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Macmillan
Hôtel d'Angleterre Luchon, Hante Garonne, France
4 Aug 1923
My dear John,
Your letter from Kinlochbervie reached me here last night & brought with it a caller [S.T.: "caller" Scottish expression] breath of the Highland moors. We feel very far away from them here in the Pyrenees, although here too is a mountainy land & yesterday we got some real ling [heather] on the hillside.
Of course my legal services are at your disposal & you may count on me to do my best. But it's right to tell you that, according to the preposterous etiquette of the Bar, the other side if they chose could call me off by sending me a formal retainer or papers with a
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fee. A retainer without the indispensible guinea is of no avail. What you would require to do, to 'mak siccar" would be to send one guinea, stating formally that it is a Special Retainer for Mr. John Buchan in any proceedings arising between him and Mr. Ian Nelson or Messrs. Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd. relating to a contract between the parties. Or by sending a General Retainer for Mr. John Buchan, you can secure me for life in all actions in the Scottish Courts in which you may be concerned. But that means five guineas! I can just send you back your cheque, whether for one or five guineas, but to keep things in order we should have to go through the prescribed motions, so that in the event of dispute I could produce to the Dean a formal letter of retainer marked with the appropriate fee. Nothing else is effectual.
This is a gay little place, very bright
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and French. We are enjoying a veritable sun bath, very conducive to loafing. I'm afraid it will only be my eyes that I shall lift to the hills! There are magnificent snowy peaks to be seen but the approaches to them are too much for us in this hot weather. However there are plenty of unambitious excursions to be made up the valleys & these we shall explore at our leisure. Our idea is to have four weeks here, then go to Worcester for the Three Choirs Festival in the first week of September, & wind up with three weeks of Achiltibuie in Ross shire - a fine mixed holiday.
I am sending this to Elsfield, in case you may have left Kinlochbervie.
I musn't close without thanking you for some delightful reading. I've just finished "The Moon Endureth" which I hadn't read before, & I enjoyed every word of it.
