Item 95 - Letter from Henry Festing Jones to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

120 Maida Vale, W. - Asks whether Trevelyan thought he had 'forgotten all about the Centaurs and the Amazons', or had no mannners because he did not write with thanks for "[The Bride of] Dionysus". Was much 'preoccupied', but has now 'broken the back of [Samuel] Butler's notebooks' and is reading through the typescript of the book ["The Note-Books of Samuel Butler"]. Feels 'rather exhausted' as the editing has been so 'long and troublesome', and he does not know how much he will have to redo. Has however read Sturge Moore's two poems and returns them; they 'contain many fine things' but are not really in 'his line' and he finds them 'a little dull'. The piece Desmond [MacCarthy] showed him and sent to the "New Quarterly", about 'a man in the Bible who got into difficulties with his dramatic gods' was 'duller'. "Dionysus" is his next job, but he may be distracted by organisation for the fifth Erewhon Dinner: Edmund Gosse has fixed the date for 12 July, and cards are being printed. Hopes that Trevelyan will come. Turned sixty-one the other day and cannot do as much as he used to, so the quantity of correspondence associated with the dinner will be tiring. Looking forward to going to Sicily the day afterwards. Went to Paris at Easter; then to Scotland at Whitsun, where he went fishing for the first time and thinks he hooked a fish though 'he wriggled off before I could get him into the boat'. Thanks Trevelyan for sending the book; hopes [Donald Tovey's] music will please him, and that the opera will 'be a great success & cause a furore'. His sister has gone to Norway for a month's holiday. Asks whether Trevelyan has sent the names of people who want to 'become Erewhonians'.