2110-4-10-2

[G.M. Trevelyan]

Pen Rose, Berkhamsted.

Somewhere in Cornwall

Aug 1. 1926

Dear John

I have enjoyed The Dancing Floor immensely - as usual.

p. 41 1st line at 2nd par, southward should (by the map) be westward.

p. 288 l. 5 comma after to is wrong.

I was expecting the Gods to appear in the form of devils from the burning house - a much safer "scare" for the villagers than the actual dénouement, which I should have thought would have enraptured instead of frightening them, since it was

what they had been expecting. If they were to appear as a beautiful god and goddess of antiquity, I think they should then have gone off in a blaze of pagan joy and triumph, with songs from the islanders. If you wanted to convert your islanders back to Xtians, the good old Xtian devil (= the ancient gods, according to the priests) was required.

But it is to consider too curiously to consider so, and it is great fun, and "high fantastical".

Yrs ever, GMT