Item 120 - Letter from Sir Steven Runciman to Stephen Keynes

1 single sheet, 1 envelope

Elsieshields, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.—Hopes to attend the Cranium Club dinner. Was interested to hear of his meeting with the Master of Trinity (Sir Michael Atiyah); he (Runciman) usually stays at the Master's Lodge when he visits Cambridge.

——————————

Transcript

Elsieshields, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, DG11 1LY
25.5.96

Dear Stephen,

Thank you very much for your letter. I certainly hope to come to the Cranium dinner on 13 June.

I am interested to hear of your encounter with the present Master of Trinity. I always stay with him now when I visit Cambridge. Years ago Rab Butler, when Master, laid it down that I should always be housed at the Master’s Lodge whenever I came to Cambridge; and subsequent Masters, Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley and now Michael Atiyah, have hospitably continued the tradition. It is perhaps quite suitable, as I am now—and have been for several years—the senior Honorary Fellow of the College. But in fact I don’t visit Cambridge very often—apart from Feasts at Trinity—and, what with extreme old age and decrepitude, my visits may become even fewer. But I hope that some day I may have the chance of visiting Lammas House. In the meantime I have happy memories of my all too brief visit to you at Canonbury.

Yours
Steven

[Direction on envelope:] Stephen Keynes, Esq., 14 Canonbury Park South, London N1

—————

The envelope is postmarked 28 May 1996.

Inserted in Pam. b. 99. 178. See the Catalogue of Printed Books.

Inserted in the front of a copy of *Paradise Regained", by Steven Runciman (privately printed, 1992), inscribed 'For Stephen Keynes | from | Steven Runciman | April 1996' (Pam. b. 99. 178).

Description created by A. C. Green, 15 June 2026.