Pièce 3 - Letter from Roger Fry to R. C. Trevelyan

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Chelsea. - Dated 'Sunday'. Apologises for not sending the books earlier; was very busy with the lectures and with arranging for his parents visiting to see Helen [Coombe]; Goldie [Lowes Dickinson] and 'a sister' have also been staying. Has filled the box up with clothes which Mrs Smith [their landlady] thought Bob 'ought to want'. Says 'I told you so' about Bob being in Italy: it is better than 'going Jonkopping in Sweden [visiting Jönköping?]' and he might get some work done; suggests going to Fiesole or Prato, though that might be too hot. Asks if Bob intends to stay till winter; if so they will arrange to meet. Everything now settled: he and Helen hope to marry early in November and come out to Italy. Has had 'rather an awful time with his parents': very sorry for his father and his disappointment in him and so 'made a huge effort to get through the misunderstanding' but only gave him and his mother pain. This has made him 'awfully depressed'; found it hard to 'pull himself together for the lectures' but thinks they were the best he has done; pleased that both Goldie and [Thomas Sturge?] Moore liked them. Has been bicycling with Goldie, who is 'getting more reconciled about Helen'; thinks he 'begins to see that it can't make any real difference between [them]'. They went to Woodbridge and tried but failed to find [Edward] Fitzgerald's grave, then to Dedham 'which is the only [piece of French country in England and explains Constable'. Helen's harpsichord [which she is decorating for Arnold Dolmetsch] is 'going to be a great success'; she is 'quite decided' that Bob must either come back for the wedding or meet them in Italy.

Appears, 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 annotations dating the letter to '1896', with another hand adding 'late', and numbering it '3'.