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I have just time to write before going to Salisbury for a weekend with the Richmonds. IRichmond, BruceTSE's obligation to;b1 have not the slightest desire to go, except as an act of piety to an old friend to whom I owe a great deal twentyfive years ago: but the weather is fine and almost hot, and I dare say I shall enjoy it after I get there. Or rather, after tonight, forRichmond, Elena;a4 after I had accepted the invitation (not having seen them for nearly two years) Lady Richmond (rather unfairly, I think) engaged me to address a joint meeting of the Religious Drama Society and the Poetry Society tonight at the Deanery. I expressed the hope that it would be a small gathering, and was told it would be – only the members of the societies, numbering about 80. But I learn from another source that the sixth form of the Godolphin (girls’) School is to be there, so no doubt the sixth form of the Bishop Wordsworth School, and probably the choir boys, will be there too. All'Poetry in the Theatre'revamped for Salisbury audience;a2 I can do for them is to re-warm an address on poetic drama which I wrote for Sweden, which now looks somewhat stale. In reading an old paper I am apt suddenly to come across some statement which I now disagree with.
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1946 summer in America;f9paperwork for;a2 am preparing my application for transit facilities to America. ItFaber, Geoffrey;k4 has to be signed by Faber, stamped by the bank (and I forgot to ask whether that meant my bank or the firm’s bank) then returned to Cook’s, who forward it to the Department of Overseas Trade; and if it comes back with their approval, I then proceed to apply for an American visa. When the visa is secured I can ask Cook’s to apply for a passage. My only fear is that all this may not be through in time to get a passage so as to do business in New York before people start going away for the summer. In that event it would have to be September. It looks as if the money allowed should be ample, but I am afraid that New York is now very expensive.
Welcome as your last letter was, I am equally anxious for the next, as I think that after the strain you have been through, and then the production of the play, you may feel very exhausted when the vacation starts. (I never know when that date is – no, it began on March 22, so you are already have [sc. half] through it). I fear that the two weeks you get are all too little, and that you will find the last term very tiring indeed. So you should really aim at a good summer holiday this year, whatever your plans for after that may be. I shall of course cable you when I know the approximate date of sailing.
11.GeoffreyFaber, Geoffrey Faber (1889–1961), publisher and poet: see Biographical Register.
3.BruceRichmond, Bruce Richmond (1871–1964), editor of the TLS, 1902–37.