Item 277 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

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The Shiffolds. - Still having fine weather, 'after just enough rain to keep us from being quite dried up'. Julian is well, 'enjoying his holidays, and also looking forward to his journey North'; Robert thinks him 'both stronger and less nervous than last year'. Bessie is currently reading him Gulliver's Travels, which 'he enjoys a great deal'. In the evening they read Emma, as Johannes Röntgen and his fiancée Miss [Julia] Fentener van Vlissingen know enough English to understand most of it'; they have just reached 'Mr Elton's declaration, which is a supreme piece of comedy'.

On Sunday Austin Smyth, 'the House of Commons librarian', is visiting; he is a 'first rate Aeschylean scholar', and Robert is going to discuss 'various difficulties in the choruses of the Choephoroe with him'. Has now finished his translation, apart from 'these choric passages, where the text is despairingly corrupt'. Hopes to come to Wallington a few days later than Bessie and Julian, on the Tuesday.