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CHECKENDON COURT, CHECKENDON, READING.
12 June 1919
Dear John,
We are grieved that you can't come down to see us here, but look forward to a visit from you both at Edgerston in a few weeks time.
Your book which you so kindly sent me gave me very great pleasure - but why do books wh. make one feel oneself to be a worm cause one pleasure? The contrast of your heroes with my own case is wholesome but certainly not conducive to self complacency. I suppose really one does like what is wholesome, & that Darwin is right.
I want both Mark & Jock to read the book because it will plant seeds of different sorts - but both sorts good - in each of them. So I let Mark take it away with
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him to Edinburgh before Katie had done more than glance at it.
To Mark it will be a glimpse into a world outside the "Greys". To Jock it will interpret among other things the Oxford tradition.
As a father I am especially grateful to you for having written it.
This morning brought your exceedingly kind labours on Shaw Sparrow. I will preserve your confidence absolutely; but I have ventured to edit your notice - à la Ems telegram - & purpose sending a copy to S.S. Of course I wish this thing had never been started; but I have to consider the feelings of S.S. & his real goodness. I must not break his heart. The odd thing is that in his private letters he writes a perfectly excellent cogent style of the Demosthenic sort. But when he authorises he puts on his Sunday Blacks - a most grotesque kind of fancy dress - in honour of the solemnity of the occasion. But most of
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all he has not the remotest idea of how to tell a story. The last I fear is fatal. No pruning will remedy this defect.
I haven't made up my mind what to do; but I must. I'm rather inclined to let him prune & then have 100 copies struck off for private circulation. But it is a bloody bore & has cost a pretty penny already, though that is the least of it.
Yesterday we went over to see Jock & after lunch motored in the surrounding country. We found a house which wd. just suit you, if you were not already suited. It stands upon the side of a ridge among elm trees & overlooks a great plain. The name of the place is Ensfield I think. The greater part of the dwelling seems to be very well & solidly masoned wh. Susie might object to but I don't. It spells comfort & weatherproofness. Not too far from Oxford either - only about 4 miles. And Lord! What a view from it on a fine summer's day!
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CHECKENDON COURT, CHECKENDON, READING.
12 June 1919
Dear John,
We are grieved that you can't come down to see us here, but look forward to a visit from you both at Edgerston in a few weeks time.
Your book which you so kindly sent me, gave me very great pleasure - but why do books wh. make one feel oneself to be a worm cause one pleasure? The contrast of your [own] heroes with my own case is wholesome but certainly not conducive to self complacency. I suppose really one does like what is wholesome, & that Darwin is right.
I want both Mark & Jock to read the book because it will plant seeds of different sorts - but both sorts good - in each of them. So I let Mark take it away with him to Edinburgh before Katie had done more than glance at it.
To Mark it will be a glimpse into a world outside the "Greys". To Jock it will interpret among other things the Oxford tradition.
As a father I am especially grateful to you for having written it.
This morning brought your exceedingly kind labours on Shaw Sparrow. I will preserve your confidence absolutely; but I have ventured to edit your notice - a la [Ems] telegram - & propose sending a copy to S.S. Of course I wish this thing had never
