Item 270 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Edward Marsh

1 item

Hotel Bristol, Naples, Corso Vittorio Emanuele [printed notepaper with line drawing of the hotel]. - Marsh must be 'made of very distractable material' if Bob's last letter [15/269] distracted him for a whole day. Never expected that Marsh would be able to come with him to Italy, and is enjoying solitude; calls solitude and 'a plunge in cold water' as 'fundamental instinct[s]' deriving from the evolution of mankind. Is staying at this hotel for two nights before deciding where to go next; it belongs to [George Parker] Bidder, 'grandson of the calculating infant [also George Parker Bidder]'; the younger Bidder is 'known to all his generation at Cambridge, and the Verralls talk of him'. Hopes to see Bidder and get his advice [note that if Bob was actually staying at the Hotel Bristol, this was not in fact owned by Bidder, whose hotel was further along the Corso]; had intended to go to Corpo di Cava, but it would still be cold, as the hills are still covered by snow. Capri is currently the 'most inticing [sic]' possibility, 'certainly the most secluded and remote'. Is going to the Museum when he finishes this letter, which 'T.T.' [Thomas Tettrell Phelps?' calls 'the most fascinating place he has ever seen'; went with 'T.T.' on his last night in Britain 'to see A. Roberts, and found that it was bad'.

Marsh 'would like Pisa'; Bob saw a band playing in the market place there for the king's birthday, as he and Marsh once saw at Como, and caught sight of a beautiful woman with a 'face such as you seldom see in England'; he later saw her in a box at the theatre, where he saw two acts of Verdi's "Falstaff" before catching the train for Rome. Only had an hour and a half there; 'smoked a cigarette over the ruins of the forum' and thought of Teufledrock [sic: Teufelsdröckh, in Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"]. Cannot even 'glance' at the 'wonderful things on the journey to Naples', and should keep a journal. Must get an Italian hat to wear in town, as he only has a straw one, and being the only person wearing one of these in a crowded street means he cannot escape 'intense' interest. Hope that Marsh will lose his 'nausea for Lucretius, or rather for his science' during the vacation; encourages him to go to Holland with 'S. and S.'; asks him to write. Says in a postscript that he can hear an American 'defending New York in the smoker', saying 'the negro really is a silent factor now'.