[No surviving envelope]
It was dear of you to write me a letter before leaving, and I thank the G.W.R.1 for putting their train on so that you had the time. Perhaps it was more than dear – I mean intuitive – it would seem that you must have known how silly I have been feeling – and I suppose that I was responsible for your feeling silly too. And I rejoice that you see it in that way. But O dear me, don’t please call me courteous! (e.g.: ‘patrons of the Biltmore Hotel may be assured of the courteous attention of the Staff at all hours’) – it would be as bad if I called you gracious – you were not that – though it never crossed my mind to think of you as ‘ungracious, cross, abrupt’ – good heavens, to have you really cross and abrupt would be delightful I assure you, you merely seemed grand and rather distant – I am NOT being sarcastic but unhumorously literal – and nobody seemed silly to me but myself. In the taxi I felt like a wax model in a shop window, and a bad model too. YetHale, Emilyand TSE theatre-going with Thorps;g5 I hadtravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4Thorp theatre outing;e6 a dim feeling that this occasion would be like that. After the last – and its being as much as five weeks ago – I knew that I should be overcome by such a sea of emotion that an absurd stiffness was the only behaviour possible. I wondered if you realised it at the time. IncidentallyThorp, Willardhas stiffening effect on TSE;b3, I think that the spectre of Willard, which loomed over me even at lunch, had a rather paralysing effect. I think I could find some terms on which to get on with Margaret – I had a little talk with her at dinner which was very pleasant – but I am afraid that Willard would always be a skeleton at my feast, I don’t know why. Perhaps he gives me the impression of being always disappointed in not finding me a really Superior Person – and taking no notice of what I thought a very smooth and pleasant Romanée 1919: and the conversation in that very bare flat which must belong to a very dull person (I cannot stand people who have sectional bookcases with glass windows) seemed to me that of four people avoiding any point – it seemed to me a failure for which I was probably to blame, because I know how one can spread an atmosphere while thinking that one is perfectly passive. I had the unhappy feeling that the evening did not advance relationships in any way – even between you and Margaret, whom I could hear from the corner of my ear discussing such things as hotels in Brussels on the sofa while I was making small talk with Willard about Flemish painting and the Breughels. At moments I had the feeling that it might have been more spontaneous if I had not been there. I dare say not. I am NOT being complicated etc. I am merely being analytical ex post facto merely showing my skill in a post mortem. IThorp, Margaret (née Farrand)approachable but for Willard;b4 do like Margaret – and I think I could get on with her – but when two people live together one can’t get to know one without the other, and I don’t think I could ever get anywhere with Willard, and yet he is very pleasant. All this is incidental in my malaise of the afternoon and evening. No, don’t think I am blaming myself unmeasuredly – these are merely contributory factors anyway: the chief thing is that on being with you again I was so torn with emotion that I could only behave as I did. Even eating soup in your presence was an ordeal, until a few movements assured me that I could carry the spoon to my mouth without spilling.
As for politics, it is good to have local concerns to prevent one from thinking too much of general. ThisCheetham, Revd Eric;b4 evening I have had the Vicar in to relieve his mind about his Curate – nothing that surprised me – I formed my opinion of this Curate long ago – if you knew what a trial Curates could be you would sympathise with Vicars, and this one has far more sense of responsibility about curates than your Greene has – I am sorry for little Micky Mouse, for not having been trained by a strong vicar before going off to Malvern College to be rough-housed by the boys. People expect too much of the clergy, and not enough of the Church. ITemple, William, Archbishop of York (later of Canterbury)unworthy of his see;a7 am inclined to feel more gently towards little weak Greene (who partly knows what to do, but doesn’t do it) thanOxford Universityhow it miseducates;a6 I am towards William Temple who ought to have spoken for the Church on Sunday evening, and merely spoke like an eminent public man with an Oxford Greats Oxford Union debating hairsplitting sophistical mind. I shall have to face up to Temple one day.
Therealcohol'whisky' vs 'whiskey';b5 is, my lamb, a Haig Whisky. There is a special Haig Whisky known as Dimple Haig. (By the way, the correct spelling for Scotch whisky is WHISKY; if you spell it WHISKEY you mean Irish whiskey). As a matter of fact, the late Field Marshall [sic] Earl Haig of Bermersyde was put through Oxford (and the Bullingdon and polo) on the profits of Haig’s whisky, which his father manufactured.2 You have to be careful, in this country, of speaking of distillers and brewers. TheFaber, Geoffreyand the Faber family fortune;d9 Faber fortunes, such as they are, were made by Beer – Lord Faber3 and Lord Wittenham.4
I hope you liked the Lapsang Soochong: I do not approve of coffee for breakfast. There is something to be said however for India tea at breakfast and China tea for tea. I reserve remarks on the political situation. IPorteus, Hugh Gordonrelieved by advance from F&F;a2 have got the firm to accept a pamphlet on Chinese Art by my young Porteus5 – I did not tell you about my supper with him and his girl – which rejoices my heart, because I got them to agree an advance of ten pounds, so Porteus and his Russian girl will be able to have one or two good meals, instead of subsisting solely on Chinese food. I look forward to day-after-tomorrow – and I count that man fortunate6 who even once in his life can look forward to day-after-tomorrow as I do – andGalitzi, Dr ChristineEH warned against imitating;c3 I don’t know whether I want you to be like Christine Galitzi itself in manners, because I don’t know how C. G. would behave to me if she were you and I was I. I should like us both to be like our real selves. And after all, we really know what that is.
I’dHale, Irene (née Baumgras)and Orlando and the parrots;a7 like to talk to Mrs. Hale privately about Orlando. 7
I am silly in various ways. Theflowers and floraroses;c7their emotionally disturbing scent;a5 first thing I did on returning this evening was to count the roses – and to be disappointed to find exactly the same dozen. Iflowers and florachrysanthemums;b1TSE prefers to roses;a1 can only tolerate roses when you have been here with them: forflowers and florazinnias;d5TSE prefers over roses;a1 myself, the scent is too disturbing, and I prefer zinnias or chrysanthemums.
1.G.W.R.: Great Western Railway.
2.Earl Haig’s father derived his income – to the tune of £10,000 a year – from the profits of the family’s Haig & Haig whisky distillery. At Oxford he was a member of the Bullingdon Club (a sporting and dining club for wealthy students) and starred in the university polo team.
3.The Faber family concern was Strong’s Romsey ales.
4.George Denison Faber (1852–1931), barrister and Conservative party politician, was in 1918 elevated to the peerage as Baron Wittenham of Wallingford.
5.Background to Chinese Art (Criterion Miscellany no. 42: 1935). ‘This pamphlet, designed to be of assistance at the first International Exhibition of Chinese Art at Burlington House, contains the essential bibliographical and chronological commentaries which put the reader in immediate possession of his “background”. Mr Porteus, a painter by training and art critic to a well-known literary weekly, has, for many years, made a study of the Chinese culture, arts, and language. His essay is informal, but informative, and is particularly interesting in drawing attention to the significance of Chinese calligraphy. His observations are original and important, and his interpretation of the Chinese “genius” is especially revealing.’
6.Sophocles, Oedipus the King: ‘count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last’ (1,684).
7.Irene Hale (Chipping Campden) to TSE, ‘Sunday’ (n.d.): ‘It was dear of you, to have the lines of your parrot story type written, – busy as you are, – so that I can send them to the boy Orlando: and you gave him your autograph, at [the] same time! His mind & temperament are so unusual, that he will appreciate all this greatly, & I am sure he will be immensely thrilled.
‘I wrote to him, – quite a letter, – telling him how it happened. That you were a guest in this house, for a week-end, & one evening you gave us the lines of your parrot story, which amused us greatly. Thus, I was led to tell the story of Orlando, & his two parrots – beginning when we sat under the elms one day, at Andover, & saw a boy going by with a beautiful bird on a pretty rod, – its chain hanging down, – me thinking it might be a falcon – yet a falconer in New England, seemed hardly possible – so we asked him about it. Then the little story went on, – until he left Andover. Two months later – after “dear Mr Philip” passed away, – the touching letter, & verses, came to me from Orlando, – about his “dead friend”.
‘You liked this little story, & his verses; & now, – through Emily’s suggestion, – yours are on their way to him.
‘I have told Orlando that your verses are to be in a new book – which will be published later on, – & that he must not let anyone have a copy of them. You may be sure that he will guard them carefully, – as one of his treasures. Of course, he will have the book, when it is out, – & place your gift in it.
‘All in all, it is a charming story, the dear boy in New York, the famous man in London, – and the parrots bringing them together: something for the boy to remember with a thrill, – all his years’.
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
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.IreneHale, Irene (née Baumgras) Hale, née Baumgras, widow of Philip Hale, celebrated as the prolific and influential music critic of the Boston Herald. Irene Hale, who was herself an accomplished pianist, had studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she gained the Springer Gold Medal 1881, and continued with her studies in Europe under Raif and Moritz Mosckowski: she later wrote music under the name Victor Rene.
6.HughPorteus, Hugh Gordon Gordon Porteus (1906–93), literary and art critic; author: see Biographical Register. HisBartek, Zenda partner was Zenka Bartek, who left him in 1944.
10.WilliamTemple, William, Archbishop of York (later of Canterbury) Temple (1881–1944), Anglican clergyman, Archbishop of York and later of Canterbury: see Biographical Register.
16.MargaretThorp, Margaret (née Farrand) Farrand (1891–1970), author and journalist – see Margaret Thorp in Biographical Register.
1.Margaret Thorp, née Farrand (1891–1970), contemporary and close friend of EH; noted author and biographer. WillardThorp, Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was a Professor of English at Princeton University. See Biographical Register. See further Lyndall Gordon, Hyacinth Girl, 126–8, 158–9.