[No surviving envelope]
Letter 25.
Your letter of July 3 has just arrived, and gives me much to reflect upon. Two enclosures: the announcement of the birth of a child is certainly an odd piece of facetiousness (which one doesn’t much relish) – IElsmith, Dorothy Olcott;a8 don’t believe I have written to Mrs. Elsmith, but I will try to do so – I have many arrears, I fear, and now while my secretary is away ill, or convalescing, I am typing a good many of my own business letters. TheGwynne, M. Brooke;b3 letter from Moira Gwynne is very pathetic;1 and I don’t like to think of her living alone in a flat in Westminster: IEnglandNottingham, Nottinghamshire;h9dreary;a1 wish that those people had stopped in Nottingham, though it is a dreary enough place to be exiled in. ISeaverns, Helen;e3 wish you could have given me Mrs. Seaverns’ address, as I should like to try to see her: but perhaps a line to the hotel in Buxton will reach her eventually. She is a lonely person, and now without any of her customary supports.
YourHale, Emilytakes short holiday at 'Bleak House';q2 descriptionAmericaPeterborough, New Hampshire;g4visited by EH;a1 of Peterborough (‘Bleak House’) sounds most delightful: I am very sorry that such a restful and happy visit should be so short, and that you should have to return to the oppressiveness of a Boston summer in order to disinter belongings – always, I think, a rather poignant task. However, I suppose that by now you are starting for Manan: I wish that you might have as congenial a friend with you there. I want to know more about your plans after this coming year: but about that, and the rest of your letter, I think I will write again on Thursday or Friday: your letter only came this morning, I am off to London tomorrow, so I haven’t wholly digested it. ThisSecond World Warits effect on TSE;b3 is only to report that I am still sound and well: though this summer, largely because of the very hopeful prospects which keep one on edge, in expectancy of further events, is being more of a strain than any previous season since the autumn of 1940 – which was so very different.
1.Not traced. Moira Brooke Gwynne taught at the Institute of Education, University of London.
4.TSEElsmiths, theseminal Woods Hole stay with;a1Elsmith, Dorothy Olcott
4.M. BrookeGwynne, M. Brooke Gwynne, University of London Institute of Education – ‘a Training College for Graduate students’ – invited TSE on 19 Jan. to participate in their Weds.-morning seminar: ‘Emily Hale suggested that you might possibly consent to come to the Institute to talk to our students; otherwise I should have not felt justified in asking you … The teaching of poetry is the subject most hotly discussed & the subject we should like you to choose if possible.’
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.