Item 121 - Letter from Sophie Weisse to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item.

93, High Street, Knaphill, Woking. - Is getting ever more anxious about Donald [Tovey]; claims the many illnesses he has had recently 'derive from Lady Tovey' and is sorry John [Wellcome Tovey] is there; Lady Tovey has also stopped Donald's Edinburgh doctor [Robert Thin?] from coming. Says the doctor knows, as she does that Lady Tovey 'does not speak the truth'; her 'jealousy amounts to insanity'; when she was young and was jealous of the other girls 'she hid under the table and bit their legs'. When Donald escorted Sophie Weisse to the door and gave her a kiss on her first visit to the Royal Terrace house, his wife 'howled like a wolf and slammed the doors until the house shook'. On Sunday, Donald's Norfolk doctor, Corbett, came to see Miss Weisse against her wishes; she 'went into peals of laughter' and repeatedly assured him she had 'not the slightest confidence in him'. John writes today that they are waiting for Trevelyan's 'Austrian doctor' [Karl Bluth, actually German?] to make plans for Donald. Thinks well of the Viennese medical school, but demands to know who the doctor is, and what his qualifications are. Remembers that a lady she met recently at a wedding told her what a reputation Donald had in Vienna as a player, alongside people such as Joachim and Mandyczewski, and 'that Brahms when he was dying hoped Donald would come so that he might hear him before he died'. Says she 'must' see the doctor first, and will be at Hedenham when he comes; 'unless he comes here and entirely satisfies [her] - which seems hardly probable' she will do all she can 'to put him out of court'. Is thinking of coming to see Trevelyan tomorrow if he does not bring the doctor to her.