[Stamford House, Chipping Campden]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
The Criterion
15 September 1937
Dearest,

YourPound, Dorothy Shakespeartaken to dinner;a6 letterMorleys, thejoin Dorothy Pound dinner;i9 arrived the same day, and I found it last night on returning from dining with Dorothy Pound (the Morleys helped me). I hope that Cheltenham is a satisfactory shopping centre, for whatever you have not time to do in London. I have recovered from my cold, thank you, and hope to be quite presentable tomorrow evening. I should have written a line to this effect in any case, but your letter calls for an answer on another point, which is probably better dealt with in writing now, and we can discuss it or not later.

IHale, Irene (née Baumgras)menaces Chipping Campden;b8 don’tPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);c8 know that it is really my business to offer counsel or criticism – but as you have asked – I can’t see any reason why Mrs. Perkins should not justify herself, so far as that can be done without prejudicing the future. It seems to me that with other summers in view (and it would really apply wherever the Perkins’s were to be) it should not appear as if Mrs. Hale had been invited, or might be invited in the future, on whatever terms, for the whole time. She would have to be prepared to look out for herself for most of the time; and as she seems to be quite able to look after herself at New England summer resorts, she could equally well do so at Sidmouth, Torquay, or anywhere else. She seemed to me, if anything, rather stronger than Mrs. Perkins, but I may be wrong. She can’t be combined happily with everybody (thoughEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)compared to Irene Hale;c4 she is a good deal more adaptable than my sister Margaret) and she does want to be taken notice of – and I should say she was the type of woman who can’t get much from other women – other women, to that type, are merely a convenience when they are not a bore – andStott, Sir Philip Sidney;a1 she can’t always have jolly souls like Sir Philip Stott1 to flirt with. But certainly she could be told that she was asked – on conditions (which might not have been very acceptable perhaps); especially if Mrs. Perkins is prepared to ask her again on the same conditions. But I don’t think that either of you should undertake to convoy her across the Atlantic; if she can’t manage that alone I don’t think she ought to come; because it would be only a step from that attendance to having to find a seaside hotel for her, instal her, make arrangements, and fetch her away etc.

All this seems rather impertinent of me, and I wouldn’t have forced it on you.[,] but you must also keep in mind what you said to me about planning your own future summers.

Ireading (TSE's)Shakespeare;f3 am'Development of Shakespeare's Verse, The'composition and revision;a3 getting on slowly with Shakespeare. I look forward to tomorrow night.

Your loving
Tom

1.SirStott, Sir Philip Sidney Philip Sidney Stott, 1st Baronet (1858–1937), Lancashire-born architect and civil engineer who specialised in designing mills – and he acquired additional wealth from the shares he retained in the mills that he built. From 1913 he resided at Stanton Court, Gloucs., a Jacobean manor house near Broadway, Worcestershire, and he made benefactions to the local community. He served too as a Justice of the Peace and as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.

'Development of Shakespeare's Verse, The', TSE reading Shakespeare in preparation, composition and revision, as lectured, Morley comments on, Granville-Barker, Wilson and Martin Browne sent, sent to EH, who seeks permission to recite, revised again for Bristol, refashioned for Stockholm, bibliographic details of,
Eliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister), not a suitable confidant, scandalised by Henry's detective story, threatens to visit England, compared to VHE, wishes to arrange TSE's birthday party, remote from TSE, TSE and Henry visit, TSE dreads visiting Uncle Rob with, drains TSE, takes TSE to hear spirituals, her history, amazes TSE by attending Norton lecture, celebrates 61st birthday at Marion's, remembered in St. Louis, unwanted presence on holiday, reason for avoiding Boston, supported Landon over FDR, in response to 1930s controversies, compared to Irene Hale, imposes on Henry, tends to monologue, her reclusive hotel existence, Henry describes moving house for, her condition, TSE leaves money with, Thanksgiving with, efforts to support financially, death, funeral, TSE's final visit to,

6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’

Hale, Irene (née Baumgras), descends on Campden, TSE on, compared to Mrs Perkins, EH reaches limit with, and Orlando and the parrots, EH's relations with, shares EH's Oxford lodgings, oppresses EH, her effect on Campden life, menaces Chipping Campden, descends on EH in Northampton, in Northampton, decamps from Northampton, taken less seriously by EH, not to be indulged, less exhausting than Mrs Perkins, yet still exhausting, indifferent to hardships of relations,

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.

Morleys, the, join the Eliots in Eastbourne, TSE fears overburdening, go on holiday to Norway, more TSE's friend than VHE's, return from Norway, life at Pike's Farm among, reading Dickens aloud to, their Thanksgiving parties, suitable companions to Varsity Cricket Match, and TSE to Laughton's Macbeth, TSE's June 1934 fortnight with, and certain 'bathers' photographs', and TSE play 'GO', attend Richard II with EH, TSE's New Years celebrated with, take TSE to Evelyn Prentice and Laurel & Hardy, TSE's return from Wales with, TSE's September 1935 week with, leave for New York, one of two regular ports-of-call, see EH in Boston, safely returned from New York, TSE reads Dr Johnson to, compared to the Tandys, add to their menagerie, reiterate gratitude for EH's peppermints, in Paris with TSE, give TSE copy of Don Quixote, and Fabers take TSE to pantomime, and TSE's Salzburg expedition, join Dorothy Pound dinner, visit Hamburg, have Labrador puppies, dinner at Much Hadham for, TSE to see them off at Kings Cross, seem unhappy in America, Thanksgiving without, in New Canaan, return to Lingfield, remember TSE's birthday, difficulties of renewing friendship with,
Perkins, Edith (EH's aunt), her relationship to EH queried, to accompany EH to Scripps, asks TSE to dinner, at first Norton lecture, shares pew with TSE, accompanies TSE to Symphony Concert, in audience at Milton Academy, catches cold in Florence, in TSE's private opinion, TSE's occasional poem for, her relationship with EH analysed, dislikes Jeanette McPherrin, explains EH's breakdown to TSE, on the Harvard Murder, as Campden hostess, and TSE's wartime instructions to EH, gives lunch at American Women's Club, gives TSE balsam pillow, requests English edition of Cats, as horticulturalist, without Campden garden, compared to Irene Hale, gives TSE photograph of EH, attends Ada's funeral, reports on EH's Millbrook situation, pressed for ham and pineapple recipe, sight affected in one eye, gives lecture, sight failing, sight deteriorates in other eye, thanked for 1946 hospitality, gives to Books Across the Sea, according to EH, asks TSE to present slides to RHS, which TSE does, on EH and TSE's relationship, and Hidcote House, friendly with Marion, TSE pitches her book to publishers, depressed by the heat, somewhat recovered, approaching 80th, faced with husband's death, letter of condolence to, sent birthday poem, visited in Boston, has sciatica, reports on EH's dramatic activities, Miss Lavorgna on, in her old-age infirmity, suffers 'shock', sacks nurse, EH preserved from, sends funeral tribute to Cousin Will, and the Hale letters, nursing home sought for, moved into nursing home, where TSE writes to her, suffers stroke, deteriorating, relations with EH, her legacy to EH,
see also Perkinses, the
Pound, Dorothy Shakespear, dines with the Eliots, taken to dinner, TSE bids farewell to, ill and stuck in Rapallo, visited by TSE in Washington,
see also Pounds, the

4.DorothyPound, Dorothy Shakespear Shakespear Pound (1886–1973), artist and book illustrator, married Ezra Pound (whom she met in 1908) in 1914: see Biographical Register.

reading (TSE's), The Road Back, Hay Fever, sermons of Revd Dr William E. Channing, Racine's Bérénice, in general, the Bible, The Witch of Edmonton again, letters of other authors, a life of Mohammed, a life of Calvin, R. S. Wilson's life of Marcion the Heretic, Living My Life, French detective stories, French novels, recent books on economics and finance, the Epistles of St. Paul, The Lady of the Lake, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, never deeply or widely enough, The Scarab Murder Case, translation of Dante, detective stories, Letters of Mrs Gaskell and Charles Eliot Norton, second-rate detective story, disinterestedly, for leisure, Vision of God, Faith of a Moralist, Newman's sermons, Birds of the Countryside, Modern Reader's Bible, The Face of Death, René Bazin's Charles de Foucauld, Charles Petrie's Monarchy, Thurber's My Life and Hard Times, Oliver's Endless Adventure (vol. 3), Madame Sorel's memoirs, book on French policing, detective story for committee, The League of Frightened Men, The Garden Murder Case, The Luck of the Bodkins, The House in Paris, The Life of Charles Gore, Middleton Murry's Shakespeare, Dr Goebbels for book committee, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, MS of German gunman in Chicago, Shakespeare, to replenish, Middlemarch, the Gospel, City of God, St. John of the Cross, psalm or two a day, Ibsen, Twenty Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre, poems submitted to Criterion, My Name is Million, psalms, especially Psalm 130, Edmund Burke, Lives of the Poets, Virgil,
Stott, Sir Philip Sidney,

1.SirStott, Sir Philip Sidney Philip Sidney Stott, 1st Baronet (1858–1937), Lancashire-born architect and civil engineer who specialised in designing mills – and he acquired additional wealth from the shares he retained in the mills that he built. From 1913 he resided at Stanton Court, Gloucs., a Jacobean manor house near Broadway, Worcestershire, and he made benefactions to the local community. He served too as a Justice of the Peace and as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.