Item 88 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan and Elizabeth Trevelyan to Maria Pruys van der Hoeven

The Mill House, Westcott, Dorking. - Robert is glad Aunt Maria is 'on the whole better' and hopes she will continue to improve; Bessie much enjoyed getting her letter. Expects Tuttie [Hubrecht] will be with her soon., but it is 'very sad about the Grandmonts', and they hope all will soon turn out well. They have just had their first guest: Robert's Aunt Annie [Philips] who 'gave Bessie the broach [sic]', his mother's sister. She came for lunch and tea; Bessie was 'very busy' in the morning making things nice as Aunt Annie is a 'very skilful connoisseur in housekeeping'. Now Bessie is sewing rings onto the curtains for the dining room; Robert breaks off to go and look at them, and reports they look 'even better than expected...' though the seamstress has made them two inches too short. Wishes Aunt Maria could see their house; will soon send photographs of the exterior and two sitting rooms, but this will not give her a real idea; she will however see the Enticknaps and their son Gussie. Is about to put some weedkiller on the lawn, though this is an unending task. Their French roses are 'still blooming' and have been very successful. There are now frosts at night, though the weather is still 'beautiful'. Has recently been reading, with the help of translations, the old Provençal poets; some are much more beautiful than he expected, and he understands now why Dante so admired and was influenced by them; however many of the Troubadours are 'very dull and conventional'. He and Bessie read some of Dante's "Paradiso" together most mornings; they like it very much and persevere even though it is 'very difficult'. They both send best wishes to her and Uncle [Paul Hubrecht], whom he hopes is keeping well.

Bessie adds a postscript in Dutch at the bottom of the last page which she continues above Robert's writing on the first page; asks about Tuttie, describes getting the house ready for Aunt Annie. Asks about a name, 'Lucy Bane?', which she could not read. She forgot Johannes [Röntgen?]'s birthday; Aunt Maria 'thinks much more intensely about other people, just like Grandmother did'.