Item 18 - Notebook with part of a verse play by R. C. Trevelyan, with letters and other inserts

School exercise book; brown cover with flower design in black. Lined pages, many blank, 30 ff.
Inserts: 3 loose ff.; separate group of 3 loose ff.; bifolium letter; 1 loose sheet (with printed Cambridge term dates on one side); bifolium letter; paper slip.

Text on recto, with additions and corrections on facing pages; extract from play begins with dialogue between Godfrey and Raymond. Insertions [between ff. 8 and 9]: three lined sheets with draft of this portion of the play, several gaps filled in with pencil with suggested dialogue or précis of ground to be covered; three sheets [perhaps from an account book?] with dialogue between Eustace and a forester.

Letter, 14 Oct 1900, from Sophia Caroline Reid to R. C. Trevelyan, written at Selham House, Petworth. - Wonders if Trevelyan is in the neighbourhood, or is likely to be; came here a week ago to stay with her nephew Charles Lacaita and his wife [Mary]; will leave the week after next so fears there is little chance of seeing Trevelyan and making his wife's acquaintance until they come to Ravello. She herself hopes to be there by the end of October. She and Miss Allen were in London for the very hot week in July, looking to hire a new maid; she has 'secured a Swiss woman' whom she hopes will appreciate Ravello. She then spent several weeks in Scotland; enjoyed seeing friends and relations but found 'the climate very trying', with 'almost constant rain' so she did very little travelling. Madame Palumbo [Elizabeth von Wartburg] went with Jipi [?] to Switzerland for several weeks and is better for the rest and change on her return to Ravello; thinks the Pension [Palumbo] re-opens this week; knows Madame Palumbo will be very glad to welcome Trevelyan and his 'sposa' so hopes he will keep to his 'promise' and get there in 'good time'. Pencil notes in French on the back of the letter about the first Crusades and Gérard de Balagne [Godfrey de Bouillon?], also on one side of a printed sheet of meetings of Cambridge University congregation, sent out by Trinity College in October 1900, and a small slip of paper which has a reference to the "Histoire des Trou[badours] by Vaschalde.[with a shelf number, perhaps for the British Museum library?]; also on the back of the letter from Thomas Sturge Moore described below.

Letter [from Thomas Sturge Moore] sending his [poem] "Danaë" to Bob again; hopes it is 'improved'; it is 'certainly longer'. Also returns Bob's 'commentary' so he can see how many of his 'suggestions and corrections have produced an effect' and judge the result. Willing to act on others but thinks it best to talk them over with Bob first. Afraid that George [his brother] 'does not care' to correct now, and Thomas does not like to ask him when his 'interests lie so far apart from poems about little girls'. His eldest sister has done a 'great deal' for him recently, and he hopes she will continue to do so, but he thinks Bob should correct directly onto the proof. Meant to ask him to do this for "Absalom", but forgot. Is 'horrified' about "Danaë's" length and would be glad if about two hundred lines could be cut, but has not preference for one passage over another. Very grateful to Bob for 'taking so much pains'. As well as the pencil notes on the Crusades, the letter has also been used by Trevelyan to note down the name of a hotel, 'Hotel St. Romain, Rue St. Roc [Paris] and a reference to printer Firmin Didot.

28/3, 29/17, 30/6 and 30/24: other notebooks with extracts from this play.