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I was considerably bucked to see
your handwriting again this morning, even though only
in pencil, & to hear that there are prospects of your leaping
around in the spring-time like a deer on the mountains.
Now if you only jolly-well take care of yourself you ought
to be jake also for a long time, so see that you do. You
might even take that trip over here before I come back (give
me away in marriage to some nice English girl perhaps)
because by cripes! there are a lot of things I could show you
that you would like. Also a good many you would not
like. By gum! I think you would have your feelings a
good deal less harrowed if you kept away from
I am glad to learn (a) that
though of course I should be a good deal more gladder if
Mallett
you (b) that Auntie is enjoying herself touring the country, though
to be sure if I were less than a year married like
I mightn't stand for aunts coming snooping around & (c) that
there aren't many heights of successful endeavour barred to one
of so many virtues & so much capacity, — so naturally the
only comment I made on reading that item of news this
morning at breakfast was Well, well, where will she stop? &
take another raisin. In answer to your inquiry re
shirts that I washed & dried so successfully & economically, &
that I placed the contract for fo my dress-shirts with the ship's
laundry which did them fairly successfully but not too
economically. Did I tell you of the masterpiece of laundry
work I carried out, washing my white trousers? I think
I did, & although the immortal story would certainly bear telling
again, I don't think I shall do so. As for giving
benefit of my experience, he had better get the
and then I may consider going to the labour of writing out
instructions. I have some difficulty in making out one
or two words in your letter, but I think I have answered
everything calling for answer.
letter that you had a lot of questions to ask me, so I
was quite relieved to find you so tactful. I hope
your next letter will be a bit longer & your general
sense of well-being go on with vast strides. By the way,
I like the contrast between your way &
your letters — yours "49
"49 NZ (does he I think I might
emigrated to
long as yours is pinned to his I suppose I shall always
be able to give it an accurate date.
In answer to
the work in the neck so hard when he wrote, but I dare
say he will have had a Christmas rest before you get this.
You both seem pretty strong on modern history, what with
worse off for books than when I was in
buzz down town & borrow anything expensive whenever
I like & therefore I can't read that sort of stuff; by gum!
though I believe there is a library that lends books, free
too,
them.
anyhow the books get so dirty I wouldn't touch most of
them with a 40
familiar enough with
Anyhow I can buy my books on their day of publication
if I like & that's a darn sight more than you can do. By
the way,
the
I have ever seen, & even at the price
charge for it
27/6 two
Of course the only blokes who got it at that price were
subscribers to the whole series & speculators, who
iately
cove I talked to had four copies in his shop & told me
all about the speculating system. He wanted £4..4 for
his copies. I went back the other day thinking I might
make myself a Christmas present of same — one copy
left £4.10. So I said to myself Nuthin doin. But
if
you barge in & grab it. If so I'll take your
you? If you don't I certainly will —, it is a snorter, miles
better than
square rather squat books. Nothing doing so far in regard
to
bit of a Jew; but I suppose when he comes to take
round for his honeymoon, & and then a family, he will feel
the benefit. Thanks for greetings from
talk
tunity
thanked you for being such good numbers neighbours
& never quarrelled; by gum! look at the parsley &
willow leaves she got for free for old rel rheumatism
or warts or whatever he had. Yes, yes, always the best of
feeling. Glad to hear that
but the
any longer — I've heard the
real dinkum
Temple White
Evidently
for me to hop in in a couple of years. By cripes
I'd like to know who gets the job!
Well, the latest about my work is this:
Sunday 28th: I drag myself away from
this —
the rest of a one-roomed flat is that you can't go upstairs
to work. By the way, I haven't heard anything of the library
lately; is it all fixed up all right now? And also by the
way, talking of
it is the dead spit of you,
saw a better likeness; by gum! it sums you up well.
Well, as for work: I think I came to the point where
time I thought he was going to prove a snag as well. I saw
here (to the
&
Whig party in such and such a period. I said it seemed
pretty juicy, but I had to see
did, & he turned out very decent. He opened up Well,
tell us about it. How did you get into
went back to my earliest educational antecedents. And
then gave me fatherly advice. He turned out to be chairman
of the
in colonial students' requirements, so he said. And he
reckoned that what I needed was the most intensive
ing
knew already) & that the subject of my thesis was relatively
unimportant; but as I was a colonial student, and
be occupying a colonial chair (which I thought entirely
optimistic) the best thing would be to take a colonial
I saw
something in that; & it seems that I am now in the
somewhat peculiar position of preparing to work either
on
18th century. I only hope I shall get some amusement out
of it. I am to read up both colonies till Christmas, &
settle on something definite then; which means a couple
of months wasted in a way, but still I have read some
interesting books. I have got an anti-
so I am not going to his lectures, though the complex doesn't
extend to his books; but I am going to a swag of
with my thesis, whatever it is. He is a good lad. I
must say
better than I was led to expect. I start working at the
tration
college; I was told that the Provost would be rather sorry
to hear that, as I had a letter to him from a personal
friend, didn't
he can go to blazes for all I care. Of course I shall
still be getting le seminars at the institute; so my activities
will be ranging pretty widely, what with lectures here,
there, & elsewhere. I am rather sorry I can't work on the
whigs, but no doubt there is something in training on hard,
basic fact, and then doing what I like, as
tion
good, if only as a whack in the eye for
by the way, goes by the resounding title of Professor Rhodes
Professor of Imperial History in the
he quotes
Outside of all this, I have been doing the normal things,
with a bit of variety in the detail. I find I have developed
another expensive taste, which is your fault,
matter of fact, I think you &
in getting married, or anyhow in having me for a child.
What with your music & furniture & books & china &
books & pictures & so on, I am in a fine old mess — while
if you had married a mechanical engineer I might have been
pulling down thousands now as president of a wireless trust
or something. As it is I am du driven into hand-made
salt-glaze pottery. I was roaming along
in front of the museum after lunch the other day, when I noticed
the sign of an exhibition of same stuck up outside a shop &
I thought Hullo!
thought, I'll just buzz in there & have a look round for 5
minutes. And next day I did. And fell into the hands
of
asked me if I was a potter & complimented me on my
evident taste & told me anecdotes about
of which were nevertheless pretty good. So I gave them a
disquisition on the state of art in the southern hemisphere &
said H'm, I might come back tomorrow & have another look
round. And
with things in front of you, you know. And I said Yes,
I know; good-bye. For the fact was, I was greatly tempted
to spend 27/6 on a stunner jar with a blue glaze on one
side & green on the other; & the more I thought about it the
more I was tempted. And I thought, This is no place for you,
my boy. But naturally I had to pass the place again next
day, so I had a screw through the window at my jar, &
in. I forgot to say it was her I talked to the first day, &
the second time mainly, though they kept on barracking each
other a good deal. He is keener on the glaze, she on form.
They have a small furnace out at
out some time to see the works go round; which I accepted
with thanks. A great lad is
too. Oh yes, I nearly forgot to say I bought the jar. There
was another I wanted to buy for £1..1 too; but I resisted
& told
it.
you'll never stop; & sure enough I have had hankerings after
a lot more of the stuff. So I dare say I shall have quite
a collection of mixed
Stone-ware this stuff is, & jolly good, believe me. Of course
wedding-present. Tell Auntie. But don't go telling off
me for reckless expenditure; it's all your fault, as I have
explained perfectly clearly.
We heard a jolly good lecture in that Fabian series
by one
it was old
number of adorers who rippled as soon as he opened his
mouth. Good stuff, but not extraordinarily out of the common
for him; two or three good jokes too. He is an impressive
old bird, with his white hair & beard, about 7
now, to which we are going next week, with a season of
other plays going on after Christmas, I believe; so that's
all right. I have been to the
going again if I can run to it — & that is another taste I
find very strongly developed in me, thanks to you, or largely
to
forms. Some of it is great stuff, though —
d'un Faune
wise
do you remember how we used to see pictures of all
these in the
want to see the
2/4 going plink. It is really very cheap, & only 2d for a
programme — what do you think of that? One or two of
the principal dancers in the show are about the most
is pretty fair bunk, but on the whole it is all f pretty
good. I also went to
some great music in it, especially the ghost's song, which
is about the best thing I have heard of
& characterisation; but some of the witty conversation of
on me. Not so bad, evidently, as that in
into which
hard in this morning's paper — I will cut it out for you
if I remember. By gum! I think he's quite right too, on
the whole, though I forget what the backchat in
Ida
this year — they are putting on all the series, bar one or
two, for a couple of performances each, so we may be
able to see some more of them. The trouble is that unless
you go and stand in the queue from about 4 in the
noon
I had standing room at the back of the pit both my times,
at 3/-. You can hear everything, though t, the performances
are so good, & see everything except the top of the scenery,
& if you are lucky, lean on the wall at the back of the
seats.
Other shows I have been to were
Mass
annoys me is that whatever you go to you miss something
else which is just about as good; e.g. on Thursday there
was another
of his works, with
no need to pay more than 2/4 for a good seat for the
cheaply enough. I think I mentioned the 8 concerts
the
I haven't been to one yet; though I tried to get in last
Saturday & found only 10/6 seats left — cheapest 3/6. Next
Wednesday is my last chance for them; & suppose
thing
dare say they'll be on again, as they fill their hall so
easily. I think that is all in the way of shows to report.
We have been having pretty
with a real dinkum fog on Thursday — an interesting
thing for the first five minutes, but ghastly after that;
the darn thing nearly chokes you & you spend half the
time in blowing smuts out of your nose. Then in the
middle of it a bloke sticks me up & wants me to buy a
box of soap — nothing to eat since yesterday, ready to drop,
etc etc. The same old yarn. So I buy his soap. The
night before another washed out specimen I could have
knocked out with my little finger pushed matches at
me as I was going into the Institute; I said Well they'll
always come in handy, I suppose; & gave him 2d for
than they're worth, you know" he said. "But I've been
in the infirmary for 15 months, & I don't know what
I'll do if I have to walk round all night". I thought a
bit & then chased after him & asked him how many
more boxes he had & gave him 6d for the last one;
& he just stood & gazed at me as if I had been the
Lord God Almighty. Fair dinkum, when a bloke
gets that low it's time they had a change in the
country. Another white-faced cove sits down in the street
down
& knits kids' caps & socks for a living & a wife & Lord knows
how many children. And up in
of working women got together & signed a petition for
a birth-control clinic or free access to knowledge of
same or something, so
Bishop of Birmingham rose in his blasted episcopal
righteousness & damned the life out of them. You see the
women up there going down the street to buy their food in
nothing but a skirt & a blouse & a blanket, says the same
lad also; while as for the pubs! He has been there for
two years in the G.E.C. on
over to the
has much the same yarn as
lack of organisation & inefficiency, with a good deal
more about graft & faking & so forth. He came over
here a die-hard Tory for his age & goes away looking
in the delightful task of treading on the faces of the miners,
though some of them haven't gone back yet. Oh yes, it's a
stunner country.
One thing I nearly forgot to mention was a visit
last Saturday night to
most brilliant collection of men in
science line; we got the invitation per
a lot of interesting blokes there, civil servants & such like,
also
trade unionist, said
the upper ten of the movement, & very comfortable about
it apparently; so at least the private
full of wiles & diplomacy, but good & hearty withal.
yapping to a Chinese
nity
subsequently got very keen on
sound for the his name & the first half of
now call them Shah I & Shah II.
Well, I seem to have got my letter slightly smaller
this time. I don't think I am going to
Christmas, so when you get this I shall probably be
eating hearty at