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me for not reading German books & who
says, mot just, that I shouldn't get
a 'First' in any up to date history
tripos. I'm sincerely grieved to have
made him so cross, & I expect
he will not be the solitary daw
to peck at me.

What an excellent bit of molten
lava the "Fair Maid of Perth" is! I
have been rereading it for the first time
in 50 years. When one thinks how it
was written, after the smash, & while
that damnably mind-&-body-destroying "Napoleon"
was in the stocks it is a miracle of
constructive exuberant imagination & also of
the dramatic fulfilment of his intention as
to the character he meant to draw. Of
course the joins are often very clumsily
bolted, & there are repetitions that suggest
lapses of memory; but the main thing
is achieved triumphantly.

[in margin:]
Love to Susie, your dramatist daughter & yourself. I'll get Katie to
try & make a plan so soon as I am better. Yours F.S.O.