Pièce 242 - Letter from Sir George Trevelyan to R. C. Trevelyan

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Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Caroline received a most interesting letter from Bessy this morning; he has ordered Drummond [his banker] to pay thirty five pounds into Robert's account for Julian's 'little affair' [an operation on an umbilical hernia]; 'quod optime eveniat!' [Latin: may this turn out well]. Sends George's account of their 'little ceremony of Boxing Day'; asks for it back. Has been reading Herodotus, 'with a play of Plautus between each book'; has reached the last book and wishes there were nine more; Plautus grows on him more with each reading, as also happened to Macaulay when he read and re-read him in India. Is now going to read Thucydides, again with a Plautus play between each book. Sir John Simon stayed last week, and mentioned that he had shown Thucydides 2.71-74 to Asquith as 'a curious parable to the story of Belgium'. Was glad to find the narrative easy to read.