Item 56 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Caroline Trevelyan

Hôtel Timeo, Taormina:- Returned here on Sunday, and is expecting the Frys back from Palermo this evening; he himself did not want to stay there more than two or three days, so left them. They went to see Monreale, which is ‘even finer’ than he remembered, only to be compared with Ravenna. As far as he can tell, the Frys are ‘going along as well as any one could wish’, though they ‘seem to think… that they are very poor’ and are starting to cut down travelling expenses as much as possible. Expects ‘they will stay in Italy most of this year’, since they do not yet have a London house. The weather has been beautiful; today it is ‘quite perfect’. Is keeping well, and ‘getting along’ with his work; hopes to start back before long. Is glad Aunt Margaret [Holland?] is coming to Welcombe to ‘see the plays’; would also like to do so, ‘if it is convenient’. Wonders what she thinks of ‘the Cretan business’; does ‘not quite understand why we can’t let Greece have the place’ , but supposes it is ‘the emperor of the Scythian barbarians who seems to be chief man in Europe now. Napoleon said that in a hundred years Europe would either be Republican or Cossack’. Hopes his father is well.