2110-3-10-4

obviously they are not the same you refer to for Naso seems to have more part in them than Maro.

CHECKENDON COVRT, CHECKENDON, READING.

8 May 1921

Dear John,

re Ambros. Sanct. Prax., as the solicitors have it.

Yours of the 3d to hand & contents noted.

This matter, however, cannot be left where it is. There are ramifications wh. may lead to publicity & much scandal of religion, should any of your dissenters happen to get hold of the Documents wh. are flying about.

The fact is that Ambrose, during his recent visit, was a bit above himself - we all noticed it. He had the fury of scribbling,

& my waste paper basket, on the morning after his departure, was piled high with fragments & fractions of sheets & half sheets in the familiar handwriting.

Yesterday at tea time the Parson & his wife arrived. They were in a considerable perturbation. Apparently more than a week ago one of our servants had handed in a note written crosswise upon our writing paper, and this they had ever since been trying vainly to adjust to fit the facts of our village life. We are about to open our War Memorial - a lych gate - & they had got it into their heads that the document was offered as a suitable inscription.

The Parson was favourably inclined towards the supposed suggestion; for he is of Univ. & no scholar; & he imagined the document to emanate from me, whom

he knows to be well versed in the dead languages. He was prepared accordingly to take the thing on trust, but as Lord Wyfold of Accrington, the chairman of our building committee had insisted upon a translation, he - the parson - thought it best to come round to the author for a consultation.

"Of course", he explained apologetically, "it's "all right. It breathes the true spirit - "templaque nota Dei is excellent. But you "know how fussy these unlettered politicians "are, & I shd. not like to do injustice to "the original. Besides, I confess that the "signature puzzles me. We are in the diocese "of Oxford, now mercifully emancipated from "the Bishop Gore. Why Ambros: Sanct: "Prax.?"

I read the lines (which I have copied out & now enclose) with shame & horror. My departed guest knew about our Lych Gate (wh. he did not admire) & I am convinced that he intended exactly what has happened: he designed to mislead &

bamboozle our simple shepherd. Damn these Italian serpents of subtility!

What could I do? Of course I denied the authorship & all knowledge of the verses; but I was forced to confess my suspicions of Ambrose of whose recent visit the parson was well aware from village talk.

But the translation! It was a real quandary. Mrs Parson was present (Katie wd. not have mattered) & moreover I was quite unaware what side our clergyman took in the Wakeford controversy - whether he sided with the Northcliffe press & the antigovernment party generally, or whether he stood with the Lord Chancellor & the Goat for the purification of the Anglican church.

I will leave you to imagine with what skill (or the reverse) I escaped from my dilemma; but my brow was beaded & my collar unwrung when our visitors departed.

Yes: damn Ambrose! And yet the rogue is a pleasant variety in our dull world.

Yours

Fred: Edg: Hosp. ↑

Aedibus egressum Ditis, Proserpina, reddis

In Cereris sedes templaque nota dei.

Mortalem, regina, iubes renovare laborem:

Per stygias revehit cymba Charonis aquas.

Qui quondam segnisque fui parcusque sacrorum

Cultor in antiquam iam cupio ire domum.

Marmoreo pietas noceat ne barbara busto

Cura est: et Verum est quaerere cura mihi.

Attamen a! qualis reduci vox advolat aurem?

Num vigilo? Somni fallor imaginibus?

Captavit nimio redens meretricula cultu

Pontificem? Braccas sanctus adulter habet

Ingressus nigra crepidine crura tabernam

Tectus? Bella iterum movit ut ante Venus?

Quid refert? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae?

Nil ne nugarum cura movere potest.

Doctrinam, comites, petite, huc advertite mentem:

Non nostrum est fratres in loca caeca sequi.

Divinae nobis niteat lux orta diei,

Turpia nox tenebris quae velit atra premat.

Ambros Sanct Prax +