[No surviving envelope]
Letter 32.
IEnglandChichester, West Sussex;d9'The Church and the Artist';a4 resume after more than ten days. After'Church and the Artist, The' Conference, Chichesteroccasion recounted;a2 the weekend in Chichester I went on to London, and then back to Shamley for two nights, but was engaged with one or two rather difficult and urgent business letters which required careful drafting. (TheBell, George, Bishop of Chichester (earlier Dean of Canterbury)convenes 'The Church and the Artist' conference;b8 weekend was rather more agreeable than most conferences, as it was not all ‘church’ people, but several whom I knew in quite different contexts – it was a conference on Religion and Art. TheSayers, Dorothy L.at Bishop Bell's conference;a7 party included Miss Dorothy L. Sayers, however, who never misses an opportunity to bring in the Art of drama, or the Art of detective fiction, poor soul, and talks far more than her share. I do not get the impression that all people connected with art, any more than people connected with the stage, love each other warmly.1 It was very pleasant to be in Chichester, the Ship Hotel was very comfortable, and the Bishop is a pet. End of parenthesis. IAssociation of Bookmen of Swansea and West Walesitinerary for TSE's address to;a4 am off to Swansea tomorrow, with a packet of sandwiches for my lunch, aiming to arrive at Paddington at least one hour before the departure of the train, as even people like yourself would do nowadays. ArriveThomas, W. D.;a1 at Swansea soon after 7, if fortunate, to be received by Professor Thomas2 of the English Department of the local university. (I must try to get a new typing ribbon this week; I know this is going to be hard to read). The Mayor of Swansea, I believe, in the chair: somebody will have prepared a note for him saying who I am and what I do. After this, I return to London on Wednesday. TwoBooks Across the SeaAGM;a4 further ardours; the Annual Meeting of the Books Across the Sea (presidential'Helping Children to Know the World';a1 address, informal) on Oct. 9,3 andVirgil Society, TheTSE's Presidental Address for;a3 the Annual Meeting of the Virgil Society (presidentialWhat is a Classic?;a6 address, formal) on Oct. 14.4 After that I cease to have any responsibility for the Virgil Society, but I fear B.A.S. will hang round my neck for another year.
TheMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff)dreams of leaving Shamley;e5 prospects are for one more winter in Shamley. Mrs. M. can’t possibly move until the spring, and has been hesitating over another house in the country (smaller estate, and more accessible, are what she wants) or waiting to see if it [is] possible to live on the Riviera. IMoncrieff, Constance ('Cocky')dreams of returning to Pau;b6 doubt if it will be possible for English people to go to France to live for a long time to come, but I would not tell her sister Cockie this, as she is counting the imaginary hours until she can get back to her flat in Pau. AnywayHayward, Johnforeseeably at Merton Hall;l7, it is much better for John to stop at Merton Hall until the spring; andEnglandLondon;h1in wartime;d4 it is not going to be easy, I fear, to find suitable accommodation at a reasonable rent in London: with 900,000 houses, as is announced, badly damaged by fly-bombs in greater London, the housing shortage is going to be acute. ByMrs Millington (the blind masseuse)works on TSE's writers' cramp;a1 the way, I have started a course of treatment for writer’s cramp, on my right hand and arm, withFaber, Geoffreyrecommends blind masseuse to TSE;k1 the Fabers’ masseuse, a blind woman in Bush House, whom they swear by.5 She seems excellent. She has put me on to taking sanatogen and glucose, as she says that I use up my internal sugar too fast, and don’t eat enough sugar. Some day I may be able to write you a legible letter in long hand. IBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara');a6 enclose a touching letter from Mrs. Brocklebank: it is rather a surprise to get an acknowledgement so many months after I wrote to her. ISeaverns, Helen;e6 have heard nothing from Mrs. Seaverns, andFowler-Seaverns, James;a5 keep meaning to look up Jim’s firm, but I don’t know the exact name, and there must be many firms of the name of Fowler.
IKnowles, Sylvia HathawayEH summers with;a6 have yourHale, Emilyvisits New Bedford;q5 letterAmericaNew Bedford, Massachusetts;f8EH's holidays in;a1 from New Bedford: Mrs. Knowles’s always sounds a particularly restful and serene place. I have never visited New Bedford, or seen most of my numerous relatives there. There was a Bobby Knowles at school with me, with a squeaky voice so that he always was a comic housemaid in the school play, who married Amy Thorpe I think. You have now got well started at Concord. I wish you could send me snapshots of your dwelling, of the school, and even of yourself! unless photographic film is as unobtainable in the U.S. as it is in England. I have just REFUSED an invitation: to speak in Edinburgh in November. I shall begin telling you of the invitations I refuse, in the hope of convincing you that I have some character. TheAssociation of Bookmen of Swansea and West Walesengagement undertaken at GCF's instance;a5 Swansea acceptance was to gratify Faber. I shall be thankful to be back from there. I missed hearing of Lady Adam Smith’s book: if I had seen it, and knew you would like to see it, I should have sent it to you. TheFour QuartetsEnglish edition of;a7 nextHarcourt, Brace & Co.which they print disappointingly;a6 book I send will probably be the edition of 4 quartets, much nicer than Harcourt’s, in spite of our paper difficulties.6 WaitingSecond World WarOperation Market Garden;e7 anxiously for news of the airborne troops at Arnhem.7 Shamley is very quiet: no flybombs andMirrlees, Hope;c5 Hope is rusticating at Battle. One of the nuisances of travel is having to take supplies, butter, sugar, tea etc. with one, and of course soap.
1.TSE'Church and the Artist, The' Conference, Chichesteroccasion recounted;a2 to Hayward, 24 Sept. 1944: ‘The last weekend was spent at Chichester, at a conference of the Bishop’s, which at least had the interest of bringing together an odder collection of people than most of my conferences. TheMoore, Henryat Bishop Bell's conference;a3n combinationGrant, Duncanat Bishop Bell's conference;a4n ofD'Arcy, Fr Martinat Bishop Bell's conference;b4n Henry Moore, Duncan Grant, those rather dreary people Eric Newton and his wife Stella Mary, Mr. Edward Maufe (né Muff, I am told by a gossip) the architect of Guildford Cathedral, Father D’Arcy, those two sinister looking figures Mr. Charles Tennyson and Mr. Finnemore, with a few odd clerics including the genial dean of Chichester (who refreshed Eric Maclagan and myself with a bottle of very potable Pouilly Fuissé in between sessions), some vaguer architects and archaeologists, and of course Miss Dorothy L. Sayers who will make the Art of the Drama à propos to everything. I think that animosities between artists are fiercer than those between men of letters, and second only to those of actors.’
2.ProfessorThomas, W. D. W. D. Thomas.
3.‘Helping Children to Know the World’ (report of TSE’s address), The Times, 10 Oct. 1944, 2: CProse 6, 788–9.
4.What is a Classic?
5.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffreyrecommends blind masseuse to TSE;k1 Faber to H. C. O’Neill, 15 July 1940, of Mrs Millington: ‘She is a blind masseuse whose administrations have made all the difference to me and to others. I would trust her far and away ahead of any doctor I have ever had. She is a very charming person, something over forty. Her charge is a guinea an hour; but she reduces this to 15s. 9d. for a series of visits. Lumbago is one of her specialities, and she has all the necessary electrical equipment, if that should be needed. But her marvellous skill is in diagnosis and in manipulation, and what she calls “drainage”, which means coaxing the poison or debris of rheumatic accumulations the way that they ought to go. She does not visit patients in their homes; you have to go to her.’
6.The Faber edition of Four Quartets (6,000 copies) was published on 31 Oct. 1944.
7.As part of Operation Market Garden, designed to secure the advance of the Allies from France and Belgium beyond the Netherlands and into the Ruhr, 17–26 Sept. 1944, Allied airborne forces attempted to capture a major bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. Poor plans and preparations, and faulty intelligence assessments, meant that the attack failed, with heavy casualties.
4.RtBell, George, Bishop of Chichester (earlier Dean of Canterbury) Revd George Bell, DD (1883–1958), Bishop of Chichester, 1929–58: see Biographical Register.
2.CharlotteBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara') Carissima (‘Cara’) Brocklebank (1885–1948), only surviving daughter of Gen. Sir Bindon and Lady Blood, married in 1910 Lt.-Col. Richard Hugh Royds Brocklebank, DSO (1881–1965). They lived at 18 Hyde Park Square, London W.2, and at Alveston House, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire: see Biographical Register.
3.MartinD'Arcy, Fr Martin D’Arcy (1888–1976), Jesuit priest and theologian: see Biographical Register.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
1.JamesFowler-Seaverns, James Fowler-Seaverns, adopted son of Joel and Helen Seaverns. TSE to Theodore Spencer, 9 Nov. 1938: ‘You may be presented within a month or two with a letter of introduction from me for a man named Jim Fowler, or he may call himself James Fowler Seaverns. He is a very nice lad (Harrow and Magdalene) not a bit literary, runs a business in London and Australia which has some mysterious connexion with Needham, Mass. Amongst other things he is marketing the Iron Lung. He has adoptive parents from Portland Maine but has never been in America before. He married a girl named Roper who is some collateral of St. Thos. More, she died this summer, and he is a widower with two small children. You will find him a nice innocent fellow who will appreciate anything convivial.’
1.DuncanGrant, Duncan Grant (1885–1978), artist and designer; lover of Vanessa Bell and David Garnett.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
2.SylviaKnowles, Sylvia Hathaway Hathaway Knowles (1891–1979), of New Bedford, Mass. – a descendant of a long-established merchant and business family based there – was a friend and room-mate of EH from their schooldays at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Vermont.
3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – see Biographical Register.
2.HopeMirrlees, Hope Mirrlees (1887–1978), British poet, novelist, translator and biographer, was to become a close friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
4.HenryMoore, Henry Moore (1898–1986), renowned British sculptor; sponsored by Kenneth Clark.
1.DorothySayers, Dorothy L. L. Sayers (1893–1957), crime writer, playwright, translator, essayist: see Biographical Register.
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.