London W.C.1
17/11/27
but it is a perfect example.
My dear Mummy,
I am apprehensive the mail may close
tomorrow
being Tuesday instead of Friday, or rather that there may be
no
supplementary mail on Friday, that being the one I usually
catch,
so I cut London Ronald & [unclear: Suggia] &
Schubert in [unclear: C] & Debussy
to make sure of getting something written to you. Greater
love hath
no son for his Mother. Though now that I am safe inside I
am
greatly tempted to relapse into the arm-chair & continue
with
Keats' Letters, which which I am reading now. No doubt you
have
read them several times, but no doubt also it would do
you
good to read them again; so if it is not [unclear: infra
dig]for you
to take my advice, I think you had better do so. You
give
a formidable list of books you have read, apparently in a
week;
though as the list includes both Nicholas Nickleby &
Dombey &
Son that seems a tall order for a week even for you. I
should
just like to know, à propos of some more of your
advice, how
you expect me to read Dickens while I am in London? —
I
thought I had explained at considerable length that apart
from
the world's worsh books on history I read about one book
a
month — & that a lot smaller than
[gap — reason: unclear] anything your Dickens
ever succeeded in writing. Anyhow I reckon Dickens is a
back number, & any up to date cove with vision & the
modern
spirit would tell you the same. Sentimental —
long-winded.
page 2
Preposterous. Never thought much of him myself. I much
prefer
the Sitwell family. However you are able to work a point
on
me: you can fill up 7 5½ lines with the
blooming books you've
read & then sink back & think you've done a good
days' work,
while I've got to fill up my five lines all out of my
own
head. I see you have been doing a bit of psychology,
normal
& abnormal — why don't you read a bit of history
for a change
& get an idea where you stand in time as well as in
mentality.
Have you finished that Gibbon yet? That's what I want
to
see you getting into. But I suppose that by the time
you
get this you will be up & running round town again &
saying
you haven't got any time for reading anyhow. As a matter
of
fact, I don't trust you myself — I shouldn't be
surprised if
you just made up that list out of your head, to prove
what
could be done without proper supervision. A good thing
you
don't have to make a statutory declaration, or it might be
all
up with you. And by cripes! I shouldn't have any
sympathy
for you. I always did think you wanted careful watching.
I note your disapproval of de K's wearing my
blazer & your
phrase “false colours”. False or not he wore a
lot of them, because
he had on a pair of light khaki shorts & bright red
stockings,
remanant of a football team, as well — a ghastly
sight. All the
Germans in the Black Forest turned round &
guffawed. As
for Auntie Em's question about the postcards, I don't quite
know
whether they are yours absolutely or in trust for me; but
anyhow
don't go giving any of them away to stray aunts or ½
aunts.
page 3
I now come to Daddy's portion of the letter. I see you
generally
make him start first now & write ¾ of it. I
thought I should
have sent out a good many more snaps long ago, but in
spite
of the fact that I have handed over mine & have made
suggestions
ranging from pointed hints to plain demands to my
compan-
ions, they continue to do nothing in the matter of
forking
out cop the copies I have
ordered of their photos. They speak
me fair words, but do nothing more. Write to the Post
&
say that the only really honest people in the world are
New
Zealanders. They're dead sure to publish anything like
that.
I am glad Daddy liked the Blake Blake. And that
reminds
me — in [unclear: re] the book on your cobber
H. Walpole I sent you
for Christmas. I am of course not labouring under the
delusion
that it will tell you anything you don't know about a
friend
so intimate; but I thought, Well, they say it is a good
book,
& it may interest one keen & penetrating feminine
mind to see
how what knows so well appeals to another. So I hope
you
won't chuck it into the fire indignantly before you have
read
even as far as the title-page. — The Molesworth
arrived as
good as new, thank you — it was all right sending it
here. I
believe I asked for it to be sent to the Institute because
we
had arrived at one of our periodical spasms of thinking
of
moving out of this place into a flat or some such
idea. How-
ever Daddy needn't be so apologetic about it. I
think I
have exhausted any remarks I ever had to make on the
subject
of night-work — obviously if neither of you give a
darn what
page 4
the doctor says, it's no use my praying for you, or
cursing
you, as far as that goes.
[Interlude: Now it looks to me as if the gas
is going out; & it
was only last night at 12.30 that I put a bob in the meter
&
the thing hasn't been used since, unless by that
confounded
Jew Miss Hawkins. I'll say the [unclear: fas loy]
are a mean lot of
swp swipes anyhow]
Erin's thesis seems to be a verbose blooming
thing. No use
trying to impress me with theses. I live in [gap — reason: unclear] an atmosphere of
the
darned things & they only make me feel slightly sick. I
finished
the second draft of my introduction the other day & of
that
I am sick to death. I suppose I shall have to write it
all
over again some time. I think I must learn to play on
Duncan's typewriter; I'll have to buy one soon too —
£14../4
for a portable Corona — life is one darn cheque
after
another. It was painful to fork out £22.1 for
another
year's fees, espically as you get practically nothing for
it
at all. As far as fees go, in the States you can do a
whole PhD on 20 guineas — here, counting various [unclear: drib-
lets], this to the University, this to
King's, that somewhere else, it's
nearer £100. Thank God I had a bit of cash of my
own,
or it's precious few concerts I should have been
to. It's
about time that the Univ of
N.Z. woke up to the fact
that from
⅕ to ¼ of their travelling schols goes in fees which is to
a
large extent just money chucked away.
Thanks for the Historical Assn circular. The
usual
page 5
sort of people seem to be running it. I don't know two or
three
of them. P.J. Smith is a funny sort of cove to have for
Sec
& Treasurer. I'm willing to bet he'll never get through
a
degree of any kind — he's too keen on improving his
mind.
F.P. will of course do his best to smash the thing up
by
sitting among the girls & grinning; or he may even
lecture,
which would be worse. He gives me a bad taste in the
mouth. However it is an excellent idea to finish up the
meetings with supper. If it was in the Women's Common
Room Daddy was treading on holy ground — that was
where the Stud
Ass farewelled me with many rhap-
sodies over my virtues & made me a present of
that singu-
larly ill-fated blazer. I think by the way I'll
send it
back & ask for a new one.
You might tell Frannie I don't approve of her
abandoning
her husband for the delights of Wanganui, which is a dan-
gerous place for an unattached girl. I admit it
would be a
distinct relief to get away from K for a bit, indeed I
wonder that she has been able to stand it for so long; but
I
warned her about that before she left England, she may remem-
ber. For better or worse, so runs the sacred words,
or to
that effect, & if she didn't percieve before she leapt
in that
it would be a pretty poor life is it a Christian thing
to
try & sneak out by the backdoor now? I ask her, as
man
& woman, as brother & sister. But I don't suppose
I'll get
an answer. She never even seems to think a cove is
worth
page 6
writing to. Sniff! Sniff! It's a hard life.
Wotcher getting at, calling me cynical? Daddy
this
time. The amount of abuse I get flung at my head is aston-
ishing. Here is a cove, 13000 miles away, asks a
polite question
& he gets accused of general cynicism, of writing pages
of cyn-
ical remarks & so on & so forth. This is as
bad as marking
papers at V.U.C. again. A more painfully
well—meaning,
transperently honest cove I never did meet, & yet even
his
family turns on him & rends him. Oh God! as the
immortal
Tom Bracken so exquisitely & inevitably says Oh God!
that
men would see a little clearer Or judge less harshly when
they
cannot see Oh God! that men would draw a little nearer
To one another they'd be nearer thee And
understand. That
book of NZ verse has that FP gave me has been a
real godsend —
that & Duncan's Sentimental Bloke, we read the SB, Not
Under-
stood & one or two others out to all our
visitors & they roar with
laughter. Personally I think Not Understood knocks
Gray's
overrated Elegy well into the discard.
Well, well, to get away from the poets to
saner matters. I
went to two dud lectures last week, the
[unclear: Leighten] lecture by
Grant Robertson, Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Univ, on History
& Citizenship, for one. He started out well, but
[gap — reason: unclear] went to
the pack soon after. I gathered he had one or two great
ideas
lost somewhere; but he got in more words to the square
minute, arranged in more, & more complicated
metaphors,
than I've ever run into before. The other was a thing
page 7
by Gooch on Liberty, for school-teachers & such luck, I
afterwards
found, & pre-digested pap it was. However optimistic
as
ever — optimism is my disease, not cynicism — I
am
going to hear Philip Guedalle tomorrow On Writing
History.
Not that he can tell me much, but still he might make
one or two jokes, & to quote Daddy's words, a man
has
got to pick up his amusement where he can these days.
I only went to two concerts last week — the last of
the
Léver series, César Franck, Ravel, &
Debussy, all first rate;
& a choral concert, the Royal Choral Society in
Brahms'
Requiem & Gustav Holsts' Hymn of Jesus. I was a bit
disap-
pointed in the Brahms — it struck me as being
a glorified
Anglican anthem more than anything else. However appar-
ently its' [sic: it's] not, & all
the papers said it was a pretty poor
performance owing to the fog which filled the Hall
(Albert)
& various other misfortunes. But the Holst was great
stuff.
He conducted it himself. He has two choruses
sub-divided
& a smaller sub-chorus of women's voice, a very big
or-
chestra, & uses a whole tone scale. There is a
terrific
sweep in it — it pictures a sort of early Xian ritual
dance; words from some apocryphal gospel of St.
John. There are too many darned concerts this week,
though, about 3 a night. London String Quartet is
giving all Beethoven's quartets through the week. Opera
at
Golder's Green — B.N.O.C. I suppose you have heard
ab
about Beecham's great opera scheme? I should be in it
all
page 8
right if I were going to be here for 5 years. It doesn't
seem
to be going too well, all the same. The English are a
pitiful
lot of chumps. Then the Berlin Symphony Orchestra is
playing
on Friday & Sunday. There are about 18 smaller
concerts.
This means doing precious little work at nights, while
the
only nights you can shake free you have to spend in
writing
letters. I see my thesis going in about 1930.
29/11/27 Shore enough — no mail on
Friday. So I have to
take the afternoon off to get up to date. The weather is
filthier
than ever. It is dark enough in the morning normally; but
just
as I put on my coat to leave the day turned pitch-dark sudden-
ly & completely, with the further fog the
faithful & unerring Times
predicted. The combination of fog & thick rain is juicy,
I'll
tell you. Lucky the fog was gone by lunch time but the
rain
still pours down. My mind goes back to the bird who yapped
to
me on the Osterley as we tied up at Filbury "Yes" says this
bird,
"the more I travel the more I like the English
climate. You're
lucky to have such a fine afternoon to arrive here". It
wasn't quite as bad as this afternoon.
I went to Laski's on Sunday afternoon &
heard some
pretty good yarns — one or two of them slightly
touched up since
I heard them last. He has some some good books that
cove. Did I
ever tell you how he picked up a copy of Quarles'
Divine
(Moral!) Emblems on the Farringdon Road for 3/6, took it
straight
along to some place like Quaritch's & got £30 for
it & a set of
the D.N.B & a set of 17th century things he wanted?
He
page 9
seems to have a flair that way. He had a good set of
tutors
at Oxford — Dicey, Fisher, & Barker — what
more could a
man ask for? Unfortunately there was a repulsive S.
African there who yapped the whole time & Laski was
too
polite to stoush him publicly. Heard a lot of other yarns
too,
but it would take too long to write them out.
The Sunday before I was invited out with some
others,
the usual two or three, to the Crumps, Helen Josephine
Crump being a fat girl who has taken Roo's place as assist.
librarian & office boy at the Institute, Father Crump
the
celebrated mediaevalist who edited the Legacy of the
Middle
Ages, & Mother Crump something or other historical.
My dear, too English, as you might
say. Old Crump
has retired from the P.R.O. where he was assistant keeper
of the Records; he has a Victorian beard & wheezes &
thinks
up allegedly funny academic stories when he can get
a word past Crumpie [gap — reason: unclear] (i.e Miss H.J.)
& Ma Crump.
Helen Allen not being their [sic: there], they
were all free to give their
uncensored impressions of America, where they all, so I
understand, made a great impression themselves. I
played
the pianer & was invited nay pressed to go again,
&
on Xmas day if I had
now relatives to make myself a
nuisance to. Charming people, after visiting whom, as
H.A. says, you appreciate Jane Austen a great deal
better.
I stop with love & best wishes for a Bright &
Prosperous New
Year.
Your affect. son
Jack
P.S. By the way, Auntie's Hankey was from Brussels.