Item 20 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Caroline Trevelyan

Trinity:- Will go to Wallington on the 11th [Aug] and be there ready for the 12th [grouse shooting?]; supposes George will go up on Tuesday. Hopes they had a 'successful dinner' last Friday, and that 'Gladstone enjoyed himself, and was in good conversational form for G[eorge] to hear'. George's visit to Cambridge was 'very pleasant'; Robert thinks he will 'take on his predecessor's furniture', which is 'reasonably good'. Asks his mother to thank Booa [Mary Prestwich] for the parkin if she is still in London.

Welldon was in Cambridge yesterday to preach the University sermon: he 'did his very best, and certainly it was a remarkable performance', in which he said 'the lord had kept the good wine of Christianity until now, and that we had only had the bad wine hitherto'. Also implied that 'if he was allowed to run the old business, he would run it on new and original lines, in such a way as would astonish the world', and 'deplored the fact' that 'just when Christianity was ready for a new development', it was usually 'in bad odour with a large part of the world'.

Hopes his father is 'keeping well and strong'; supposes the work is ;just as hard, though the excitement is not as great'.