Item 271 - Letter from Sir George Trevelyan to R. C. Trevelyan

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Good to hear about Arnside [where Bessie and Julian are staying]; supposes Robert is only about a nine mile walk from them. Will be going to the Park [Annie Philips' house] soon. Agrees with Robert's analysis of what is 'hopelessly arid' in Swinburne's poetry; for Sir George, 'nothing... is more barren and devoid of real knowledge' than Swinburne's political poems, which suffer in comparison with [Browning's] "Old Pictures at Florence' or "De Gustibus", or the conversation between Luigi and his mother in "Pippa Passes". Criticises Swinburne's 'gross and violent ignorance' of the 'singular, many-sided, visionary Louis Napoleon'. Continues to criticise Swinburne on Louis Napoleon in a postscript, written on the back of an printed invitation card for a dinner of "The Club" at the Princes Hotel on 8 May 1917, which Earl Curzon will chair.