Item 116 - Letter from John Burston [?] to R. C. Trevelyan

1 letter

National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, S.W.1. - Was 'delighted and flattered' to receive a copy of "From the Shiffolds": fears that it would be 'an impertinence' to say he likes the poems, though he does; instead tells Trevelyan of an idea suggested to him by the second poem about the 'infinite divisibility of natural beauty': from a whole field of dandelions, to an individual flower, down to the beauty 'to me unsuspected, & at first breath-taking' of a 'single floret when seen through a powerful magnifier', and another when the 'unfolding & development of the flowers is seen speeded up on the cinematograph, & their intelligence is perceived.' There is as much truth 'in the field as in the floret - they are all equally Illusion'. Visited van Stuwe [?]today and 'found him flourishing', though regrets that he was 'drinking heavily', since a member of the club had 'rather rashly' given him a bottle of wine. His other guest and Burston tried their best to 'remove excessive temptation from him by continually toasting his health'; he asked to be remembered to Trevelyan. Wishes Trevelyan 'every philosophic contentment in 1948'.