[No surviving envelope]
I'Notes on the Way';a1 oughtTime & Tide;a1 to be writing an article for Time & Tide which I have promised them by Monday, but I haven’t an idea yet, and I had rather write a short letter to you first – on the unjustified assumption that you have arrived in the Eternal City – in the hope of refreshing my mind. If I can write my 800 words for Time & Tide1 IMorleys, theTSE's New Years celebrated with;d6 shall go down to Lingfield to stay with the Morleys and See the New Year In, and I am taking a Micky Mouse cinema down with me. I9 Grenville Place, LondonTSE's practical jokes at;a8 have just left a rubber cigar on the edge of the lavatory for the curate to pick up, andHayward, Johngives TSE cigars for Christmas;c2 amsmokingJDH's Christmas cigars;b1 just about to smoke one of those John Hayward gave me for Christmas.
YourHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2TSE receives flowers for Christmas;b4 letter DID arrive, on Christmas Eve, at just about the time when I presume a distracted Roman florist was trying to deliver some flowers to you. I shall be ashamed ever to enter that florist’s in London again, the assistant must have come to the conclusion that I just cannot get my flowers accepted. ToHale, Philipremembered by TSE;a3 return to the subject, thank you for your letter. I was much interested by the cuttings about your uncle. I remember his Herald column as extremely erudite and amusing, and superior to all others, and of course I knew his programmes, in which I sometimes suspected him of pulling the legs of the solemn Boston audience – thereBeethoven, Ludwig van3rd Symphony;a7 was a masterly one about Beethoven’s IIId Symphony which was all about some Viennese who toured America with a mechanical chess-player in 1843.2 I have the most envious admiration for any one with the learning and the memory that he had – two qualities in which I am notably deficient. I was glad that the press was so appreciative.
I am very sorry for the reason for your remaining in Florence. IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)catches cold in Florence;b3 hope your aunt will recover quickly; but that is exactly what to expect when you go into a bad climate like that the wopses [sc. wops] have, and I hope it will be a lesson to you. IWare, Mary Leeconfidant of EH;a3 am glad that you have been able to discuss your problem with Miss Ware. AndMcPherrin, Jeanettejoins EH in Florence;b6 I am glad you have had Jean McPherrin in Florence. MargueriteCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin)saga of unsettled debts;a8 has replied amiably to my letter, and has sent the bookseller some money on account, so I shall not have to row her again for about six weeks, during which time I hope you will make her acquaintance. <She is still in Paris> She seems to think at the moment that Miss McPherrin is a friend of mine and that you are a friend of Miss McPherrin’s, but I shall set that right. TheHale, Emilymistaken for TSE's sister;e5 tradition that you are my cousin seems to have struck root here – JohnHayward, Johncalls EH TSE's 'sister';c3 referred to you the other night as my sister, and immediately corrected himself and said I beg your pardon, I mean your cousin. OttolineMorrell, Lady Ottolineto visit Viceroy of India;e6 has been too full of her approaching visit to the Viceroy of India to be able to talk sense. IJaneses, theChristmas dinners with;a2 had Christmas dinner with the Janes’s, and stayed for an early cup of tea – fatiguing, but I think they enjoyed it, andJanes, W. L.and 'Billy M'Caw: The Remarkable Parrot';a1 Janes told more stories about the Remarkable Parrot in Islington.3 OnHayward, Johnand the Dobrées on Boxing Day;c4 Boxing Day I had supper with John Hayward – cold turkey, a paté, and the Dobrées; andMcKnight Kauffers, thedrop in on Boxing Day;a3 theGuinness, Bryan;a1 McKnight Kauffers and Bryan Guinness4 came in afterwards – but I think we enjoyed ourselves more after the Kauffers had left; and that is the extent of my Christmas, except of course for the Midnight Mass, and Holy Days every day this week – tomorrowMurder in the CathedralSt. Thomas as TSE's muse;a3 I must go early again, because it is the Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and I hope he will favour my dramatic attempt at his life. It is odd to think that in three months it will HAVE to be written, and you will be back in England!
There are other things to say that can wait till next week. I only wanted to write tonight to let you know that I shall think of you especially on New Year’s Eve, and pray for a healthy, satisfactory, and as happy as possible a year for you, and a settlement of your more immediate problems. IEnglandLondon;h1South Kensington grows on TSE;c5 rather love this neighbourhood of South Kensington now that you have spent a month so close by, and get rather a thrill whenever I pass the Aban Court Hotel. DonaldMorley, Donaldpleased with TSE's present;a4 was much pleased with the cheap watch I gave him. ChristinaMorley, Christina (née Innes)knits TSE socks;a6 knitted me a pair of socks. YOU have never made me a pair of socks; but if you did I should never wear them, because I should be afraid of their getting lost in the wash.
Now I must go back to Time & Tide.
As for ‘learning to drive’, I believe that is a subject in which we all have to take daily lessons to the end of our days – those of us who make any progress at all. I hope I am still learning. Andfascism;a6 are you chattering Italian like a proper wopse now I wonder?
I have got some black sealing-wax out of respect to your Italian Government.
1.‘Notes on the Way’, Time and Tide 16: 1 (5 Jan. 1935), 6–7.
2.For Hale’s notes on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, see Philip Hale’s Boston Symphony Programme Notes: Historical, Critical, and Descriptive Comment on Music and Composers, ed. John N. Burk (New York, 1935), 29–33.
3.See'Billy M'Caw: The Remarkable Parrot'TSE on;a3n ‘Billy M’Caw: The Remarkable Parrot’ (The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross, 1939). TSE to Jack Isaacs, 29 Dec. 1948: ‘I am pleased that you liked the Parrot … I daresay it was composed about the same time as The Rock, or a year or so later … [T]he episodes in the Life of Billy M’Caw are entirely my own invention. His figure was inspired by a very gifted parrot which used to belong to the licensee of a bar in Islington. The adventures of the real parrot were just as incredible as those of mine!’ (EVE). The public house in question, the Prince Albert, Angel, Islington, London, is now the Charles Lamb.
4.BryanGuinness, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne (1905–92), heir to the brewing fortune of the Guinness family; barrister-at-law, poet, novelist. (In 1929 he had married the Hon. Diana Mitford, but they were divorced in 1933 when she deserted him for the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.)
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.
4.BryanGuinness, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne (1905–92), heir to the brewing fortune of the Guinness family; barrister-at-law, poet, novelist. (In 1929 he had married the Hon. Diana Mitford, but they were divorced in 1933 when she deserted him for the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.)
6.PhilipHale, Philip Hale (1854–1934), journalist, celebrated as the prolific and influential music critic of the Boston Herald, 1903–33, who also wrote a multitude of programme notes for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1901–34: see Jon Ceander Mitchell, Trans-Atlantic Passages: Philip Hale on the Boston Symphony Orchestra 1889–1933 (New York, 2014).
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
4.W. L. JanesJanes, W. L. (1854–1939), ex-policeman who worked as handyman for the Eliots. Having been superannuated from the police force early in the century, he worked for a period (until about 1921) as a plain-clothes detective in the General Post Office. TSE reminisced to Mary Trevelyan on 2 Apr. 1951: ‘If I ever write my reminiscences, which I shan’t, Janes would have a great part in them’ (‘The Pope of Russell Square’). TSE to Adam Roberts (b. 1940; godson of TSE), 12 Dec. 1955: ‘I … knew a retired police officer, who at one period had to snoop in plain clothes in the General Post Office in Newgate Street – he caught several culprits, he said’ (Adam Roberts). HisJanes, Ada wife was Ada Janes (d. 1935).
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
2.JohnMorley, Donald Donald Innes Morley (b. 15 Mar. 1926).
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
3.MaryWare, Mary Lee Lee Ware (1858–1937), independently wealthy Bostonian, friend and landlady of EH at 41 Brimmer Street: see Biographical Register.