Item 233 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

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The Shiffolds, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking. - They are 'in the interval between two governesses, so Bessie is rather busy looking after Julian'. They are glad Miss Barthorpe will probably return next winter, as she suited them very well; the new governess, Miss Colley, comes on Monday.

The [Apostles] Dinner last week went 'very well'; thinks twenty-two people attended. MacCarthy was 'very successful as President'. Had to speak at the end as President for next year; will be 'somewhat of a responsibility, especially in these days' Sophocles' Ichneutae [see 12/272] is on the subject of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes; the Chorus are the Satyrs 'tracking' the thief of Apollo's lost oxen. Has never read the Bellum Alexandrinum, 'nor indeed any of Caesar since... Cambridge'. Note on [Aulus] Hirtius. Is reading some Greek history with Julian, 'chiefly about Croesus and Cyrus at present, but it will come to the real Greeks soon'.

Their strawberries have finished, but their raspberries 'are coming on'; they will be able to make some jam, though they have not got all the sugar they wanted. The bilberries on Leith Hill are also 'at their best'.