[The AnchorageHale, Emilyholidays in Grand Manan;t5, GrandCanadaGrand Manan Island, New Brunswick;a2EH holidays on;a2 Manan, New Brunswick]
I was very glad to get your letter of July 5th, a week ago, but I wish that you had repeated the Grand Manan address in full, as I am not sure in my mind that there isn’t more to it than just The Anchorage. However, I will send this there in hope and write again shortly to Andover. It is in any case a great relief to know that you should be so far away both from Commonwealth Avenue and from the heat, and with so beloved a friend. The heat wave has even reached England: for the last three nights I have slept under a sheet only, which is something unheard of in recent years, and I am now sitting in a sleeveless shirt and my most tropical trousers. July has proved a crowded month, so that even my weekends have been broken, and tomorrow (Sunday) I have to lunch out for the third Sunday running. MySmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1955 visit to England;d8;a1 niece Theodora has been here, andSmith, Abigail Eliot (TSE's cousin)visits London again;a5 my cousin Abigail Smith (St. Louis, now Lexington). HopeMirrlees, Hopevisits London;d6 Mirrlees has been and gone, andHotsons, the;b2 the Hotsons have just arrived. The place is full of American publishers and other visitors. Last Thursday a Buckingham Palace Garden Party. The only reason for going to those more than once is Loyalty, and the fact that you hand your invitation card in at the gate, so that somebody (I don’t know who) can check who has been there. I have a simple method: to arrive at the gate at Hyde Park Corner, walk leisurely across (it takes about twenty [minutes]) to the lower gate in Grosvenor Place, and walk out, taking a taxi in which someone else has just arrived. I don’t stop unless some acquaintance accosts me, and nobody did. OnLondon Libraryannual meeting dreaded;b2 Tuesday I have to conduct the annual meeting of the London Library – dreading this, as there is an old she-dragon who is going to complain that the Library isn’t open for long enough hours. ISophoclesOedipus Coloneus;a2 haveElder Statesman, Theand Oedipus Coloneus;a2 seen the Greek Play (Oedipus Coloneus) beautifully acted at Bradfield College (in Greek).1 GilbertMurray, Gilbertat Oedipus Coloneus;a2 Murray was there, but, I am glad to say, ignored my presence. IPusey, Nathan;a1 have attended a luncheon for President Pusey.2 IReligious Drama Conference, Oxford, 1955;a3 should like to goMagdalene College, Cambridgefeast of St. Mary Magdalen at;a5 to Cambridge for a Feast, but I may be forced into going to Oxford for a night for that Religious Drama meeting.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1955 Geneva rest cure;i8;a1 shall be glad to take flight on August 4th. My address thereafter for three weeks will be c/o J. K. Clement, 1 Rue de l’Evêché, Geneva; forFluchère, Henrihosts TSE in France;b5 the fourth week probably c/o Henri Fluchère, Ste. Tulle, Basses Alpes, France. (I am rather more precise about addresses than you are).
IMrs Edmund Osborne (EH's friend);a2 had mistaken the date for Mrs. Osborne – and expected her the 27th June. My secretary, when no reply came back from her, very sensibly rang up the E.S.U. and found that it was to be July 27. So I shall try again.
IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)EH preserved from;n9 am thankful that your aunt’s devoted friends should at least be trying to protect you from her, and I do hope that you will let nothing but real crisis shorten your holiday, and that you will respond to no appeal unless it comes from a more trustworthy source than your aunt herself.
1.Oedipus Coloneus was directed at Bradfield College, Berkshire, by the classicist, lecturer and translator David Raeburn (who taught at Bradfield from 1955 to 1958).
2.NathanPusey, Nathan Pusey (1907–2001): President of Harvard University, 1953–71.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
3.AbigailSmith, Abigail Eliot (TSE's cousin) Eliot Smith (1900–84), daughter of Holmes and Rose Eliot Smith, graduated from Wellesley College in 1922, and took her MD at Washington University School of Medicine, 1927. She was Assistant Resident in Medicine, Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, 1930–2; Instructor in Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, 1932–4; Physician to out-patients, Washington University Dispensary, 1936–42; Cardiologist, Out-Patient Department, St. Louis County Hospital, 1942; and Assistant Physician, Wellesley College, from 1942.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.