[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Your most recent letter is no. 9 of October 18. It would help if you would mention in each letter the number of the last letter received from me, and whether there are any lower numbers not yet to hand: for one likes to know what letters the correspondent did not have before writing. I will do the same. IOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsreception;c9 amBoutwood Lectures (afterwards The Idea of a Christian Society)reception;b4 returningSunderland-Taylor, Alice Maud Marywrites to TSE about books;a7 in a separate envelope the charming and tactful letter from Miss Sutherland-Taylor – together with notes from Belgion and Martin, on my two books respectively, and a cutting from ‘The Catholic Herald’ (A Roman paper): as, in case the censorship starts to operate for American correspondence, the inclusion of enclosures might delay letters. The envelopes of enclosure I shall not number, and shall send by ordinary three halfpenny slow coach.
ISociety of the Sacred Mission, Kelham Hall, NottinghamshireOctober 1939 visit;b9 had a hard-working weekend at Kelham, of course; but had one of the small comfortable guest rooms, with a gas fire and running hot water – not enough to fill my hot water bottle from. Also, the cooking is rather better, though their expanded vegetable growing has not yet borne fruit in the way of greens. They are busily breeding pigs, and have started a herd of sheep as well, though football is still practised, of course – they were having a match on Saturday which I did not attend. IEvery, Georgeat Kelham;b3 hadHerbert, Fr Gabrielat Kelham;a5 a good deal of time with my particular friends, Father Gabriel and Brother George, and the rest had to go to meeting George’s favorite [sic] pupils and classes, giving two poetry readings, and seeing individual students at odd moments. OneChristianityChristendom;b2the Malabar Church;a6 was an Indian Christian from Malabar, voluble like most Indians, who wanted to persuade me (1) that India should be given immediate full Dominion status (2) that the Malabar Church (which has been in existence since the 7th century, so that these Indians have been Christians quite as long as we have) in communion with the Church of Syria, is not guilty of the Monophysite Heresy. He presented me with a copy of their liturgy in English. There was also a Bulgarian deacon who is waiting to get back to Bulgaria, and meanwhile being kept by the community; but he was no trouble, as he can speak nothing but Bulgar, Serbo-Croat, and Russian. Monday I had my committees, andMonro, Alida (née Klementaski);c5 Tuesday dined with Alida Monro, who is now living altogether at Selsea, in some financial difficulty, but still keeping poodles, one of which she had with her.
IHale, Irene (née Baumgras)in Northampton;c3 should think that Aunt Irene was in clover at Northampton, and hardly dare hope that she will ever return to Boston. But if people take to her as you say, it probably makes things easier for you than if they didn’t! and it wouldn’t do her any good not to be liked! IEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)expresses solicitude for EH;a7 had a nice letter from Theresa, still preoccupied with Henry’s operation, which had not yet taken place; but she expressed sympathy with you very tactfully, and I think you have a welcome from her when you next go to Cambridge. I dare say that Theresa is more reserved in the family atmosphere of New England than she would be in Louisville Ky. or New York!
IChristianityorthodoxy;c4authority;a8 have been trying to work out a reply to your question about authority in the Church – which is certainly unreasonable, according to your formulation! – but that is not very simple. I will only say this at the moment: that ‘authority’ in this sense is a different thing from the individual (or even bureaucratic) authority of individuals, andWilliams, CharlesDescent of the Dove;b5 quoteWilliams, Charlesreviewed by TSE;a5 this sentence from Charles Williams’s The Descent of the Dove which I have just been reviewing – for The New Statesman, of all papers: ‘The recognition of authority is the desire for union, but also it is the knowledge that the individual by himself is bound to be wrong’.1
I have a wool shirt – I bought two more this season, as I thought the price was bound to go up – whichHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH buys TSE various ties;e2 goes perfectly with a dark grey suit and the dark red tie you gave me. That is a satisfaction. The two tawny ties I keep for my country tweeds (every weekend lately) and I am having the bright blue wool tie (which was always a shade too bright, you know) died a darker shade and shall wear it in town in the winter.
OurOld Possum’s Book of Practical Catsselling strongly;d1 SalesCrawley, W. J.on Cats' sales;a1 Manager, Mr. Crawley, reports from the booksellers that ‘Cats are giving general satisfaction’ so we are having the rest of the edition bound.
1.Williams, The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church (1939): ch. ii: ‘The Reconciliation with Time’, 38. See TSE’s review: ‘A Lay Theologian’, New Statesman & Nation 18 (9 Dec. 1939), 864, 866: CProse 5, 748–52.
4.GeorgeEvery, George Every, SSM (1909–2003), historian and poet: see Biographical Register.
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.
5.Fr ArthurHerbert, Fr Gabriel Gabriel Hebert, SSM.
3.AlidaMonro, Alida (née Klementaski) Klementaski (1892–1969) married Harold Monro on 27 Mar. 1920: see Alida Monro in Biographical Register.
6.AliceSunderland-Taylor, Alice Maud Mary Maud Mary Sunderland-Taylor (1872–1942), owner of Stamford House, Chipping Campden, which the Perkinses were renting for the season. (Sunderland-Taylor, a spinster and retired schoolteacher from Stamford, Lincolnshire, liked to spend her summers in Yugoslavia.) Edith Perkins wrote from Aban Court Hotel, Harrington Gardens, South Kensington, London, to invite TSE to meet Sunderland-Taylor at dinner on Mon. 29 Nov.
5.CharlesWilliams, Charles Williams (1886–1945), novelist, poet, playwright, writer on religion and theology; biographer; member of the Inklings: see Biographical Register.