Pièce 18 - Letter from Henry Martineau Fletcher to R. C. Trevelyan

1 sheet

The Hague. - Hopes this letter will 'be in time to say goodbye' and wish Bob good luck in his travels; calls him a 'lucky man, to get out of this wind' to places where the 'sun can warm as well as light the world'. They [he and his wife] look forward to 'seeing the East from at least three new points of view when you three articulate-speaking mortals [Bob, G. Lowes Dickinson and E. M. Forster] come back'.

Wonders if Bob has had the chance to look at the book by Loti [Un Pèlerin d'Angkor?] (this returned safely, Bob should tell Elizabeth); Angkor has had the 'same fascination' for Fletcher as Loti felt, 'ever since I first read about it in Ferguson [James Fergusson?]'. Bob should go there if he has the chance, though Fletcher imagines it is 'pretty inaccessible'; and 'if the Buddhist priests have advanced to the sale of picture post-cards', he should send Fletcher as many as he can.

Has come to the Hague for a few days before 'the autumn session' begins, and finds the town 'nearly as fascinating' as he remembers it from the tour he and [his sister] Mary made eighteen years ago, though the 'perpetual buffeting of the icy east wind, mixed with dust & dead leaves' does not make 'strolling & sketching' very enjoyable. Good to be in a large town where 'you can walk at your ease down the middle of the streets without having to jump away from the engine-bonnets of a thousand cards. It reminds one how blessed existence was... in the pre-petrol days'; suppose Bob will 'recapture' that in Canton. Objects, however, to the 'plate-glass casements' replacing the 'original sash-windows divided with bars into many panes' everywhere; calls the change 'perfectly disastrous to scale & texture & cheerfulness', and adds a sketch of the two window types. His hotel is 'built of bells. They ring all the time in every direction'.

Sends his love to Elizabeth, and asks Bob to 'tell her to come to us whenever she can & will during your absence'. Adds postscript about how much he was 'carried away by The Bride [of Dionysus], calls it 'the best libretto' he has ever read.