[Stamford House, Chipping Campden]
I have had a very busy day. The morning spent in looking through manuscripts to be reported on before leaving, then off to draw some money and buy white flannels, then to the office to dictate reports on manuscripts, thenSmyth, Revd Frederic Hastings;a1 to lunch with the Revd. Hastings Smyth who has started an ‘Oratory’ on Quincy Street for Harvard Undergraduates,1 then back to the office for more clearing up, then remembered that I must pick up my tickets from Cooks in Pall Mall, andMorrell, Lady Ottolinebetween convalescence and Italy;g5 then to see Ottoline for an hour – marvellously recovered from her illness, and just going off to Italy for convalescence – back to dinner – andSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 then to the vestry for business matters with the verger before leaving – verger very pleased with himself having just completed church housecleaning for the year – andChurch Timesreceives violent letter from TSE;a5 then busy writing a violent and bitter letter to the Church Times:2 and now I must write only briefly, because I must do my packing for two weeks before going to bed. ‘One step enough for me’ is a good reminder for everybody.3 – IChristianityUnitarianism;d9versus Unitarians;b5 have no copy of course, and don’t know just what I said, but I did not mean to suggest that there were no Unitarians of holiness of life – I know quite well that there are Moslems and Buddhists of much higher spiritual knowledge than mine, though I must be quite sure that theologically I am right and they are wrong. Holiness is not the test. I wasn’t really talking about Unitarians but about Unitarianism, which is quite a different matter. I have just come across a paragraph, written in 1837 by a man who was the son of a Unitarian minister, who became a great leader in the Anglican Church, and who certainly was not tainted like myself with Tractarianism or Puseyism: FrederickMaurice, Frederick Denison;a1 Denison Maurice, in ‘The Kingdom of Christ’, chapter called Unitarianism.
‘Once more; – to purify men of their false notions of morality[,] to establish religion on the basis of morality, and to reveal the existence of another world than the present, were, according to Unitarianism, the object of Christ’s appearance in the world, and the objects which the reformers of His doctrine were to keep steadily in sight. For this end they were to desire the removal of all systems and institutions which had kept alive a false faith and a distorted notion of the character of God. “But who”, the disappointed disciple of this school inquired, “who are the greatest [sc. great] helpers in this work of reformation? – who show most longing[,] that it should be accomplished? Are they men of deep thought and high devotion, who have been poring in sadness over the condition of society – in solitary chambers crying out Usque quo, Domine? Are they even poor men, not aiming at some high standard, but feeling the burden and oppression of the [new] universe, and believing that God could not have meant so many of His creatures to live and die, without comfort or hope? – or are they not rather men, who for the most part have preserved a quiet decent level tone of mind and character; who belong to the easy, respectable, prosperous classes, and who are actually impatient of anything which disturbs them with the recollection of an elevated supersensual morality, or of a society based upon self-sacrifice?”’ 4
So far Maurice. And for the moment we can leave it at that.
Yes, I know it will be four weeks and not three – I was trying to make the best of it, and still do, by saying THREE weeks and so it now is. IMurder in the Cathedral1937 Tewkesbury Drama Festival production;f4 was interested in your report from Tewkesbury – ISpeaight, Robertas Becket;c1 do think that Speaight has lost a good deal, and I am afraid, to follow Tandy’s Broadcasting Chronicle, that theThurburn, Gwynneth L.;a2 chorusFogerty, ElsieMurder's chorus without;b4 has lost a good deal too – I expect they have been left to themselves without the criticism of Fogerty or Thurburn. I hope you will write to me.
—c/o G. C. Faber Esqre.,
——Ty Glyn Aeron,——— (I shall be there on Wednesday )
———Ciliau Aeron,
—————near Lampeter,
——————Cardiganshire,
———————South Wales
and tell me at once what the doctor says, and I hope he will give you wise advice.
MeanwhileRichmonds, theTSE's Netherhampton weekends with;a7 IEast CokerTSE returns to East Coker;a5 shallEnglandEast Coker, Somerset;e9visited again;a5 be at Sir. B. L. Richmond’s Netherhampton House, Salisbury, and at the New Inn, East Coker, Somerset – but best write to Wales!
1.RevdSmyth, Revd Frederic Hastings Frederic Hastings Smyth (1888–1960), Episcopalian; Christian-Marxist theologian, was to establish at Harvard in 1939 the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth. Works include Manhood into God (1940) and Sacrifice: A Doctrinal Homily (1953). See Terry Brown, Metacosmesis: The Christian Marxism of Frederic Hastings Smyth and the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth (PhD dissertation, Toronto School of Theology, 1987).
2.See letter to Church Times, 6 Aug. 1937 (written on 30 July), Letters 8, 642–4.
3.‘Lead, Kindly Light’ (1833), hymn by John Henry Newman, opening verse:
Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
4.FrederickMaurice, Frederick Denison Denison Maurice (1805–72): British theologian and academic; co-founder of the Christian Socialist movement; Chaplain of Guy’s Hospital, and Professor of English Literature and History, King’s College London. The quotation is from The Kingdom of Christ; or, Hints to a Quaker: respecting the Principles, Constitution, and Ordinances of the Catholic Church (1842), I, ch. III: ‘Unitarianism’, 185–6.
2.ElsieFogerty, Elsie Fogerty, CBE, LRAM (1865–1945), teacher of elocution and drama training; founder in 1906 of the Central School of Speech and Drama (Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft were favourite pupils). Fogerty was to train the chorus for the Canterbury premiere in 1935 of TSE’s Murder in the Cathedral.
4.FrederickMaurice, Frederick Denison Denison Maurice (1805–72): British theologian and academic; co-founder of the Christian Socialist movement; Chaplain of Guy’s Hospital, and Professor of English Literature and History, King’s College London. The quotation is from The Kingdom of Christ; or, Hints to a Quaker: respecting the Principles, Constitution, and Ordinances of the Catholic Church (1842), I, ch. III: ‘Unitarianism’, 185–6.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
1.RevdSmyth, Revd Frederic Hastings Frederic Hastings Smyth (1888–1960), Episcopalian; Christian-Marxist theologian, was to establish at Harvard in 1939 the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth. Works include Manhood into God (1940) and Sacrifice: A Doctrinal Homily (1953). See Terry Brown, Metacosmesis: The Christian Marxism of Frederic Hastings Smyth and the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth (PhD dissertation, Toronto School of Theology, 1987).
2.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.