[No surviving envelope]
Letter 11.
Your last letter to reach me is of February 20, which seems a long time ago; especially as you still tell of heavy snow storms; andspringat Shamley;b1 last Thursday, when I returned from London, I saw that all the fruit trees, apple and cherry and plum, in the orchard at the bottom of the garden below my window were in full blossom. There was even a sprig of very premature may blooming on the path up to the house. IEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)wishes to take Henry on holiday following illness;d2 had just had a letter from Theresa (whoEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)back in hospital;j1, since Henry’s illness, has taken to writing quite often: now that he is back from hospital, I daren’t write her anything about Henry that I don’t want him to see, so I have to write it to Marion and ask her to convey it to Theresa privately). Poor good soul, she has been wanting to use her savings to provide a trip to Carolina for Henry – she would like Marion to go too – she thinks Marion skimps on herself in order to save up for her nieces, which is certainly in character. TheresaShakespeare, WilliamMeasure for Measure;c1 told of your call, but, although she expressed pleasure in your coming, she is not such a good letter writer as you (neither is Henry, for that matter, his letters are either factual or politics) and did not make the scene so vivid: certainly she made no mention of either Measure for Measure or Dubonnet. IPerkinses, the;l4 was rather ashamed to get a cable from you and the Perkins’s for Easter! It was only my conscience about using the cable for greetings nowadays that had prevented me from anticipating it; but I will return the cable from London, because letters take so long – and I propose to put air mail stamps on this letter again.
I have had a long weekend, with the Easter holidays, but not one in which I have accomplished a good deal. On Good Friday I went to the Mass at the Roman Seminary, which is a very long one; ontravels, trips and plansTSE's May 1945 trip to Paris;f4;a3 Saturday morning I went into Guildford to get my Exit Visa form (for France) stamped at the National Registration Office – you have to exhibit your identity card and food-ration book. The office was not open on Saturday for that purpose, so I had to go in again to-day, and found a window, between one marked POULTRY and another which was concerned with orange juice for babies, where my business was transacted. The official was an elderly woman, pleasant enough; she asked where I was registered for milk, which did not seem to me to have much bearing on a visit to Paris. I said ‘from the cow: I don’t know her name’, so she entered OWN COW. I'Cultural Diversity and European Unity';a3 have made some progress with a speech to the French, but I must try to finish it next weekend, so as to leave time for it to be translated for me.
TheFabers, theaway fishing in Scotland;g9 Fabers are in northern Scotland, where Tom is to have his first experience of trying to angle for salmon. So I have the flat to myself for a fortnight. ISecond World WarV-2 Bombs;f3 am cheered by the prospect of no more bombs, as I should hardly think it likely, now that the Germans are said to be moving out of Holland, that they would stop long enough in one place to do very much more with them, even if they have the materials to make them out of. It would seem wonderful to sleep in London in perfect security. I dare say there will be a few raids before they are quite finished; but it seems likely that this particular pest will be ended; and at least, with a raid, you know when it is coming. ICheetham, Revd Eric;f9 am thinking of taking a bed sitting room from Father Cheetham again, as an interim step to finding a permanent abode (andHayward, Johnpossible post-war housemate;l5 my only chance of settling, for several years, will be sharing with John, because he has enough furniture for two, and I don’t suppose I shall be able to buy any for a long time). I can do with that, as I shall have my room at the Russell Square flat still to work in. TheShamley Wood, Surreyhis situation as paying guest;a2 point is that it would make it possible for me to be more than three nights a week in town, and I want to be more independent of the Mirrlees household. There seems no prospect of their getting any more indoor servants in the near future. It isn’t that they want me to leave; and the servants say I am no trouble. TheShamley Wood, Surreyits melodramas;b2 oddity of theMoncrieff, Constance ('Cocky')peremptory presence at Shamley;b8 situation is due partly to Cockie. She has been for some time at a hotel at Weston-super-Mare, and they don’t want her to come back; and if she did, Jimmy and Hetty would be in open rebellion – for she is an old lady who has not the tact to treat other people’s servants otherwise than as if they were her own, and as if their first duty was to look after her. I suspected strongly that Cockie feels a grievance that they should not want her back, but should continue to have me; soMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff);f2 I suggested to Mappie that if I arrange to be more in town, she could say that I was only there at the weekends, which might mollify her sister. To this she rejoined that that would not help at all; because if I was at Shamley less, Cockie would see no reason at all why she should not return (‘Cockie thinks she is no trouble to anybody’, she added). So I felt rather like a pawn in a family game. If I switch over, then I shall stay four nights a week in town, I think, and do most of my work there. This will be a preliminary to the final change.
You seem to do a great deal when you come in to Boston, I hope you do not over do yourself; but Theresa spoke of your looking remarkably well. IHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9Dear Brutus;b1 can understand your mixed feelings at the end of ‘Dear Brutus’, though I do not believe that you have finished your career in producing – wherever you are you will be enlisted to run some amateur theatricals.
IFoss, Sally;a1 will try to find for your Miss Foss1 an old book such as you describe: but, in the first place, second hand books (if one is looking for any particular kind of book) are almost as scarce as new books; and second, I must wait for a chance to take a couple of hours off to look about. I gather that the book should be 100 years or more old.
IpoetryTSE's defended from EH's charge of 'futility';c3 am much interested by your finding my poetry expressive of ‘futility’, especially because I cannot understand this at all! I should have thought that it might be said of what I wrote up to 1926, but that it was increasingly inapplicable to everything since. Both my plays, surely, are hopeful ones: you can’t call them tragedies. ItLittle Giddingends hopefully;c3 is true that I have not yet written any poem around the theme of the Resurrection; but surely the Pentecostal theme of ‘Little Gidding’ ends with the Christian hope. ItChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1TSE's struggle for;b5 is true that I think of this life as yielding no permanent satisfaction, and of this world as a temporary abode on the way to the future state of salvation or the reverse: but that is surely orthodox enough. It is true that I am not naturally of a sanguine disposition, and I have enough Calvinism left in me to understand the delusions of Cowper: but I do think that I have made some progress towards the Christian virtue of hope, by (to some extent) hard work! I should like to be clearer as to what represents, for you, the opposite of futility? Well, this letter is long enough, I think, but I missed last week.
IBrocklebank, Lt.-Col. Richard Hugh Roydshis catalogue of paintings;a1 have just had a letter from Col. Brocklebank. He says he wrote to you care of the Perkins’s but got no reply. The poor wee man is still pining to get his catalogue of paintings published, and asks about an American firm I never heard of. I expect this will involve me in a long correspondence; and I have so many correspondents already. And we haven’t yet been able to find another secretary, so I have to type a good number of my business letters myself.
1.SallyFoss, Sally Foss, a student at Concord Academy.
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.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
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.