[41 BrimmerHale, Emilyreturns to Brimmer Street;j1 St., Boston]
I was very happy to get your letter yesterday morning; just in time to be able to send this, which I realise suddenly will be the last I can send to reach you before Christmas, to your Christmas address. I am glad that you will be with Miss Ware for Christmas; butHavenses, the;a2 I hope that you will get away to the Havens, or to other friends, for the second week, and that nothing so practical as dentistry will have to interfere. I have fresh in my mind how great an interruption the dentist can be: I am now done with him, I hope, until the summer. You gave me a twinge by saying that there would be a Christmas present here for me: I have done NO Christmas shopping yet, except some cards – that takes a good deal of time too – the ones for America will go off to-day. The worst of Christmas cards is that however comprehensive you try to be, you always get cards from the people you forget, rather than from the ones you remember. I have got to buy seven presents for children. It would be easier if they didn’t grow up, but one has to remember that the kind of present that did last year will not do this year.
IFabers, theand TSE's foggy adventure;d3 had a very busy weekend. On Friday afternoon, a beautiful sunny day, I started out with the Fabers in their car for Cambridge. About five miles out on the North Circuit road we ran suddenly into the thickest fog I have ever experienced in driving, and the road immediately became chaos. We pushed on for an hour or so, simply because the traffic was so dense that there was nothing else to do. Then night fell, and we had no idea where we were; so when we came to a roundabout Faber skilfully turned round in the forbidden direction, ignoring the shouts of the populace, and managed to get into the road returning to London. We pulled up at a place which turned out to be Palmers Green, where Faber fell into talk with a native who offered us the use of his telephone to send a wire to our hosts in Cambridge.1 By the time we got into London, of course, the fog had cleared; but it was too late to get to Cambridge, soFabers, thecinema-going with TSE;d4 I spent the night with them in Hampstead and we went cheerfully to the flicks, and saw an excellent French film and a good new Micky [sc. Mickey] Mouse (Grand Opera). NextMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff)invites TSE to Shamley;a2 day Mrs. Mirrlees2 sent her car to take me down to her new house in Surrey, near Cranleigh. IMirrlees, Hopeordeal of a walk with;b1 like her very much, a genial old lady, but Hope does rather get on my nerves. TodogsDachshund;b9Hope Mirrlees's 'Mary';a2 take a walk with her and her extremely ill-trained dachshund is a wracking experience. If it waddles twenty yards ahead she gets alarmed and begins shouting ‘Mary! Mary!’ and it takes no notice of her. Once it went off into the brambles after a rabbit, and there was a terrific to-do; I stayed quietly in the road looking after another little dog, belonging to the housekeeper. Mary was finally retrieved; I think because she was wearing a knitted jumper and got caught in the briars. Then when it was time to turn back, I discovered that Hope never bothers where she is going, because she believes that Mary will always find the way home. In a sense and up to a point, she did, but it was agony to be led a very long way round when I could see quite well the way we had come. Fortunately we came to a cross-roads at which Mary’s divinatory powers gave out, so that I had the opportunity of enquiring at a cottage. By this time it was pouring torrents, and was very cold and a gale had sprung up. We finally got back, but my little dog collapsed temporarily (we had walked about eight miles) and had to be carried the last part of the way, very muddy and wriggling. It was trying: and I was glad on the whole to get back on Monday morning. Since then there has been a small office revolution. MissO'Donovan, Brigidsupplanted in role at F&F;b8 O’Donovan is to go – she has been wanting a change for some time, and eventually it becomes unendurable to have a secretary who is hunting for another job – I have given her two recommendations; and she was not an ideal secretary anyway, and wasn’t really interested in the work. She found most of it ‘too mechanical’. I’m afraid she is unlikely to get anything more interesting, but that is her affair. SheRidler, Anne (née Bradby)already favoured for F&F promotion;a1 is to be succeeded by a Miss Bradby, who appears to be very intelligent – has been in the office for a year or so, and is marked out for promotion, so I don’t expect to keep her for more than a year.3 I am not very happy in the role of employer telling a subordinate that I think it is time to part; and my speech came with somewhat diminished effect because Miss O’D had heard of the change from her colleagues just before I told her myself, and was naturally rather annoyed about it. It will take me several days to recover.
TomorrowOld Vic, Thepresents The Witch of Edmonton;a7 nightBelgion, Montgomeryaccompanies TSE to Witch of Edmonton;b6 I go to the Old Vic to see ‘The Witch of Edmonton’ 4 with Belgion – I don’t think it has ever been done before in London in my time – FridayFabers, thetake TSE to Witch of Edmonton;d5 to a play with the whole Faber family, SaturdayDobrées, the;a9 dine with the Dobrées, andUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellsconfession with;a4 Monday go down to Rochester for the night. And I have my shopping on my mind; so I don’t expect to be able to settle down to any work until after Christmas. I shall be glad when boxing day comes. OfJanes, W. L.his Christmas dinners with TSE;a3 course I have Christmas dinner with Janes and Mrs. Webster.
Why, my dear, do you speak of having ‘to live on memory’, as if we should perhaps never meet again? Are you not coming next summer, to begin with? AndMurder in the Cathedral1938 American tour;f6deferred to September 1937;a3 there is a possibility that Murder will go over to New York in September, so I might return when you did, for a short visit! When you come, I want you to bring the grey-blue muffler, because I have a new one with a similar colour scheme, but I think rather smarter and more unusual, which I should like to exchange for it – not for your sake, my dear, but for my own – so that I should be able to wear round my neck next winter something that has been round yours!
IBell, Bernard Iddingsmeets EH;a5 should like to know some of the things that Bell said that you disapproved of! WhenChristianityUnitarianism;d9outside TSE's definition of 'Christian';b3 you say that ‘Unitarians believe’ etc. you may be speaking for some Unitarians, but certainly not for those amongst whom I was brought up, and who had the following creed: ‘The Fatherhood of God – the Brotherhood of Man – the Leadership of Jesus – Salvation by Character – the Progress of Mankind onward and upward forever’: a creed which I cannot call Christian. It may be a ‘religion’, but it is not the Christian religion; ‘salvation by character’ is pretty near to the heresy called ‘Pelagianism’ which maintains that man can be saved by his own efforts without divine Grace, though I admit that it is susceptible of all sort of interpretations. But you will realise perhaps that when it comes to discussing theology with you, I am on very difficult and delicate ground. I must see whether any of Gore’s books would be of use to you.
I must stop now, and end by saying that I shall think of you and pray for you especially at the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
[EnclosuresOld Possum’s Book of Practical Cats'The Old Gumbie Cat';e5: ‘TheOld Possum’s Book of Practical Cats'The Rum Tum Tugger';e7 OldOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsindividual poems sent to EH;a4 Gumbie Cat’, and Epiphany 1937 letter to Alison Tandy (including ‘The Rum Tum Tugger).]
1.MaryTrevelyan, Maryrecalling TSE's foggy adventure;a1n Trevelyan, ‘The Pope of Russell Square’: ‘21 November [1954], Sunday: Every Sunday lately we have been for immense drives – “Sunday Constitutionals” Tom calls them. One day we went to Parsons Green [sic]: “I’ve been here before. Many years ago Geoffrey Faber and I were driving to Cambridge for a conference. We got stuck in a fog here, so we telephoned from the house of a taxidermist – a little man in a back room. He was stuffing a FISH – no, it wasn’t a dream!”’
2.Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register. Mother of Hope Mirrlees.
3.AnneRidler, Anne (née Bradby) (Bradby) Ridler (30 July 1912–2001), poet, playwright, editor; worked as TSE’s secretary, 1936–40: see Biographical Register.
4.The Witch of Edmonton (1621), by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford, was directed by Michel Saint-Denis for a four-week run (from 8 Dec.) at the Old Vic; the cast included Marius Goring, Edith Evans, Alec Guinness, Michael Redgrave and Leonard Sachs.
4.MontgomeryBelgion, Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author and journalist: see Biographical Register.
3.BernardBell, Bernard Iddings Iddings Bell, DD (1886–1958), American Episcopal priest, author and cultural commentator; Warden of Bard College, 1919–33. In his last years he was made Canon of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Chicago, and a William Vaughn Lecturer at the University of Chicago.
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).
3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
3.BrigidO'Donovan, Brigid O’Donovan, TSE’s secretary from Jan. 1935 to Dec. 1936: see Biographical Register.
3.AnneRidler, Anne (née Bradby) (Bradby) Ridler (30 July 1912–2001), poet, playwright, editor; worked as TSE’s secretary, 1936–40: see Biographical Register.
2.MaryTrevelyan, Mary Trevelyan (1897–1983), Warden of Student Movement House, worked devotedly to support the needs of overseas students in London (her institution was based at 32 Russell Square, close to the offices of F&F; later at 103 Gower Street); founder and first governor of International Students House, London. Trevelyan left an unpublished memoir of her friendship with TSE – ‘The Pope of Russell Square’ – whom she long desired to marry. See further Biographical Register.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.