[No surviving envelope]
Letter 54? I seem to have missed marking one in my diary.
ICheetham, Revd Erichis testimonial;f5 think I wrote last on the Saturday morning before I went up to London to stop the night with Cheetham. I had a slight cold at the time, which I kept at bay with does [sc. doses] of sero-calcin which supported me over the weekend and the first days of the week, but on my return I took to my bed and the local doctor, a prudent Scot who has attended these minor illnesses locally for these three years, kept me there until into this week. Cheetham took me out to dinner at a restaurant: we went to bed quite early, butSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadin wartime;b3 no sooner were we in bed that [sc. than] there was an alert. At every night alert, he gets up and goes to guard the church, so I got up and went with him – we were joined in the vestry by a couple of stalwart elderly ladies, who get into their raincoats and tin hats always on such occasions – one, I think, to look after the vicar and one after his curate. After half an hour we [were] able to go back to bed, but I don’t suppose it did the cold any good. The next morning, after high mass, I did what I had come to do, which was simply to fetch Cheetham from the vestry andSankey, John, Viscount Sankey;a2 lead him in to hear a complimentary speech from Lord Sankey, who then presented a cheque representing the contributions to his 25th anniversary gift – amounting to the surprising large sum of £500. Sankey made a good speech, and made one really feel moved by Cheetham’s devotion to his church and folk, as well as his business shrewdness in managing its affairs. After lunching with him and the visiting preacher, I'Twenty-Five Years in Gloucester Road';a2 retired to my club, feeling dull and heavy, toChurch Times'Twenty-Five Years at Gloucester Road';b4 try to meditate a report of the ceremony to offer to the ‘Church Times’1 – Cheetham asked me to do this because he said that otherwise Mrs. Raymond would send a report, and he did not trust her good taste! I spent the night at the club, as being more luxurious and offering more prospect of an undisturbed night, and on Monday moved to the flat. OnSt. Anne's Church House, Soho'Culture Class';a4 Monday night I had to take the Culture Class, and my voice nearly disappeared altogether at the end of an hour: so with all this it is no wonder that the cold regained the upper hand.
IMostyn Red Cross ClubTSE's second visit to;a4 am to return to London on Monday as usual. I have to meet some more (or the same, I don’t know) American soldiers at that hostel on Wednesday evening (I wonder if this is legible).
I was rather alarmed by your saying, in your letter of September 27 which is the latest received (they are slow again) that greetings cables were forbidden (as an explanation of the Shakespeare sonnet!) So I wonder whether my cable, which I sent off on October 25, reached you; but I should expect, if it was not passed, that the postoffice would have refused it, or it would have been returned to me by now and the money refunded. Last year my birthday cable was a bit late. I believe that now enclosures are permitted, soNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldinesends TSE birthday cake;a3 I enclose a letter from Meg, which came a few days ago with a remarkable plum-cake, almost equal to the best pre-war, as a delayed birthday cake. She is really an extraordinary girl, exceptionally lovable. I must write to thank her when I finish this.
IHale, Emilyas teacher;w1takes job at Concord Academy;d3 amConcord Academy, Massachusettsappoints EH on temporary basis;a1 glad that the job you have undertaken at Concord is one that you can give up at a moment’s notice when something better turns up,2 for it is certainly a beggarly sum. It seems the sort of work you like, and excel in (you will probably work too hard) and it gives you a reason, though not the proper means, to love [sc. move] away from Boston. And I believe that Concord is still a pleasant place; and the school of high standing. It also is probably easier to get a job when you are in one, than when you are not. ButPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);f5 what worried me particularly was your remarking calmly that your Aunt might very well outlive you. You have said nothing about any chronic malady, or reason for believing that your life would be shortened; yet it is only the presence or suspicion of a lurking danger that made sense out of such a conjecture. For goodness sake let me know at once, and clearly, what you meant by this. It is bad enough to have to wait for perhaps two months for your answer; and I shall not be able to put the question out of my mind until I know.
1.‘Twenty-five Years in Gloucester-Road: Presentation to a Parish Priest’, Church Times, 29 Oct. 1943, 559: CProse 6, 434–5: ‘The first Sunday (October 24) of the dedication festival of St Stephen’s, Gloucester-road, was chosen for the presentation to the vicar, the Rev. E. S. Cheetham, of a gift to which more than four hundred members of his congregation and other friends had contributed. The occasion commemorated Mr Cheetham’s twenty-five years of service in this parish.
‘Lord Sankey, making the presentation after High Mass, paid a moving tribute to Mr Cheetham’s services to the church, the parish and the congregation during these twenty-five years. He congratulated St Stephen’s on the devotion, toil and courage of its vicar, through which it had maintained its daily offices for a large congregation, and its ministrations to individuals, throughout the most difficult period of the war – mentioning also the vicar’s success in preserving the church’s financial stability during this period, and at the same time adding to the endowment fund, for which he has already collected over £6,000.’
2.EH had been appointed to a teaching post in speech training and dramatics (initially temporary) at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts (founded in 1922).
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
1.MargaretNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldine (Meg) Geraldine Nason (1900–86), proprietor of the Bindery tea rooms, Broadway, Worcestershire, whom TSE and EH befriended on visits to Chipping Campden.
1.JohnSankey, John, Viscount Sankey Sankey, Viscount Sankey (1866–1948), Labour politician, was Lord Chancellor, 1929–35. Anglo-Catholic.