Pièce 12 - Letter from Roger Fry to R. C. Trevelyan

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Ivy Holt, Dorking. - Expects Bob will soon return, but has sent a ring [for his engagement to Elizabeth van der Hoeven] to his hotel; thinks it very beautiful and appropriate. Has not found time to do Bob's house but will go over soon and give instructions for the study and friezes. The 'accursed [Second Boer] war is upsetting everything'; has only forty-two people signed up for his lectures, which start in a week. Helen says he is too pessimistic, but he does not see there is 'much room for people like us in a blatant jingo inflated nation'. Supposes that 'the most incompetent toady' gets to the top of the army just as at the National Gallery and the S[outh] Kensington [Museum]. Discusses Bob's poem, which he likes very much, though is not sure he gets 'this kind of medioeval business as well as [he does] classical'. Has been reading some of the Franciscan poets: Jacopone [da Todi] is 'stunning'; also praises [Saint] Bonaventura's meditations. Has found 'a new and splendid subject' for Bob in the Gospel of Nicodemus, which is 'terrible extravagant & Byzantine'; has told it to [Laurence] Binyon but does not expect he will use it before Bob returns.

Extract appears in Fry, R., & Sutton, D. (1972), Letters of Roger Fry / edited with an introduction by Denys Sutton. London: Chatto and Windus, Vol 1 p 176.

Pencil annotation numbering the letter '43'.