[hic]h I got the day before yesterday, & for the others from Malta w[hic]h I could not acknowledge as we had no address. We were thankful that Malta seemed to suit Willi & that you fell in with pleasant friends. It was a great pity that you had an accident & were laid up; how did it happen? I do hope you are quite right again. I hope you took your journey to Lugano very very quietly and that you will soon establish yourselves comfortably at Monte Generoso. Fred wrote to you yesterday to tell you of his interview with Dr Clark. He said that nothing he sh[oul]d like better than to order you home in August or so, it would be so good for Willi morally, but that unless he really improves in the next month it would be most imprudent. Both he & Dr Beatty agree that in his present state nothing wd be worse for Willi than an English climate. You know Fred & I have set our hearts upon joining you wherever you are when the time comes for our holiday, at the Rieder Alp or in Yorkshire or Scotland & I sometimes think that we might easily manage to bring out both our kids so as to enjoy them altogether—I mean Ethel & Alice & perhaps C. Alice too. We shd not bring Alice if we cd not bring Ethel too. Don’t you think it would make Willi happier to stay abroad if he were to see his little girl & have her for about 4 weeks? Everybody goes abroad in August & if you were to come home you would find all your friends scattered. We have been staying with Mrs Ritchie near Windsor for Whitsuntide, & they & the Douglas Freshfields are all thinking of going to the Rieder Alp with great enthusiasm. The Tyndalls would be close by at the Bel Alp. So that on the whole I cannot help thinking you would enjoy yourselves more in Switzerland in August than in Great Britain, & that I suspect would be the only month Willi would be allowed home.

The W. Colliers are in London for a week & ask after you. Also we have some Dutch people over here to entertain. We did so enjoy our holiday in the country & London feels most dreadfully stuffy & stale on coming back. It is a joy to breathe in the country. Fred will have told you about Walter’s lecture at the R.I. They went to St Julians for their holiday & the parents are in Paris. I am a great deal better, in fact quite well. We are to take our Dutchman & woman to the R.I. tomorrow to hear Prof. Dewar on the Liquefaction of Gases. An interesting article in Mind next month will be “An infant’s Progress in Language”—i.e. Alice’s, done by her dada. I do hope you will be happy at Monte Generoso & meet friends. Best love to yr old man & you. Ever dear Lucy yr affectionate

GHP.