[No surviving envelope]
Kelham [Letterhead]
Grenville Place
Your dear letter was so sweet and also sounded so sad and distressed that I wanted to write at once – I got it late on Thursday on returning after the ballet, but was very busy all day on Friday, andCecil, Lord David;a5 found I had to have David Cecil to lunch and take a later train; and at Kelham they kept me so busy that while I might have written a hasty note to catch a 5.30 post on Sunday, I thought it probably wouldn’t reach you till Tuesday morning anyway so I might as well wait and write a properer letter. FirstHale, Emilywhich she excuses herself from;g1, about your reasons for not coming up this week – there are too many of them, and I can’t deal with them all properly now. But you need not feel distressed on my account: because you have a cold, and if I got tickets, then you might come up when you ought not just so as not to disappoint me, and then get worse, and that would distress me more than your not coming. I don’t want you to come EXCEPT when you feel quite fit for it, because however welcome a change it may be, town is always exhausting to a country dweller. BUTtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE offers to fund EH in London;e2 Ifinances (TSE's)TSE's desire to pay for EH;b2 maintain that your financial scruples are wrong. If you come up to town primarily for your own devices, that is one thing: but if you come up primarily because I have arranged a party, that is another, and I am entitled to pay GLOBALEMENT1 for the whole thing. IHale, Emilyfamily;w4EH's relations with aunt and uncle;a6 have no desire to weaken your conscience, sense of duty, independence etc., on the contrary I prize it, I prize it in the unusually exaggerated form which it takes in you – I know so few people who I feel would be ready to sacrifice everything to Principle – and your sense of duty is something that has always drawn me to you – BUT I should like to be in a position to help you to direct it only to the right objects!2 And I mean, that you are not to think that in my desire to give pleasure to you (and to myself) I overlook points of conscience! HoweverMorleys, the;e5, if you are to be in England until into the winter, there will be other opportunities of seeing the Morleys (I gave them your message about Canterbury, and they were genuinely sorry not to have seen you); and you should not come up too often in any case, because of the fatigue; andMcPherrin, Jeanette;c2 youtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4where EH joins Jeanie McPherrin;e3 will be here for Jeanie. I repeat, let me know as soon as you can approximately her dates, so that I can try to make arrangements. Please, if she can be here for several nights, let me take you both to the ballet (it should be still going); andEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)haunts TSE in London;d5 as for Regents Park, please go without me, because I have an unreasoning horror of that part of town3 – ISmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)and Marion's 1934 visit to England;b1Regent's Park visit;b2 knowEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)1934 summer in England with Dodo;c5forces Regent's Park on TSE;b1 because Marion and Dodo took me to the Regents Park theatre last summer, without consulting me beforehand, and I was very unhappy. AND9 Grenville Place, LondonEH's sojourns at;b2, while she is here, please do not think that you are obliged to see much of me merely because you occupy my rooms – which I prefer to think of as your rooms – because that would spoil it, and because I know you will want to see as much of Jeanie as you can alone – and you know it would be spoilt for her if she did not see you most of the time alone.
And if there is a third reason why you don’t want to come up often, remember that I do not want to make things any more difficult for you, or to have that on my conscience – for I too have a conscience which requires pampering – and that you have only to be frank about it. You must never be afraid of hurting my feelings, because there are worse things than having one’s feelings hurt, in that way – I should prize frankness more.
Nowtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4TSE's July 1935 Campden week;e1 about coming to Campden! I find that the uncomfortable memory sticking in my flesh was this: thatRichmonds, the;a4 I have a longstanding engagement to go to the Richmonds on the first weekend – I should have gone on the 19th, but I have got to keep the office on the 20th, so I shall go on the Saturday and return on the Monday morning; and by your leave I will come down on the 4.45 on Monday the 22nd. Then I can stay for a week, or as long as I am asked for! And then you say ‘one could meet’ in ‘August or September’ – yes, if you will come up on my (financial) terms, which would be very good for you to do – I mean, so far as your conscience is concerned, for, as I said, I admire your conscience immensely, only I consider that it is so often directed at the wrong objects – and I am, I assure you, a very serious moralist indeed. AND I should like you to believe that I would do anything in the power of a very serious moralist, to bring you happiness, even (I believe) if it involved on [sc. in] some way diminishing my own pleasure, even if I in no way participated in the happiness – but I would add (as a very serious moralist) that there are things I want for you still more than happiness – because when one says ‘happiness’ one means happiness in the usual sense. You see, some things are against your conscience and some things are against mine, and we must eventually reach a common denominator. But DONT be distressed in the way in which you were in this letter.
ASociety of the Sacred Mission, Kelham Hall, NottinghamshireTSE's June–July 1935 stay;a9 tiring but happy weekend – because I feel I am very welcome at Kelham, and can be of use there. IHerbert, Fr GabrielTSE's affection for;a2 haveEvery, GeorgeTSE's affection for;a1 a warm affection for Brother George,4 and for Father Gabriel;5 andBedale, Fr Stephen, SSMTSE on;a1 I have a respect and admiration for the Prior, Father Stephen;6 and they seem so happy to have me, and it is becoming a kind of home for me. AndTomlin, E. Walter F.at Kelham;a1 one of my most promising young men, an undergraduate at Brasenose whom I have been nursing ever since he was a schoolboy, was there – a promising sign altogether.7 I do feel (I hope quite modestly) that I can be in a small way a fisher of men,8 though only a kind of fly-fisher. A very sleepy one, at the moment, because I was up this morning at 6.30 (the usual hour, Saturday and Sunday were feast days, SS. Peter & Paul, and I got up at 7 instead) and have been on the go for two days talking or listening the whole time except at divine offices, and walking about the fields nearby have had more experience of braving frisky bullocks which are very numerous. Let me know if I may fix the 22nd to come, and let me know as soon as you can about your visit here to see Jeanie. And thank you again, my dear Birdie, for your dear letter. I am SO sleepy: afterMorley, Frank Vigortakes TSE to Wimbledon;e1 getting back this morning in time for the morning committee I was whisked off to Wimbledon by the good Frank, whoJacobs, Helenfriend of Frank Morley's;a1 is a friend of Helen Jacobs9 and so occasionally gets tennis tickets, and had no lunch and dinner only at nine p.m. but saw two very good singles matches (CrawfordCrawford, John Herbert;a110 v. WoodWood, Sidney, Jr.;a111 andAustin, Henry Wilfred ('Bunny')TSE watches at Wimbledon;a1 AustinBudge, John Donald ('Don')beats 'Bunny' Austin at Wimbledon;a112 v. a California boy with red hair named Budge, who won, a charming lad, lanky and ungainly but a promising player).13
ENCLOSURES: a photograph of myself with the Morleys; aParsons, Ian'Poetry, Drama, and Satire';a2 rather embarrassing review by Ian Parsons;14 a'Cape Ann'admired by Richards;a1 littleRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.')likes 'Cape Ann';b1 poem which Richards liked.15
I wish I could come on the 19th.
TheHinkleys, the;d6 Hinkleys look forward to seeing you in September. They have some excellent ideas which they will no doubt convey direct.
1.Globalement (Fr.): ‘taken as a whole; overall’.
2.SeePerkinses, thetheir repressive influence on EH;f5n tooMcPherrin, Jeanetteshares TSE's Perkins concerns;c3n JeanetteHale, Emilyfamily;w4EH's relations with aunt and uncle;a6n McPherrin to TSE, 11 Apr. 1935: ‘Yes, I think it’s time Emily had a vacation too. I wish there were some way of insuring her a year’s breathing space even against the dictates of her sense of duty. I thoroughly agree with what you said in your earlier letter about the wearingness of older people with whom one can’t argue. If one has opinions of any force it is really exhausting to be constantly obliged to bottle them. AndChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1possessed by EH to a fault;c9 worse than that is the native humility which allows her to be convinced that she is not doing her best by the situation, so that she heckles herself mentally about it. This I think is definitely bad for her and it worries me. Please excuse the declamation. I have mulled the thing over so much that it is a relief to air it to someone else who is “au courant”.’
TSE to Jeanette McPherrin, 12 Apr. 1935 (Letters 7, 594): ‘It is difficult enough to cope with Emily’s sense of duty at any time, and much more difficult when her income is so limited as it will be next year. One can only try cautiously to affect her (a) behaviour (b) attitude towards her relatives, to whom she seems to me exasperatingly respectful. But as I was once put in my place for commenting not too favourably about the behaviour-towards-her of a relative of hers not nearly so closely related as these, I am very careful; and you can perhaps do more in this way than I can. In a way, I think it is as much her fault as theirs that they have such a repressive effect on her and make her so depressingly humble. I mean if she adopts such a humble attitude, they, being what they are, can’t be expected not to accept it from her’ (Scripps).
McPherrin to TSE, 24 May 1935: ‘How does the portrait of an American family in Gloucestershire strike you with its new addition [Irene Hale]? It sounds to me as though everything were harder than ever. I think the effort to convince Wendy [Emily Hale] that there is a wrong kind of humility is very good. Could you also suggest that, after one has done one’s best to behave in a Christian fashion toward one’s fellows, one should not plague oneself because Christian reactions to their doings do not always come automatically? She seems to get so upset over not being able to manufacture tender emotions at all times.’
(TSE to Jeanette McPherrin, 31 Dec. 1935 (Letters 7, 876–7): ‘(IHale, EmilyTSE's names, nicknames and terms of endearment for;x3not 'Wendy';b8n like to hear you call her Wendy, but I could not do it myself, because no one else is associated with the name “Emily” for me but her, and because “Wendy” conjures up to me that crafty old compatriot of yours James Barrie, about whom I think H. M. Tomlinson said that his saying should be: “Suffer Jacky Coogan and Shirley Temple to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven”.)’
3.Regent's Park is a short walk from Vivien Eliot’s flat at Clarence Gate Gardens.
4.GeorgeEvery, George Every, SSM (1909–2003), historian and poet: see Biographical Register.
5.Fr ArthurHerbert, Fr Gabriel Gabriel Hebert, SSM.
6.StephenBedale, Fr Stephen, SSM Bedale (1882–1961), Prior of the Society of the Sacred Mission.
7.E. W. F. Tomlin.
8.Matthew 4: 19: ‘And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Luke 5: 10: ‘And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”’
9.HelenJacobs, Helen Jacobs (1908–97), American tennis player; winner of nine Grand Slam titles.
10.JohnCrawford, John Herbert Herbert Crawford (1908–91), Australian tennis player; world number 1 in 1933.
11.SidneyWood, Sidney, Jr. Wood, Jr. (1911–2009), American tennis player; winner of Wimbledon singles title in 1931.
12.HenryAustin, Henry Wilfred ('Bunny') Wilfred (‘Bunny’) Austin (1906–2000), British tennis player.
13.JohnBudge, John Donald ('Don') Donald (‘Don’) Budge (1915–2000), American tennis player.
14.Ian Parsons, ‘Poetry, Drama, and Satire’, Spectator 154 (28 June 1935), 1,112–14.
15.‘Cape Ann’. I. A. Richards to TSE, n.d. (June 1935): ‘The 2 new Words for music [‘Cape Ann’ and ‘Usk’] went off for me like fireworks the moment I looked at them.’
12.HenryAustin, Henry Wilfred ('Bunny') Wilfred (‘Bunny’) Austin (1906–2000), British tennis player.
6.StephenBedale, Fr Stephen, SSM Bedale (1882–1961), Prior of the Society of the Sacred Mission.
13.JohnBudge, John Donald ('Don') Donald (‘Don’) Budge (1915–2000), American tennis player.
5.LordCecil, Lord David David Cecil (1902–86), historian, critic, biographer; Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, 1924–30; Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1939–69; Professor of English, Oxford, 1948–70; author of The Stricken Deer (1929), Early Victorian Novelists: Essays in Revaluation (1934), Jane Austen (1936) and studies of other writers including Hardy, Shakespeare, Scott.
10.JohnCrawford, John Herbert Herbert Crawford (1908–91), Australian tennis player; world number 1 in 1933.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
4.GeorgeEvery, George Every, SSM (1909–2003), historian and poet: see Biographical Register.
5.Fr ArthurHerbert, Fr Gabriel Gabriel Hebert, SSM.
9.HelenJacobs, Helen Jacobs (1908–97), American tennis player; winner of nine Grand Slam titles.
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.
4.I. A. RichardsRichards, Ivor Armstrong ('I. A.') (1893–1979), theorist of literature, education and communication studies: see Biographical Register.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.
10.E. WalterTomlin, E. Walter F. F. Tomlin (1914–88), writer and administrator; author of a memoir T. S. Eliot: A Friendship (1988): see Biographical Register.