Item 90 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

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The Mill House, Westcott, Dorking :- Apologises for not writing sooner [ee 12/71]: this is not 'due to indifference or to want of interest, still less to want of affection, but to carelessness and procrastination', to which he has always been 'very liable', and should therefore try especially 'to guard against'.

Will keep the Whitefriars Journal, since his father did not mention it, until Bessie returns at least. Liked his speech, and thought it 'admirably successful in saying some quite serious things lightly, and with grace'. Bessie is coming back soon, maybe on Thursday, but has not yet settled exactly when; Robert will probably come to London then and hopes they might see his parents. She has had a cold but is well now, and seems to have enjoyed her visit.

The 'difficulties about the house' seem to be finally settled, as the Vaughan Williamses have agreed to everything they asked; wishes they had done so several months ago, and saved Robert and Bessie 'this time and worry'. Building should begin this month if everything goes well. Will tell his father 'more about the terms' when they meet in London; their solicitor Withers is satisfied with the terms now.

Spent a week with some Cambridge friends at Woody Bay near Ilfracombe and left last Thursday, stopping to see Salisbury and Winchester on the way back; returned home yesterday. Much admired 'the outside of Salisbury Cathedral, and the close'; did not see Stonehenge, but left it 'for another time'.

Does 'not know how far Verrall has really proved his point about Tyrtaeus [see 12/73]', but remembers he fairly convinced Robert that the poems 'were at least very much rewritten in the Attic dialect, and probably added to, in the 6th century'; does not think Verrall suggested there was 'not an older form behind them', he supposes 'in the Spartan dialect'. Rather likes the 'old elegiac poets' such as Solon, Tyrtaeus and Theognis, who 'may not be very poetical or sublime' but 'can say what they want to quite clearly and with great force in a very difficult literary medium', and 'prepared the way for Simonides and the later epigrammatists'.

Sends love to his mother, and hopes to see her this week.