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YourHale, Emilyas teacher;w1possibly, temporarily, at St. Catherine's, Va.;b8 letterSt. Catherine's School, Richmond, Va.EH and possible short-term post at;a1 of the 20th has just come, with its surprise about your move to Virginia. You say the engagement is from February 1st, and you speak as if you were definitely accepting it, so I suppose I must address this letter to St. Catherine’s School; but I think I will cable to you in Boston for confirmation of your address.1 WellHale, Emilyfinances;w5;a7, the compensation or emolument is certainly very small, but I can see certain advantages. FebruaryAmericaVirginia;h7and the South;a4, March and April should certainly be pleasanter months in Virginia than in Boston; and if you leave in early May you will avoid the excessive heat. Of course I always feel apprehensive and anxious over you going to strange places; but I suppose Richmond is safe enough and moderately civilised. Southern people take some getting used to, and I don’t know whether one can really get to like them or not. I shall feel unsettled until you have been there several weeks and have had time to let me know how you find it: that means I shall be uncertain until March. Ittravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4if not spring, then autumn;a3 is worth while to consider the possibility of my coming in the spring; because if I do, it may be at too short notice for us to make arrangements by letter. I mean, will you consider the circumstances, whether we could see each other more conveniently and quietly in the spring or in the late summer or autumn. Pleasetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1936 American trip;c4spring arrival dependent on New York Murder;a2 remember that the play would be only an excuse for coming earlier; and I had far rather postpone my coming to the summer or autumn if I could have more of your company, or have it in a more easy and private way, than see you less satisfactorily in the spring. How disappointed I should be to come all that way for little, and think that if I had not been so impatient we might had [sc. have] a more satisfactory time later: for I could hardly come over twice in one year!
IEnglandEnglish traditions;c4the death of George V;a7 didGeorge Vhis funeral;a3 not have time to tell you anything about the Royal Funeral when I last wrote. The great majority of people put on mourning for the period between the King’s death and the funeral – by public request of the Earl Marshal (the Duke of Norfolk) who is in authority on such occasions. I did not go to see the funeral. It was a rainy day, and to get any view at all, unless one knew someone living along the route, meant standing from about 7 in the morning. There was, I understand, the largest crowd ever gathered for a public occasion in England; and even with careful arrangements, the police were hampered and the procession was delayed. I went to an 11 o’clock Requiem Mass at All Saints Margaret Street, only to discover when I got there that I had misread the card, and that the Mass was to be on Thursday: so I stayed there long enough to say a chaplet for the repose of the late King’s soul, and went on to my club, as there was nothing else to do (everything was shut up on the day of the funeral) where I found a loud speaker installed for the broadcast of the ceremony at Windsor, to which I listened. There was a two minute silence, throught [sc. throughout] the country, at 1.30. The most effective part of the ceremony, as broadcast, - I mean that which came over most effectively, was the lament on the bagpipes (of I suppose the Scots Guards), which was quite annihilating. The general grief was I think quite sincere. The King’s personal popularity had been very much enhanced during the last few years by his broadcast addresses to the people. He always did that extremely well, and was said to write his addresses entirely himself: they made him much more real to millions of people. ItElizabeth II, Queen (formerly Princess Elizabeth of York)prospect of her accession;a1 looks as if in due course there would be another Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Second.
I hardly want to write more now, in my uncertainty as to where you are. I shall write more fully and personally when I know: I am tired of writing letters just of information and news, like my last, and long to give utterance to an outburst of feeling. I have been very tired this week after Dublin – satisfactory as it was – andCamerons, the;a2 awkwardly had to dine on Tuesday with the Camerons (Elizabeth Bowen) andBevan, Edwyn R.;a2 onCecil, Algernon;a1 Wednesday with Edwyn Bevan and his daughter (the other guests were Algernon Cecil2 and Miss Mansell) and last night having to speak for the ‘Save the Children Fund’.3 IHayward, John;e1 shall have a quiet weekend to myself: John Hayward is going away for the weekend, so I shall see no one. I kiss your ear and put my arm round you.
JanesJanes, W. L.;a7 has been suffering from lumbago and his sister in law has been ill in her lodgings with congestion of the lugs [sc. lungs], so he has no one to look after him. I saw him two days ago and mean to look in on him for a few moments with a beefsteak, so that he needn’t go out to buy food, if he is not fit.
DidPerkinses, the;f7 you ever give the Perkins’s the presents I consigned to you? I have never heard.
1.The offer of a job at St. Catherine’s School, Richmond, Virginia, was presently to be superseded by an offer from Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
2.AlgernonCecil, Algernon Cecil (1879–1953), barrister, author and historian.
3.TSESave the Children FundTSE's speech for;a1 delivered his address at Holborn Town Hall, 30 Jan. 1936: ‘Saving the Future: Mission of the Save the Children Fund: Practical Service at Home and Abroad’, The World’s Children: The Official Organ of the Save the Children Fund 16: 6 (Mar. 1936), 85–7. For unknown reasons, the occasion was not well attended – but it did raise the respectable sum of £35.
1.EdwynBevan, Edwyn R. R. Bevan (1870–1943), philosopher and historian of the Hellenic world, taught at King’s College London; elected FBA, 1942.
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).