[No surviving envelope]
Tomorrowtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH's continental itinerary;b3, ortravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH's continental itinerary;b3 Sundaytravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH departs England;c5, you will be in Genoa; by Wednesday, in Florence, where I have never been, and never want to be; beforeItalyRome;b3'centre of the world';a2 Christmas, inChristianityRome;d2 Rome, which is the centre of the world.
IHale, Emilytakes tea at OM's before leaving;e4 liked that accident of saying good-bye. ItMorrell, Lady Ottolinegives tea-party attended by EH;e3 made the evening before easier, to know that I should see you again, the next day; and it made it easier, the next day, that our meeting was only incidental to a social engagement; andHuxley, Maria (née Nys)chats with TSE at OM's;a2 to leave hastily after chatting affectionately with Maria Huxley, whileMoore, Thomas ('T.') SturgeEH left chatting to;a3 you were engaged with old Sturge Moore (aMoore, Thomas ('T.') Sturge'sheep in sheep's clothing';a4 good poet, but he was doomed when someone referred to him as a ‘sheep in sheep’s clothing’)1 andEde, Jimaspersion on;a1 that slick unlikeable Ede,2 me departing with a smile and shake of the hand. I do hope that you found the rest of the party pleasant. IMorrell, Lady Ottolinerequests tête-à-tête with TSE;e4 am to see Ottoline privately on Monday; and shall be curious to discover whether she has been as perceptive as she usually, and often disconcertingly, is.
I have, I am glad to say, been very busy since. MyO'Donovan, Brigidsucceeds Tacon Gilbert;a1 new secretary, Brigid O’Donovan, has arrived.3 SheO'Donovan, BrigidTSE's first impressions of;a2 is extremely unprepossessing, but seems anxious to give satisfaction; and I have been dictating letters in arrears in a blue streak. She is slow, but conscientious. TheFaber and Faber (F&F);c5 three secretaries (for Morley, Faber and myself ) are chattering and tapping away in the board Room, as their room is being repainted. IChurch Literature AssociationArchbishop requested at annual meeting of;a1 have just dictated an important letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him to take the chair at the annual meeting of the Church Literature Association – important, because if he won’t, I must.4
BirthdayRead, Herberthis dismal birthday-party;b1 party for Herbert Read. Painful. DobréeDobrée, Bonamysings songs with TSE;b2 and I sang sentimental songs of 1910 to keep things going. HaggisScotlandTSE on haggis;a4: an unpleasant stuffy and overrated dish.
TomorrowGroup Theatre'The Chorus in Modern Drama';a5 I'Possibilities of the Chorus in the Modern Theatre, The'intended for Group Theatre audience;a1 must write out an address on ‘The Chorus in Modern Drama’ for a speech to the Group Theatre people on Sunday evening.5 SundayHutchinson, Mary;b4, lunch with Mary Hutchinson andHuxleys, thehost tea at Albany flat;a4 possibly tea with the Huxleys at their new flat in the Albany.6
RatherBain, Francis William ('F. W.')described for EH;a2 fatigued tonight, after having X.7 to tea and sherry at the club. X. is an old man, very brilliant, wrote the best essay on Disraeli that ever was written8 – D. H. LawrenceLawrence, David Herbert ('D. H.')singled out Bain's 'Disraeli' for praise;a7 wrote to me from Mexico to say what a good article it was, that was years ago9 – retired Indian Civil Service, Fellow of All Souls; hadBuckmaster, Stanley, 1st Viscount Buckmaster;a1 just come from the funeral of his oldest friend Lord Buckmaster10 – hadBain, Francis William ('F. W.')relates his daughter's suicide;a3 to tell me all about the suicide of his daughter. (His wife died last year). Daughter came home from a dance, having poisoned herself. X. took the pistol from her hand and just didn’t fire it at the young man who was responsible. Says that the only thing that deterred him was the possibility that his daughter might recover; otherwise would have killed the lad without the slightest compunction. ThatSimon, Sir John;a1 isBaldwin, Stanleyfriend to F. W. Bain;a3 theAmery, Leofriend of F. W. Bain;a2 confession of one of the most brilliant men I know, a friend of Sir John Simon,11 and Baldwin, and Leo Amery. What a world it is.
I do hope you had a tranquil passage; that you will be enjoying Italy as Italy; that you will surrender yourself to Rome. ICaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin);a9 have to write to Marguerite tomorrow. But so far in the evenings I have had at home, IMcPherrin, Jeanette;b3 haveGalitzi, Dr Christine;b6 beenEyre, Mary B.;b3 too utterly exhausted to write either to her or to Jean McPherrin,12 or to Christina Galitzi or Miss Mary B. Eyre. AndSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister);d6 a fortiori, I haven[']t written to anybody else, except this evening to Ada.
London is very very lonely, I miss you at Aban Court. I hope for you, and to have something worthy of you, at Canterbury.
DERNIEREEuropethrough the 1930s;a2 HEURE: I am extremely worried by these barbarous affairs on the Hungarian-Jugoslav frontier.13 Please keep your eye on events in that quarter. The Balkans ought to be isolated by a cordon sanitaire, otherwise they are the permanent excuse for general European conflagration. IEnglandnatural ally of France;b1 am opposed to the French policy of alliance with minor powers: FranceFranceFrench politics;b4England's natural ally;a3 and England ought to be allied, without being compromised by barbarian Slav nations.
OrageOrage, A. R.TSE on;a4 was a great man.
TherecheeseOld Cheshire;a2 appearedOxford and Cambridge Clubgraced by Old Cheshire Cheese;b4 to-day at the club, an OLD Cheshire Cheese in the very pink & green of Perfection: the best OLD Cheshire I have known there for years. A green Cheshire is an ordinary Cheese, notcheesewhich TSE compares to Double Gloucester and Leicester;a3 nearly as good as the Double Gloster [sic] or even the Leicester; but a prime OLD Cheshire is the very Queen of English Cheeses, and there is no King: onlycheeseWensleydale 'Prince Consort' to 'Queen' Cheshire;a4 a very good Wensleydale may be recognised as the Prince Consort.
1.Thomas Sturge Moore (1870–1944), poet, playwright, critic, artist. (The ‘sheep’ aspersion is usually attributed to Edmund Gosse, published in 1943; but perhaps it was Yeats after all? – given the date of this letter from TSE.)
2.JimEde, Jim Ede (1895–1990), museum curator and art collector; after WW2, creator of Kettle’s Yard Gallery, Cambridge.
3.BrigidO'Donovan, Brigid O’Donovan, TSE’s secretary from Jan. 1935 to Dec. 1936: see Biographical Register.
4.The Annual Meeting of the Church Literature Association, at the Church House, Canterbury, 31 Jan. 1935, was to address the subject ‘The Christian in the Modern World’.
5.TSE’s talk has not been traced.
6.Albany, a 1770 mansion converted into exclusive sets of rooms, originally for bachelors, is off Piccadilly, London.
7.‘X’ was F. W. Bain.
8.Bain, ‘Disraeli’, Criterion 2: 6 (Feb. 1924), 143–66.
9.SeeLawrence, David Herbert ('D. H.')on The Criterion;a8n letter to D. H. Lawrence in Letters 2, 567. In Dec. 1924 Lawrence had told Richard Cobden-Sanderson that he thought the Criterion had ‘got some guts’; but in an exchange with TSE he criticised the Jan. issue as ‘all bits and bobs’. However, he had indeed enjoyed Bain’s article ‘1789’, and Fernandez on Cardinal Newman, in Criterion 3: 9 (Oct. 1924).
10.StanleyBuckmaster, Stanley, 1st Viscount Buckmaster Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster (b. 1861) – lawyer and Liberal Party politician; Lord Chancellor, 1915–16 – had died on 5 Dec. 1934.
11.SirSimon, Sir John John Simon (1873–1954), Conservative politician, with the unusual distinction of being Foreign Secretary (at the date of this letter), then later Home Secretary and Chancellor. A barrister in his earlier life, he was to serve as Lord Chancellor in Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime government.
12.TSEMcPherrin, Jeanetteencouraged to join EH in Rome;b4n did write to McPherrin on 13 Dec. 1934 (Letters 7, 414–16): ‘I do hope that you will be able to get to Rome (either by speculating in francs or honest saving) for Christmas, as much for Emily’s sake as for your own. What with dentistry and other medical attentions, and the scrubbiness of London hotel bed and board, she did not seem to me any too robust when she left; andPerkinses, theTSE's private opinion on;f2n I suspect strongly, though I shouldn’t dare say so, that the Perkins’s must be rather a drain upon her vitality – I know that they are on mine, though I have never been with them any longer together than that weekend. Anybody one can’t argue with is fatiguing; especially elderly people who don’t seem to have been knocked about or have had to fight for their lives when younger. So I think if you can get to Rome it will buck her up a bit’ (Scripps).
AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)on the Perkinses;d7n Sheffield to TSE, 9 Dec. 1934: ‘I’m afraid I’m less patient of bores than you … As for Mrs Perkins, I know her kind. We have a cousin not unlike her’ (EVE).
13.Military authorities in the Yugoslav frontier belt between Croatia and Hungary were expelling Hungarian refugees, who were left penniless and without possessions: the enforced return of some 2,500 refugees was to place a great burden upon Hungary. See ‘Expulsions from Yugoslavia: Distressing Scenes in Hungary’, The Times, 8 Dec. 1934, 12.
7.LeoAmery, Leo Amery (1873–1955), distinguished Conservative Party politician and journalist.
1.F. W. BainBain, Francis William ('F. W.') (1863–1940), Fellow of All Souls, 1889–97; Professor of History and Political Economy at the Deccan College at Poona, India, where he was esteemed ‘not only as a professor but also as a prophet and a philosopher’, 1892–1919. An old-style High Tory, enthused by the writings of Bolingbroke and Disraeli, his works include The English Monarchy and its Revolutions (1894), On the Realisation of the Possible and the Spirit of Aristotle (1897), and a series of ‘Hindu love stories’ purportedly translated from Sanskrit originals. See K. Mutalik, Francis William Bain (Bombay, 1963).
4.StanleyBaldwin, Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Conservative Party politician; Prime Minister, 1923–4; 1924–9; 1935–7.
10.StanleyBuckmaster, Stanley, 1st Viscount Buckmaster Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster (b. 1861) – lawyer and Liberal Party politician; Lord Chancellor, 1915–16 – had died on 5 Dec. 1934.
4.MargueriteCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin) Caetani, née Chapin (1880–1963) – Princesse di Bassiano – literary patron and editor: see Biographical Register. LéliaCaetani, Lélia Caetani (1913–77), sole daughter, was to marry Hubert Howard (1908–87), a scion of the English Catholic House of Howard, who worked to preserve the Caetani heritage at Rome and at the castle of Sermoneta.
3.Bonamy DobréeDobrée, Bonamy (1891–1974), scholar and editor: see Biographical Register.
2.JimEde, Jim Ede (1895–1990), museum curator and art collector; after WW2, creator of Kettle’s Yard Gallery, Cambridge.
3.MaryEyre, Mary B. B. Eyre, Professor of Psychology, lived in a pretty frame house on College Avenue, Claremont, where TSE stayed during his visit to EH at Scripps College.
1.DrGalitzi, Dr Christine Christine Galitzi (b. 1899), Assistant Professor of French and Sociology, Scripps College. Born in Greece and educated in Romania, and at the Sorbonne and Columbia University, New York, she was author of Romanians in the USA: A Study of Assimilation among the Romanians in the USA (New York, 1968), as well as authoritative articles in the journal Sociologie româneascu. In 1938–9 she was to be secretary of the committee for the 14th International Congress of Sociology due to be held in Bucharest. Her husband (date of marriage unknown) was to be a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971).
3.MaryHutchinson, Mary Hutchinson (1889–1977), literary hostess and author: see Biographical Register.
9.MariaHuxley, Maria (née Nys) Huxley, née Nys (1898–1955), bisexual wife of Aldous Huxley, was born in Belgium.
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
5.T. SturgeMoore, Thomas ('T.') Sturge Moore (1870–1944), poet, playwright, critic, and artist – brother of the philosopher G. E. Moore – was christened Thomas but adopted his mother’s maiden name ‘Sturge’ to avoid confusion with the Irish poet Thomas Moore. A prolific poet, author of 31 plays, and a loyal contributor to the Criterion, he was also a close friend of W. B. Yeats, for whom he designed bookplates and bookbindings. He published his first collection of poetry, The Vinedresser and Other Poems, in 1899.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
3.BrigidO'Donovan, Brigid O’Donovan, TSE’s secretary from Jan. 1935 to Dec. 1936: see Biographical Register.
7.A. R. OrageOrage, A. R. (1873–1934), owner-editor of the socialist and literary paper New Age, 1907–24; founder of the New English Weekly, 1932; disciple of G. I. Gurdjieff; proponent of C. H. Douglas’s Social Credit. See further Mairet, A. R. Orage: A Memoir (1936).
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
11.SirSimon, Sir John John Simon (1873–1954), Conservative politician, with the unusual distinction of being Foreign Secretary (at the date of this letter), then later Home Secretary and Chancellor. A barrister in his earlier life, he was to serve as Lord Chancellor in Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime government.