Item 108 - Letter from Hilary Steuert to James Smith

2 single sheets

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Has recovered from his sinus trouble. Asks Smith’s opinion of the [Downing] Review and discusses some of the contents. Reiterates his approval of Maxwell’s article, with its ‘daring strictures’ on Leavis’s style. Urges Smith to contribute something. Leavis has written thanking him for La Vie intellectuelle and criticising the eclecticism of the Criterion. Agrees that Leavis is no nearer the Church. Is sorry Smith was disappointed by the ‘Gilbey lectures’ [probably lectures by Thomas Gilby], but maintains that there are some genuinely learned English Dominicans, including his friend Kenelm Foster. As the personnel of St Michael’s have changed, except for Gerard Meath, he supposes the lectures will not continue. Agrees that the ‘aridly polemical tone’ of English sixteenth-century controversial literature compares poorly with the breadth of devotional and theological life of the Cloud of Unknowing. Asks whether he should start compiling a prose anthology of the recusants or continue working towards a book by writing occasional articles.