[c/o MrsAmericaSeattle, Washington State;h1EH summers in;a2 JohnHale, Emilysummers in Seattle;c5 Carroll Perkins, 1418 East 63d St., Seattle]
IPike's FarmTSE installed at;a4 am now settled in Surrey. The voyage was as calm as could be; the arrival at Liverpool without incident. IEnglandChester, Cheshire;d8TSE on;a3 thought best, as I intimated, to spend the night at Chester, a pleasant old town, with a good deal of Tudor half-timber work and a great deal of modern imitation; the main street of the old town gay with carven balconies. TheEnglandthe English weather;c3distinguished for America's by repose;a4 weather hot and cloudless and oppressive, but to-day, though still warm, the more typical English light and shade and mistiness. Even in the heat, a repose and relaxation unknown in America, where repose means stagnation; the pleasant civilities of bar parlours, with barmaids drawing pints of bitter. MyMorley, Frank Vigorspirits TSE away to Surrey;b5 good friend met me at Euston and drove me down here, where I am very comfortably installed with Mr. & Mrs. Eames – the former is manager of the local brick yard. IPike's Farmdaily life at;a5 have two rooms; Mrs. E. gets me breakfast, lunch and tea; after tea I go over next door and potter about in their garden, or mend chicken wire, or play with the small boys. I am to be instructed in the art of laying brick garden walks. I shall take some snapshots to send you. ItEnglandLingfield, Surrey;g8;a2 is just ordinary English countryside about here – nothing over-picturesque – very peaceful and orderly.1 OnFabers, thevisit TSE at Pike's Farm;a8 Saturday the Fabers will motor down to see me; andUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellsand TSE's 1933 return;b6 I go for Saturday night to consult the Dean of Rochester; otherwise, no one but my hosts and my solicitor know of my presence in England. It is odd, after my life in America, to be so hidden away. Next week I appear, probably, in public, and the critical moment approaches.2
I do not feel about [sc. able] to write at much length, or very intimately and personally, during these days; but you are as always in my thoughts, and the cause of anxiety, as well as of both agonised and happy thoughts. I pray that the journey passed without accident or fatigue or peril of any kind – you see I am inclined to regard you as courageous to the point of foolhardiness – and that you are really resting in Seattle, in both body and mind.
I am in ideal surroundings at present, and the object of great kindness.
1.FrankPike's FarmMorley on TSE at;a6n MorleyMorley, Frank Vigoron TSE at Pike's Farm;b6n, ‘A Few Recollections of Eliot’, 107–8: ‘He was to have a bed and working-room and such meals as he might wish to have by himself at the house of Mrs Eames, wife of the foreman of the immediately adjacent brickworks. That was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a matter of thirty paces to the open doors (front or back) of the farmhouse [occupied by the Morley family], where he could have at any time company, or crossword games, or anything. He wirelessed from his ship; I met the train and took his heavy luggage to the country. He spent one night at his London club [Oxford & Cambridge Club]; we met him next morning at our local station with the dog-cart, which at once reminded him of Sherlock Holmes and appeared to please him very much.’
MrsEames, Jack Doris Eames (49 Shepherds Way, Horsham, W. Sussex) to Valerie Eliot, 14 Jan. 2010: ‘Many years ago my husband’s late uncle Jack Eames told us that he had Mr Eliot to stay for several months in 1933. Mr Eliot was in fact a guest of Mr Morley of Faber and Faber who lived next door. He dined with the Morley family but otherwise lived with Uncle Jack and his family. He chose this because it was quiet and he was not disturbed by the Morley children …
‘UncleEames, Jackon TSE;a1n Jack described Mr Eliot as “a funny man really. He was very quiet and so engrossed in what he was doing that you could almost touch him and he wouldn’t realise that you were there.” Uncle Jack was foreman of the adjacent Brickworks and Mr Eliot called his home “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. The drawing I have referred to shows all the exciting things that happened to “Uncle Tom”. I believe that the original was sent to his godson Tom Faber.
‘By coincidence my husband John Eames became manager at Crowhurst Brickworks and we lived in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” for about ten years. It is now derelict’ (EVE).
Frank Morley recalled elsewhere: ‘TSE wrote to me from Harvard [letter probably destroyed by Morley] asking if we could find country quarters for him; was glad to accept arrangements we suggested at Pikes Farm. I met him with the Ford V8 on his arrival (Euston I think) put his luggage in it, drove him to O & C Club; after a drink there, leftBird, ErnestTSE's consultations with;a2 him with overnight case to have dinner at the club with Bird (solicitor) and spend the night there; I took the luggage to Pikes Farm, met him again at Lingfield next morning. There were no histrionics.’ ('Notes on Sencourt's T. S. Eliot: A Memoir': Berg).
Frank Morley to Helen Gardner, 28 June 1978: ‘When Tom on his return to England came to seclude himself with us at Pikes Farm … Ada (and of course Henry) expected occasional confirmations from me that Tom’s health and spirits were not other (i.e. in any way worse) than his letters to them reported. Physical health was ostensibly what Ada enquired for. Now it happened that when I met Tom’s boat-train, in the midst of other concerns to be discussed, Tom mentioned his hair – whether the same barber at our club … could be looking after it, for he expressed worry that it might be thinning. In writing presently to Ada I made some incidental comment to the effect that if a man’s greatest worry were thought of baldness, his health otherwise couldn’t be too bad. Silly or not, within the family references to Tom’s general condition were sometimes indicated by saying the hair was kept on …’ (Berg).
2.ItEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)meets TSE for last time at solicitors;d3n seems that TSE attended a formal meeting with Vivien on 12 July, at the offices of his solicitors. Two years later, in her diary for Nov. 1935, Vivien recorded that she had just had photos taken of herself wearing the same clothes in which she had ‘met Tom on his historic return from the United States of America on July 12th 1933’.
TSE to Violet Schiff, 28 Jan. 1947, of Vivien: ‘I had not seen her since 1933.’
MrsEames, Jack Doris Eames (49 Shepherds Way, Horsham, W. Sussex) to Valerie Eliot, 14 Jan. 2010: ‘Many years ago my husband’s late uncle Jack Eames told us that he had Mr Eliot to stay for several months in 1933. Mr Eliot was in fact a guest of Mr Morley of Faber and Faber who lived next door. He dined with the Morley family but otherwise lived with Uncle Jack and his family. He chose this because it was quiet and he was not disturbed by the Morley children …
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.