2110-7-1-13

St. Stephen's House, London, S.W.1.

20th February, 1935.

My own darling

I was delighted to get your letter last night. I do hope that the Risca [ST: South Wales] Sale is going well. The weather has changed to rain and wind, but it is still very mild. St. James's Park is not so far forward as Elsfield.

I had a very pleasant luncheon with Campbell Stuart yesterday, at which you were very much missed. Lady Gosford, Lady Ravensdale, Leo Amery and the Clark-Kerrs were there. I liked Lady Gosford enormously. She remembered seeing us at Venice on our honeymoon, when she was Mildred Carter, and she says she came to lectures at Portland Place.

We are in the deuce of a mess over the Scottish Housing Bill, which comes on tomorrow night. We had a deputation from Glasgow Conservatives yesterday evening, who warned us that if it were passed there would not be a single Conservative Member returned for the West of Scotland!

Today I have Shakes Morrison and Cyril Lakin of "The Daily Telegraph" lunching with me at the Athenaeum. Then I have to go to the opening of the Library for the S.P.G., which the Pilgrim Trust has financed. Then I must see the Prime Minister, and then I have the first meeting of the B.B.C. Council. I am managing no more interviews with Plesch and the nurse this week. Plesch was magnificent yesterday. He said, "There are two kinds of horses, short-tailed and long-tailed. The short-tailed are most difficult to

make plump, because they are especially annoyed by flies and are therefore active and restless." Then he pointed at me and said, "You are a short-tailed horse"!

Much love.

from John