[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
The Queen Mary seems to be a very hard-working boat, as your letter of the 7th arrived this morning, and I must write at once to catch her return journey. TheHale, Emilyphotographs of;w7;d4 photograph was appreciated – it doesn’t look that old! but it does look thin. I am sorry to hear that you have had complicated dentistry, on top of the usual end of term activities; and I suppose that the next fortnight will be pretty busy too. Well, I shall expect you on the New Amsterdam on the 8th, for two or three nights in London; and will try to clear these rooms for you so that they will be at least tolerable.
TheUniversity of Cambridgeconfers honorary degree on TSE;a7 day at Cambridge passed off very well, and I did not have to make any speech: LordMaugham, Frederic, 1st Viscount of Hartfield;a1 MaughamEden, Anthonyat TSE's Cambridge degree ceremony;a21 and Mr. Eden attended to that, one at the lunch at Trinity Hall, and the other at dinner at Trinity. (I was not greatly impressed by Eden, and am inclined to think that he is better out of the way. I felt that he was rather conceited, and not highly intelligent; and his speech was hardly worthy of a professional diplomat – it was not only quite empty, but struck the wrong note for an audience of university dons. The situation was a little awkward anyway, as he had been offered the degree before his resignation from the foreign office: but as the public did not know that, the university people were afraid that their giving him the degree might appear to have some political significance. And he did not help them out with his speech). The Senate House ceremony is just about the right length, andEdinburgh Universityconfers honorary degree on TSE;a1 is not filled out with any of the singing and undergraduate boisterousness that you remember at Edinburgh. The only degrees given on this occasion were those to the seven honorary doctors. You stand in turn facing the Chancellor (Baldwin) while the Public Orator makes a speech about you in Latin; after which the Chancellor takes you by the hand and pronounces the short Latin formula of reception. I sent you some of the papers.
ITandys, theTSE's Hampton weekends with;a1 had to spend last weekend with the Tandys, andDobrées, thevisited in Leeds;b1 nextEnglandLeeds, Yorkshire;g5the Dobrées visited in;a4 Saturday must go to Leeds to spend the weekend with the Dobrées – a necessary visit which I have not yet made. AfterUniversity of Bristolhonorary degree in the offing;a1 thatInternational Theatre Congress, Stratford-upon-Avon;a3 I'Future of Poetic Drama, The';a3 do not have to go away until I go to Bristol on the 2nd July, and Stratford on the 5th. NothingLiterary Society, The;a8 specialGaselee, Sir Stephenat the Literary Society;a2 thisDarwin, Bernardat The Literary Society;a1 week – Literary Society last night – talked to Gaselee and Bernard Darwin – thisWallop, Gerard, Viscount Lymington (later 9th Earl of Portsmouth)discusses agriculture;a3 afternoon Lymington comes to tea to talk about the agricultural situation, andAll Souls Club, The;b2 tonight the annual Guest Night of the All Souls Club at the Reform. TedSpencer, Theodore;c4 Spencer has turned up in London, and I may have to dine with him tomorrow.
And on Saturday morning we had an earthquake.2 I was relieved to find that it was an earthquake, because my first thought was that the underground must have been disturbing the foundations, and I wondered whether the whole of Emperor’s Gate might not have to be evacuated.
I am most anxious that you should really rest this summer. I note what you say about American visitors. DodoSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)1938 visit to England;b9;a3 willSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece)coming over with Dodo;b1 not need much looking after, as she will be about with her step-sister most of the time. WhatHale, Irene (née Baumgras);b9 I must do at the moment is to try to see Mrs Hale.
1.FredericMaugham, Frederic, 1st Viscount of Hartfield Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham of Hartfield (1866–1958), barrister; Lord Chancellor, Mar. 1938–Sept. 1939.
2.At 11.59 a.m. (GMT), 11 June, a severe earthquake occurred in north-west Europe, centring in Holland and Belgium: the shock-waves were felt even in London and south-east England.
1.TheEden, Anthony Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden, MC, MP (1897–1977), Conservative politician; Foreign Secretary, 1940–5; Prime Minister, 1955–7. Appointed to the Order of the Garter, 1954; raised to the peerage as Earl of Avon, 1961.
4.SirGaselee, Sir Stephen Stephen Gaselee (1882–1943), librarian, bibliographer, classical scholar; Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Pepys Librarian, 1909–19; Librarian and Keeper of the Foreign Office from 1920; President of the Bibliographical Society, 1932; Hon. Librarian of the Athenaeum Club; President of the Classical Association, 1939; Fellow of the British Academy, 1939. Works include The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse (1928); obituary in The Times, 17 June 1943, 7.
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.
1.FredericMaugham, Frederic, 1st Viscount of Hartfield Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham of Hartfield (1866–1958), barrister; Lord Chancellor, Mar. 1938–Sept. 1939.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.
2.TheodoreSpencer, Theodore Spencer (1902–48), writer, poet and critic, taught at Harvard, 1927–49: see Biographical Register.
6.GerardWallop, Gerard, Viscount Lymington (later 9th Earl of Portsmouth) Wallop (1898–1984), farmer, landowner (Fairleigh House, Farleigh Wallop, Basingstoke), politician, writer on agricultural topics, was Viscount Lymington, 1925–43, before succeeding his father as 9th Earl of Portsmouth. Conservative Member of Parliament for Basingstoke, 1929–34. Active through the 1930s in the organic husbandry movement, and, in right-wing politics, he edited New Pioneer, 1938–40. Works include Famine in England (1938); Alternative to Death (F&F, 1943). See Philip Conford, ‘Organic Society: Agriculture and Radical Politics in the Career of Gerard Wallop, Ninth Earl of Portsmouth (1898–1984)’, The Agricultural History Review 53: 1 (2005), 78–96; Craig Raine, T. S. Eliot (Oxford, 2006), 190–4; and Jeremy Diaper, T. S. Eliot and Organicism (Clemson, S. C., 2018).