Item 2 - Letter from Roger Fry to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

Hotel de la Plage, S. Pierre en Port, Sassetot le Mauconduit, Seine Inférieure. - Is still here 'imbibing good food, bad tobacco & French idioms', owes the last to the enthusiasm of Miss [Jane] Harrison, whom he should call 'Dr' since she has been made 'L..L.D.' [by Aberdeen University]. Has left La Roche Guyon, and joined [Dugald] MacColl, his sister [Elizabeth?] and Dr Harrison. Wishes Bob had been with him at La Roche; was alone for three weeks and reached 'a low kind' of Nirvana based on sun, wine, black coffee & two bathes in the Seine per day, as well as getting a lot of work done. Made friends with a peasant living in a chalk cave, 'a freemason atheist radical & general mauvais sujet'. Has now 'descended to civilization & villadom', though Miss Harrison mitigates these; she has 'a very masculine mind and is quite apostolic'. Finds that MacColl, however, is 'touched with Oxford & journalism'. Expects to return about the same time as Bob. Adds a postscript to say he is sorry Bob has been 'bad again', and hopes to be 'able to take care of [him] in time'.

Appears (slightly abridged) in Fry, R., & Sutton, D. (1972), Letters of Roger Fry / edited with an introduction by Denys Sutton. London: Chatto and Windus, Vol 1 p 163

Pencil annotation dating the letter to '1895?', and numbering it '2'.