[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
(Second Letter).
Here are a few enclosures. The one from Lord Halifax is particularly gratifying; it is rather illegible, but not for a man 94 years old! He is the father of the Viceroy of India. IWood, Charles, 2nd Viscount HalifaxTSE recalls weekend spent with;a2 once spent a delightful though fatiguing weekend with him; fatiguing, because smoking is not allowed in his house, andsmokinglike a schoolboy;a1 I smoked in the chimney in my bedroom like a schoolboy, and one had to get up at 6:30 for the Low Mass in his chapel, and on Sunday one was in church practically all day except between lunch and tea, when he strode vigorously about the grounds reciting sentimental and comic ballads of the early Victorian period. It was touching to see the old man in church with his little dog squatting quietly beside him all through the service.
Of course I haven’t as much time as I had hoped, but I wanted to write something. As for the enclosures, and other enclosures, IHale, EmilyTSE's names, nicknames and terms of endearment for;x3'Isolde';a6 hope my dear Isolde will not think I am merely trying to show off to her; itdogsTSE imagines himself as EH's dog;a1 is rather that I like to bring in my birds, mice and rabbits, like a good dog, to lay at her feet.
And the bigger matter I shall write about during the week. I only hope that this week’s mail is not too poor a return to you for all your benefaction to me. I expect a good deal of people, I dare say; and I could not love anyone whom I did not also greatly admire in character; but you always give me more than even I expect!
4.C. L. WoodWood, Charles, 2nd Viscount Halifax, 2nd Viscount Halifax (1839–1934), Anglo-Catholic ecumenist: President of the English Church Union, 1868–1919, 1927–34 – lived at Hickleton Hall, Doncaster, S. Yorkshire, where TSE visited him in Oct. 1927. TSE to his mother, 5 Oct. 1927: ‘He is a very saintly man – he is already over 89 – much older than you – but leads a very busy and active life’ (Letters 3, 736). Lord Halifax wrote on 27 Feb., ‘I have read your pamphlet with the greatest interest, &, if I may say so without the great impertinence, or presumption, think it quite admirable.’ (This letter was evidently not sent to EH.)