2110-7-2-19

[L.P. Hope]

RENFIELD STREET CHURCH (Corner of Renfield and Sauchiehall Streets)

Minister Rev. Leslie Parkinson Hope M.A, Ph.D., F. S. A. Scot. 9 Bute Mansions, W.2

House Tele. Western 3205

Session Clerk: Mr. David T. McCaig Bennachie Brackenbrae Road Bishopbriggs near Glasgow

Church Tele. Douglas 4208

79 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow, March 28th 1935

UNTO Djonbu Khan Ghazi in All Humility • • THESE:-

The Modern Journalese Equivalents of the Runners of Khushrush are crying in the streets of the City concerning Thee •• "Hoc Honore condignus est quemcumque Rex voluerit honorare!" and our Soul is invaded by the Antithetical Emotions of Joy and Grief.

That His Majesty (For Whom may All be prepared to Die!) hath appointed Thee by irreversible Firman to be His Shadow over the Lands beyond Atlantis, with the High Justice, the Middle and the Low, the Rights of Sac and Soc, of Pit and Gallows, and all the Appurtenances of Vicarious Royalty both Representative and Mediatorial, is a fact which giveth solace and delight to one who hath ever believed in the Path of the King!

Yet is our Rejoicing countervailed by a Great Melancholy, for while we treasure a certain Letter of thine wherein it was writ that thou hadst pleasure in our Epistles (and on the strength thereof have intermittently addressed Thee with that regardlessness which is the mark of liking •• our spirits are much dashed concerning the Future.

Verily I am only fluent when allowed to say what I dam' well like, and how can I be freely impertinent as of yore to the Governor General of Canada?

Our insect-vision managed to focus even upon a Lord High Commissioner to a parcel of Holy Imams, but in this New Developement I experience the sensations of some unprepossessing and verminous mendicant on the Galata Bridge, accustomed for years to receive alms from a certain passing barouche, who should suddenly be made aware that he hath been invoking the attention of His Whiskers the Padishah Himself!

I suggest not that Djonbu Khan is liable to change beneath the Byzantine splendour of Magister Militum and Protospatharios but I confess myself daunted concerning a correspondence which after all I thrust upon thee uninvited.

Thou hast ever treated me with courtesy and forbearance •• indeed with Too Much! It would have been good for me if at times Thou hadst shown that spice of the Devil (which is all Thy Character lacks) which would have moved Thee to write saying "Depart Thou to Blazing Orcus, for Thou Borest Me!"

There is something of the Divine Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in Thee. Thy Virtues are so completely Balanced that while the result is incredibly admirable, there are times when I (Who am as Devil-ridden as a Witches' Sabbath) long to be made aware that Thou CANST' get up and say "Damn" and Throw Things About!

Even the Son of Man couldn't ALWAYS thole Fools gladly, but Marcus remained ever serene even toward Avidius Cassius. This is the non-human trait ln Thee which makes the characters in thy books more knowable than Thyself.

I may be wrong, and this may be but another test of Thine unbreakable Patience with the impertinences of animalculae.

At any rate I have to thank Thee for notice taken of my letters in the years that were.

Some day I may touch the Purple Fringe with yet another letter in celebration of some Notable Work or Deed.

For the nonce I subscribe myself in all sincere Congratulation and Wellwishing for Thy High Prosperity

Yours inextinguishably

Leslie P. Hope