[No surviving envelope]
I must sit down and try to write you some sort of letter of thanks tonight, because tomorrow I must be off early to Notting Hill Gate to meet three ladies in a car whom I have never seen before to take me to inspect some housing and church site in North Kensington on behalf of which I have to speak at Kensington Town Hall on the 10th, thenRowse, Alfred Leslie ('A. L.');a3 have Rowse of All Souls, one of my young men, to lunch, thenDoone, Rupertdiscusses Sweeney Agonistes with TSE;a5 interviewSweeney Agonistesdiscussed with Rupert Doone;b2 Rupert Doone about his projected production of ‘Sweeney Agonistes’, thenMorrell, Lady Ottoline;d5 go to tea with Ottoline andBelgion, Montgomery;a4 then to dinner with Belgion and somebody else; andRichmonds, theTSE's alcholic weekend with;a2 on Friday I must take the 5.18 from Cannon Street with Bruce Richmond for a quiet and orderly weekend which will most certainly include a visit to Bodiam Castle of which he is one of the Trustees; andHayward, John;b5 on Monday dine with John Hayward: so in the ordinary way I shan’t have an evening to write until Tuesday.
Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4;b5 should certainly have accepted your very kind invitation if I could have done. I had a very pleasant birthday thank you, that is to say I had cards from two of my sisters yesterday, asmokingbirthday cigarettes;a9 present of 2 packets of cigarettes this morning, andMorley, Frank Vigorproduces birthday-cake;d3 a birthday cake with one candle at tea (that was Morley’s doing) afterBlake, Georgereports launch of Queen Mary;a7 we had heard our friend George Blake describe the launching of the ‘Queen Mary’ on the wireless;1 I hope you heard him, as his Lowland Scots is so comic (his great grandfather came from Somerset hence the name but is as Scotch as anybody, not Miss MacPherrins Scots but pure Glasgow) and the Queen sounded rather nervous; butMauron, Charlesdiscusses Roger Fry's literary remains;a2 this was all very cheering because I had Charles Mauron to tea yesterday and we talked about Roger Fry’s literary remains andFry, Rogerhis sudden death;a3 Roger’s sudden death which you may have seen mentioned in the Times was a great shock to me.2
I hope to goodness you won’t spend much worry or money over that tea set I [sic] care nothing about possessions except nice clothes to wear which no one can choose but myself and I hope that when I see you next if I do my new winter suit will be ready I had a fitting this morning; and books to use; and beyond that I only care for objects for their sentimental value so if you get me a teaset at Woolworth’s which you can quite nicely I shall cherish it just as much as if it came from Goode’s3 or anywhere else; and you will need all the money you have what there is of it for these dartings to & fro. Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH's continental itinerary;b3 assumed when I heard that you were going to Paris that you would not be coming back to England as you are eventually going further south, but my goodness these Americans how they fling their money about. I should be grateful if you would give me a time table: what I want to know is when do you leave England definitively for the winter? when will you be in London? what do you propose to do while in London? I mean that while you are in London on the next occasion I shall not ask to see you, but if you should have any vacant time to fill, I should like to do what I can, given sufficient notice.
As for a new era for me – passons – untilEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)separation from;f1efforts to retrieve TSE's property;c5 I know whether I must instruct Counsel in the King’s Bench – I hardly expect to become ‘normal’.
IHale, Emilyphotographs of;w7'Semitic';c1 amanti-Semitism;b1 not surprised that you do not like the photograph of You. I admit that I would not show it to anyone who did not know you already – it is neither Jewish nor Vapid, and conveys a good deal to those who know you already – I should not exhibit it to anyone who had never seen you – but I had an enlargement made for myself – but it does not look a fraction so Semitic as a picture which Ottoline took of me and sent to Hayward, and thought excellent, and which is really disgusting.
You say you come to London for ‘several days’ on the 6th. I make no suggestions, but hold myself at your disposition if I might be of use during that indefinite period.
This is a silly letter, too tired: I like to sit down after dinner to write & take as much time as I like. Shalltravels, trips and plansTSE's dream of Cairo;b6;a2 I go to Cairo in February, I wonder? 4 Do not let the Perkins’s go to Chichester without my writing new letters of introduction. IMiller, Alastair W. R.;a1 will try to write a better letter to you next week. – I wrote at length to young Miller 5 yesterday – trying to sugar the pill! He is a nice boy, but I have 2 or 3 young wild men who need all my abilities as an advertiser, at present.
1.On 26 Sept., the Scottish novelist George Blake gave a BBC running commentary on the launch of the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary, from the shipyard of John Brown & Co. at Clydebank.
2.The art critic Roger Fry died unexpectedly after a fall at his home on 9 Sept., aged 67.
3.Thomas Goode, porcelain and china shop (est. 1827), 19 South Audley Street, Mayfair.
4.TSEGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt')extends invitation to Cairo;c2nSencourt, Robert
5.AlastairMiller, Alastair W. R. W. R. Miller, a resident of Chipping Campden.
4.MontgomeryBelgion, Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author and journalist: see Biographical Register.
10.GeorgeBlake, George Blake (1893–1961), novelist, journalist, publisher: see Biographical Register.
2.RupertDoone, Rupert Doone (1903–66), dancer, choreographer and producer, founded the Group Theatre, London, in 1932: see Biographical Register.
4.RogerFry, Roger Fry (1866–1934), artist and enormously influential critic of art; celebrant of Post-Impressionism; author of works including Vision and Design (1920) and Matisse (1930).
3.RobertGeorge, Robert Esmonde Gordon ('Robert Sencourt') Esmonde Gordon George – Robert Sencourt (1890–1969) – critic, historian, biographer: see Biographical Register.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
1.CharlesMauron, Charles Mauron (1899–1966) trained as a chemist but suffered from increasingly impaired eyesight. Author of The Nature of Beauty in Art and Literature, trans. Roger Fry (Hogarth, 1927), he translated into French Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Orlando, and collaborated with Fry on translations from Mallarmé. Later works include Aesthetics and Psychology (1935) and Des Μétaphores obsédantes au mythe personnel (1962).
5.AlastairMiller, Alastair W. R. W. R. Miller, a resident of Chipping Campden.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
3.A. L. RowseRowse, Alfred Leslie ('A. L.') (1903–97), Cornish historian and poet: see Biographical Register.