[Manuscript Correspondence] Letters of Sylvia Lynd to her father Alfred Robert Dryhurst.

Note: Sylvia Lynd, née Dryhurst, poet, novelist, reviewer, significant member of the Book Society, Irish nationalist, daughter of anarchist and suffragette, Nannie Dryhurst (1888-1952). Her papers include, typescripts, manuscripts, unpublished illustrated children's 'books', correspondence, a remarkable diary reflecting her personal, social and literary life (and the cross she had to bear in the alcoholic, Robert Lynd), and substantial autobiographical fragments."Their home in Hampstead was the resort of those in literary circles", including James Joyce (whose wedding reception was held there), W.B. Yeats, Max Beerbohm, H.G. Wells, Rebecca West, etc, etc. More political (nationalist) friends included Roger Casement. 20 Autograph Letters Signed from Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952) to her father Alfred Robert ('Roy') Dryhurst (1859-1949). Totalling 10pp., 4to; 4pp., 8vo; 46pp., 12mo. The letters are addressed to 'Pater', with the early ones signed 'Sylvia' and the later ones 'S'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letters cover a period of five decades, and from the first are imbued with Sylvia Lynd's energetic and poetic outlook. The main topic is family affairs, and include painfully frank references to her medical problems.ONE. 25 June 1898. The Wilderness, Rowledge. 2pp., 4to. In envelope addressed to A. R. Dryhurst at the family home of 11 Downshire Hill, Hampstead. Addressed to 'Dearest Pater' and signed 'Sylvia'. The ten year old Sylvia Lynd already exhibits the sensibility of a nature poet: 'the fields here are covered with margarite daisys [sic] an [sic] buttercups. Wild roses and honeysuckly [sic] bloom in the hedges and rabbits play in the woods'.TWO. 21 August 1904. 11 Downshire Hill, Hampstead. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope addressed to A. R. Dryhurst at the Invercauld Arms, Braemar, Scotland. Addressed to 'Dear Pater'. Showing her playful nature: 'Thank you very much for the sugar-sticks. I got them on Friday morning when we arrived weary wrecks after travelling all night. The painters have worked havoc in the garden! They have cut down that little Lilac close to the house & torn up the railings in order to get through without going round. They spend their time eating (every 2 hours) and talking, with a few moments work every ½ hour with a musical accompaniment. The up to date whistle "Hiawatha" the antiquated grunt disjointedly "Under the Dee-o-dah." I never heard of such cheek! The idea of their using our gas stove & clipping that pet jug, & using the gardening tools to mix their beastly paint! Mother has been talking to them about it. Each says "it was the other Labourer (!) as is at 'ome".' The rest of the letter reports on a trip by the rest of the family to Ireland.THREE. 10 August 1907. 7 Rathmines Road, Dublin. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. Giving news of a stay in Dublin: 'I feel quite grateful to the Jew for his delightful bathroom where I wallow every morning.'FOUR. [18 February 1909 postmark.] 'Wednesday' [no date]. Cork Street, Dublin. 2pp., 8vo, and 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. She writes from a private clinic: 'The only thing that is bad is my heart which likes to take its own time & seems to change its mind pretty often. This is one of its good days however so I feel pretty fit. [...] Dr. Day is a wonderful man full of fun & wisdom. His methods are very different from the London ones his sub tells me. He never gives more than 2000 (feet or pints?) anti-toxin at a time, while in London they give 5000. [...] My most present affliction is eating with a three-pronged fork.'FIVE. [1917.] 2pp., 8vo. St Ives. 'Judge Cohglan [sic] I met long ago in J. B. Yeats's studio in Dublin when the portrait was being painted. He was a big beack slightly gorilla-ish Munster man & the Millionaires' lawyer working for the Trusts in those days. Haven't we a great knack of knowing scandalous characters?'SIX. 12 February 1919. The Stone House, Steyning. 12 February 1919. 2pp., 4to. In envelope. 'The spirit of clan is not marked in me owing to my base Saxon admixture.'SEVEN. 17 March 1919. The Stone House. 2pp., 4to. In envelope. 'I am extraordinarily seedy - have been for the last fortnight & am wondering what next what next. [sic] We are resolved not to spend another winter here if we can avoid it. It has told on me dreadfully in every way & Robbie has suddenly seen - for the first time in ten years & when it is too late to be much help I fear - that to make one happy is not less important than to make one do what he thinks good for me. What a sentence! But what a life! I'm going to get the doctor in tomorrow. I fancy it's all the old trouble back. [...] Robbie refused the editorship of the Athenaeum the other day & Middleton Murry has been given it. I hope this means better paid work for R.'EIGHT and NINE. 8 and 17 May 1919. Both c/o Ina Lowry, 21 Dawson Street, Dublin. 2pp., 12mo; 2pp., 4to. In same envelope. 'I don't seem to have shaken off the effects of my mishap & the big surgeon here - MacLaverty - wants to operate on me. He says it will be no more risky than taking a tram & that he won't "stick me" for too much. [...] No, one has by no means lost the taste for races & if all goes well we shall go to Baldoyle on Saturday. So far we've backed only losers: I have been yet as I'm not up to much standing. Fortunately the Statesman is raising R's screw & I am inundated with reviews.' In the second letter she announces that she has 'resolved to have the operation though with many misgivings [...] MacLaverty is the best gynaecologist in Dublin & does this operation three times a week. [...] Clifford Sharp & Desmond MacCarthy arrived in Dublin this morning & are added to the general conversational melée. I am made much of over here & it is great fun being in a country again where men are not afraid of paying compliments. The shawl creates a considerable stir!'TEN. 8 September 1920. 'Arundel', Sutton, Co. Dublin. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope.ELEVEN. 25 September 1920. 'Arundel', Sutton, County Dublin. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Lennox Robinson was involved in a shooting affray in Fitzwilliam Sqr. the other night. He was in playing cards with friends & came out on hearing a fusillade to find the pavement strewn with police & Sinn Feiners. The S. Fs had disarmed the police & then both were indiscriminately fired-on by some Black & Tans from across the square. Lennox having played the good Samaritan to police & S. F. by finding a doctor was preparing to go quietly home when a Black & Tan accosted him & declared that he'd "know him again. You needn't try to hide behind your spectacles" & so on. The Black & Tans seem to be being quartered in Dublin now & going about in plain clothes. The Balbriggan affair seems to be entirely one of police agression - [sic] a case of a drunken bully with a revolver beginning a row. Galway was the same. The murder of Lynch is the latest horror.'TWELVE. 11 January 1925. On 5 Keats Grove letterhead. 4pp., 12mo.THIRTEEN. 22 June 1929. On letterhead of The Muckross Hotel, Lakes of Killarney. 2pp., 12mo.FOURTEEN. 14 August 1929. On 5 Keats Grove letterhead, but docketed by Dryhurst as sent from the Hotel Patnoa, Nairn, Tir Conaill, Ireland. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope.FIFTEEN and SIXTEEN. 20 and 24 June 1936. Both on letterheads of RMS Empress of Britain (Canadian Pacific Steamship Lines). Each 2pp., 12mo. Both in the same envelope, with Quebec postmark, 25 June 1936. In the first letter she writes that 'A whole lot of flowers have arrived for us & a telegram from the Max Beerbohms'.SEVENTEEN. 5 July 1936. On letterhead of Canadian Pacific Hotels, with engraving of the Empress Hotel, Victoria. 2pp., 4to. In envelope.EIGHTEEN. 8 October 1938. On 5 Keats Grove letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'May events & adventures since I wrote to you during Hitler's speech. We got to Dublin, planned to leave on Wednesday night, had our luggage carried down & then heard from the lift-boy that "The war is postponed", so we changed our booking back to Monday & spent a few happy days - till the news of the Munich terms came to fill me with fury. What an abject surrender. [...] Home weary on Wednesday to find the babes, the once babes, well & blooming - but B. J. alas insisting upon getting married at once - so we saw her through the ceremony at the Marylebone Town Hall yesterday. Now she & her husband are at the cottage.' NINETEEN. 29 September 1939. On joint letterhead of 5 Keats Grove (deleted) and Tillies Cottage, Forest Green, Dorking. 2pp., landscape 12mo.TWENTY. 24 September 1944. 6pp., landscape 12mo. On joint letterhead Keats Grove (deleted) and Tillies Cottage letterhead. In envelope addressed to ARD at 52 Manor Road, Goldington, Bedford. 'We had a few bangs, over by Peaslake I should think, last night - one loud bang & four or five smaller ones. Then a jet propelled something flying very high away to the West - either one of your new ones or a flybomb [sic] flying three times as high as usual. How much has your surveyor asked for? Mrs. Bourn says his report omitted the top floor - but I understood from the A.R.P. man that all the bad plaster & ceiling damage was up there. I didn't go up because one of them was asleep up there.'7. Letters of Alfred Robert Dryhurst to his daughter Sylvia Lynd, 1914-194959 Autograph Letters Signed and 10 Autograph Cards Signed from Alfred Robert ('Roy') Dryhurst (1859-1949) to his daughter Sylvia Lynd (1888-1952). Totalling 3pp., 4to; 262pp., 12mo; 39pp., 16mo. The letters are addressed to 'Dear Sylvia' and 'Dear Sylvie', and are signed 'Pater'. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ARD's love and concern for his daughter is apparent throughout the thirty-five years of the correspondence. The earlier letters are quirky and reserved, and convey strongly ARD's intelligent, cultured and sensitive nature; those written towards the end of his life describe in frank detail his pain at the 'spiritual collapse' of his marriage to Nannie, 'full of estrangement and bitterness'.ONE. 1 August 1914. British Museum. Addressed to 'Mrs. Lynd | c/o Ellis Roberts Esq. | Whitchurch Canonicorum | nr Charmouth'. On all eight sides of four 16mo cards. In envelope. 'I am glad you are away from London just now anyhow - there is a feeling of moral oppression in the air, owing to the menace of the bursting of the warcloud, the like of which I have not experienced. There was something like it in 1870 when the French disaster occurred that culminated in Sédan, but I was a small schoolboy then, keen on reading about the dreadful carnage of Mars la Tour and Gravelotte, and untroubled about the far reaching issues of a European war and their grievous effect on the family life of the vast body of the people - wage earners and folks with small means generally'.TWO. 17 August 1915. Bloomsbury. On five sides of three 16mo cards. In envelope. Sending London and wartime news to his daughter in St Ives.THREE. Beginning on 15 March 1918, from the British Museum, and continuing on 17 March, at Abinger. 2pp., 12mo, and 8pp., 16mo. On 17 March he writes: 'The blessing of St Patricius on you and the babes - it is of no good invoking one on that obstinate Presbyterian Robert. I was assailed yesterday morning in Hampstead by a girl with the usual green harps in a tray & bought one, losing my No. 5 tramcar over the proceeding.'FOUR. 12 August 1923. 11 Downshire Hill, NW3. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. He is 'taskbound in Bloomsbury', and had hoped to travel to Boulogne at the weekend ('in time to see some religious procession and function - to Ste. Marie du Port perhaps?'), but has 'come to the conclusion that the adventure would be too fagging for me as my office drudgery is very stiff and harassing'. 'We have had tonight one of your mother's evenings, a little like the one you describe in your book. M. Tcherkesoff and his brother-in-law, M. . M. C. is a Dutchman who resides in Paris and looks French. But he would not talk it. The conversation was accordingly staccato - chunks of intelligible matter but lacking in sequence. You know how the great anatomist, Sir Richard Owen, constructed the dodo, or the archaeopteryx, or some such prehistoric bird out of some excavated bones from New Zealand. Well, if you had listened to the conversation, I dare say you could construct an intelligible idea out of such fragmentary talk.'FIVE. 27 September 1926. Downshire Hill. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. Regarding her birthday on the following day he writes: 'Sorry you are soon to be a Michaelmas daisy of 38 years of age. But your art & spirit are enough to keep away for a long time yet the old gentleman with the hourglass'. He is glad she is 'getting a little real rest in Loch Derg', and gives domestic news. 'I am sorry the Yates [sic] portrait does not give satisfaction. I had thought that when you do get it it would have solved the conundrum of a birthday gift.'SIX. 13 November 1926. Downshire Hill. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. He begins by discussing his wife's indisposition ('The difficulty is to know how to tempt her appetite. She has no desire for hazel-hens - to which lately she was very partial - and will soon get tired, I fear, of chicken.'). He then discusses Mrs Piozzi's family, concluding 'Uncle Fer says that there is a noted Salisbury tomb somewhere in Denbighshire, & that the Salisburys & Dryhursts were connected by marriage.'SEVEN. 27 September 1927. Downshire Hill. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. He is glad that she has 'arrived without mischance' in Dublin: 'The neighbourhood and the late season are not ideal for the invalid.' He discusses English and Irish landscapes ('neither you nor Robert think much of English scenery as compared with Irish'). The final paragraph begins: 'We haven't forgotten your birthday (yours is the one your mother doesn't forget).' Enclosed are letters wishing SL a happy birthday, from her mother ('M.'), on Downshire Hill letterhead, and daughters ('B. J.' and 'Sighle'), each on letterhead of 5 Keats Grove. All three enclosures are 2pp., 12mo.EIGHT. 21 July 1929. Downshire Hill. 3pp., 16mo. In envelope.NINE. 2 July 1933. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 6pp., 12mo. Regarding SL's 'Aunt E's maintenance' he writes, 'this is a case of history's repeating itself. In past years I had to find money for your mother to spend over the support of your grandmother - and at a time when my salary was meagre, and I had little to spare. I ahd no thanks for it from your mother, and your Uncle Willie never repaid me a sixpence.'TEN. 11 April 1934. No place. 2pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Mrs. Johnston is performing an extremely vigorous spring-clean, which has an incidental result in forcing me to make a Herculean effort to get rid of the accumulation on the top landing [...] Your mother seems to have kept a large amount of back number stuff, printed & typewritten. I suspect she forgot all about it when she went away to Ireland in 1916.'ELEVEN. 23 February 1936. No place. 2pp., 12mo.TWELVE. Shrove Tuesday [27 February] 1936. No place. 2pp., 12mo, and 1p., 16mo. In envelope.THIRTEEN. 2 March 1936. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 2pp., 12mo, and 2pp., 16mo. In envelope. Describing an exhibition at Burlington House.*FOURTEEN. 2 July 1936. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. 'Am amused with Mr. Leigh Ashton's comments in this week's New S. They are so cocky - they might be Gordon Craig's. He complains that the "Ring" scenery was of the conventional "come to Connemara" type. If one gets mountains and atmospheric effects, what matter if they are derived from Connemara or from Primrose Hill. Does he demand that artist, or camera man, should be required to take his notes on the Dovrefeld or the Riesengebirge? He must be rather a goose for he was dissatisfied that the moon in this seasons "Meistersinger" was a crescent and not a full moon! [...] Childish nonsense.'FIFTEEN. 30 October [1936]. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 2pp., 12mo. 'Six years since 30 October, 1930! It seems incredible that six years have passed since your mother left us - and five years since Uncle Fer's death. I wonder when the "grim sergeant's fell arrest" will happen to | A. R. D.' SIXTEEN. 31 January 1937. No place. 2pp., 16mo.SEVENTEEN. 2 June 1938. No place. 2pp., 12mo.EIGHTEEN. 25 July 1938. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'In re Robert's questions. How much beer can a working man put away in a day (not drinking for a wager). I ask because this dreadful man with whom Laura allied herself can drink a good deal. It seems, that he has capable fingers (skill acquired perhaps during his service in the Navy).' Accompanying the letter is a handbill for a production of 'The Captain's Lamp' at the Richmond Theatre.NINETEEN. 21 August 1938. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 7pp., 12mo. Regarding 'the repainting and external repairs of No. 5 K[eats]. G[rove].' Enclosing a Typed Letter Signed (1p., 4to) from F. Davison Currie, surveyor, regarding the collapse of 'Mrs Dening's wall'. `TWENTY. 27 February 1939. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 2pp., 12mo. In envelope. Enclosed is a cutting of a piece titled 'This Annoys the Neighbours!', with photograph of a sculpture of 'a mother and child' in the Downshire Hill front garden of 'Mr. Roland Penrose, the Surrealist.' ARD writes: 'This may amuse you. Mrs. Pease is most indignant about its appearance in the garden of 21 Downshire Hill, as detracting from the sanity or the artistic seemliness of the road & its inhabitants. | The reporter has got the circumstances wrongly. The statue is by Henry Moore & belongs to Mr. Penrose, the occupant of No. 21. I dont understand "Surrealist Art" myself. This figure reminds me of one of the stone figures from Easter Island (huge monolith) which are, or were, in the portico of the B.M.'TWENTY-ONE. 8 June 1939. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 6pp., 12mo. He wishes to show SL a letter he has received from Harry Wilson: 'He wishes to know as soon as may be the Trustees' decision on Mrs. G. Farrand's offer [...] I wonder will Mrs. F. wish to buy - it will be a knock for me if the house goes. But at my age the effects of the knock won't last long!' The last four pages consist of a 'resumé of how the matter stands', headed '6 Keats Grove | Mrs. G. Farrand's proposition'.TWENTY-TWO. 23 August 1939. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Your Yeats portrait is about 2 feet by 2 ft 6 in - that I would take over to you this evening, or else take it with me on Sunday, if your car is overloaded.'TWENTY-THREE. 28 August 1939. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope.TWENTY-FOUR. 23 September 1939. 36 Pinecliffe Avenue, Southbourne, Hants. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Did you see Shaw's letter in "The Times"? He has been gassing for years about Russia as an ideal for the world to pursue; four or five years ago he was invited to Moscow & was shown round. At a Fabian meeting you'd have thought from his words that Moscow was the ante-chamber to Paradise. He had no doubt been fêted flattered & caressed. His apologia the other day seems to amount to saying "Behold how clever is Stalin. He has made the Germans pull the chestnuts out of the fire for him" - poor comfort for Communist believers in their Soviet champion. [...] Am amused at your discovering a Russian princess in B. J. I used to think Sheila looked one in a certain red dress she wore, & I called her Princess Napraxina.'TWENTY-FIVE. 24 September 1939. 36 Pinecliffe Avenue. On one side of a 16mo card. 'I seem to have become another Mrs. Nickleby, the genius of irrelevance.'TWENTY-SIX. 8 May 1940. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo.TWENTY-SEVEN. 20 June 1940. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. 'I send this photograph of you & mother, which was taken a week or two before she & I were married in August, 1884. The dress, I think, was a mixture of Vandyke brown velveteen and lighter brown silk. I have always treasured the photograph because it was so lifelike, and taken before the days when our matrimony became full of estrangement and bitterness, & was morally & spiritually void.'TWENTY-EIGHT. 27 June 1940. Downshire Hill. On one side of a 12mo card.TWENTY-NINE. 28 June 1940. Downshire Hill. 4pp., 16mo.THIRTY. 5 July 1940. Downshire Hill. 4pp., 16mo. He is compiling a chronology of SL's life. 'The thing I can't place is your long and dangerous illness at Steyning when we feared you were leaving us for good. Was it 1920-21 or 1919-20? There is I think a reference to it in your poem of "The Goldfinches" - the passage almost made me cry the last time I read it. | I have two or three autographs - perhaps holographs - of G. B. S. of the now distant years when he and I were acquainted. They may be worth something in the market in years to come.' In envelope with long note on reverse, concerning 'that queer old painting at No. 11. The D[ublin]. Corpor[atio]n. may be willing to buy it - it would be safer there.'THIRTY-ONE. 7 July 1940. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 2pp., 12mo. 'These two letters from Sir Roger Casement you'd perhaps better store. They may be worth something in the market some day.'THIRTY-TWO. 12 July 1940. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 16mo. 'Your mother, I remember, got much satisfaction out of the performance of "the Saxon Shilling". This partly fool & partly knave, De Valera, will need a great many shillings, Saxon or otherwise, if he really thinks to make Ireland safe from invasion. | If it were not for the danger to ourselves, I should rather like to see Eire subjected for a while to the Concentration Camp, and other incidental features of German administration. The Irish population at large do seem to be such ignorant idiots that a process of having their heads rubbed against brick walls is the only hope for them. Of some of their numerous R. C. buildings Hitler might make use as Assembly Rooms for his "Gauleiter"!'THIRTY-THREE. 14 July 1940. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 2pp., 4to, and 2pp., 12mo. In envelope. He finds that 'this job of disposing of old letters and printed matter is dreary and depressing', and is sending a 'record of childhood's cricketing days on the Heath' which he 'hadn't the heart to destroy'. 'Your mother took much interest in the schooling of Miss Pridham's date and in your King Alfred days, but she was very indifferent to Norah's school days at the South Hampstead High School. I don't quite know why - unless it were a kind of jealousy. She associated the school with me & my having sent Norah to it, and that was enough to make her almost antagonistic, just as she checked my teaching Norah the piano, and my teaching you some simple Greek poems, a thing you liked & was easy for you.' The second half of the letter discusses the Greek verse which he taught her, beginning with five-line quotation, which he supposes she still remembers.THIRTY-FOUR. 6 October 1940. 'c/o Mrs. Geering, 52 Manor Road, Goldington, Bedford'. 4pp., 12mo, with additional note on back of envelope. Having moved to Bedfordshire, he is, 'in the language of the cinema, O.K.' He itemises his expenditure for a trip, adding 'You & Robert deal, I am glad to know, in larger amounts than a pensioned C[ivil]. S[ervant].' He describes his new surroundings: 'It is within the London area from a R.A.F. point of view, so we get the (reduced) sound of the London sirens. But there is no menacing drone overhead. Poor B. J. would not have the constant thought of a bomb's dropping & extinguishg. the existence of her tiny babe.'THIRTY-FIVE. 16 October 1940. 8pp., 12mo. c/o Mrs Greering, Manor Road. In envelope.THIRTY-SIX. 19 November 1940. 8pp., 12mo. 'I can well believe you are in great anxiety about Sheila. Your daughters run true to type in having their babies in Wartime, and in conditions that give you the maximum of worry. I don't know what you are having done to No. 5, or what builder is doing it - the cost will be something heavy. As to your proposition about lending No. 6, I am writing to Norah about it.'THIRTY-SEVEN. 30 January 1941. Manor Road. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. Regarding 'Fire Watching at No. 5' and air raid precautions for the Hampstead houses. THIRTY-EIGHT. 17 May 1941. Manor Road. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. He begins by discussing possible compensation for bomb damage to items at Keats Grove. There follow reminiscences prompted by a piece by RL, beginning: 'Robert talks about magenta in his article. I never liked the colour (a dull red, with a tinge of purple in it). Aunt Bessie had a magenta blouse, when I was a small boy, as many women of her time did. The fashion came from Paris to London, & was a fashionable colour among the "Hupper Suckler" here for a considerable period. In those far off days Italy was popular with the swagger people [...]'. The letter concludes with war news.THIRTY-NINE. 22 May 1941. Manor Road. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope.FORTY. 12 September 1941. Manor Road. 8pp., 12mo. In envelope.FORTY-ONE. 6 November 1941. Manor Road. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Yes, the approach of All Hallows generally brings some solemn thoughts with it. But the date that hurts me more is 1897, when you were nearly 9 years old. That was when 11 Downshire Hill ceased to be home for me, and my Victorian ideas of marriage fell altogether like a castle built of cards. A few days, however, before your m[other]. died she relapsed from her tone of indifference in speaking to me, and her voice brought tears to my eyes. It was like that of my courting days in Dublin.'FORTY-TWO. 3 December 1941. Manor Road. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope.FORTY-THREE. 24 April 1942. Manor Road. 8pp., 12mo. In envelope.FORTY-FOUR. 9 August 1942. Manor Road. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. FORTY-FIVE. 20 March 1943. Manor Road. 3pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Did you read Robert's article crying up the pub as a necessary relief to the home. Wordsworth has something about the lark as true to the "kindred points of heaven & home". I wonder which R. W. L. would class under the former head. He is fond of Burns' lines about the fireside lore of wife & weans. But what he praises in type is not always what he acts on. | Glad that your domestic arrangements seem easier at the moment.'FORTY-SIX. 30 April 1943. Manor Road. 8pp., 12mo. In envelope with next. Discussing the 'murder' of his brother Charles Dryhurst. 'I remember that my mother had not received a letter from C. J. D. for an unusually long time, and had become very uneasy about him. When a letter arrived of an unusual appearance & stamp, I ran with it to my mother - I was only a youngster at the time - saying "Here's a letter from Charlie". My m. tore open the letter. It came from the Captain stating that my brother had died in Calcutta of fever, after three days' illness [...] The moment she had finished the letter, my m. cried out "My boy has been murdered", and fell into a faint. Maternal intuition, I suppose.'FORTY-SEVEN. 1 May 1943. Manor Road. 8pp., 12mo. In envelope with last. Continuing the discussion of his brother's death, followed by comments on 'Aunt Bessie's unfortunate marriage'.FORTY-EIGHT. 4 May 1943. Manor Road. 14pp., 12mo. In envelope. He discusses at length how his wife 'became the centre of that household in Keith Terrace - a ménage the nature of which I learned from your mother's scraps of information long after she had left it, and which might well have formed the subject of a scrofulous French yellowback'. He describes the history of SL's mother's friend Ada Ryan, with reference to Sir Charles Dilke, and 'Charles Reade, the novelist, whose daughters your m. knew & I think clashed with'. He explains that it was 'the chance of a start in the literary life of London, which was one of the things that induced her to go to London - she had not then become an Irish nationalist in the specific sense of later years [...] In the spring of 1882 I learned that your m. was likely to leave the Tenison's and this spurred me on to write to her, & presently to urge my suit in person [...] It is only a surmise on my part, but it is possible that your mother's accepting me was subconsciously influenced by her desire to find a substantial pretext for getting out of the Tenison coil'.FORTY-NINE. 6 May 1943. Manor Road. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. SL's sister Norah, who has behaved in a hurtful manner to her, has, in ARD's view, 'a share of your mother's disposition: can see things only from her own point of view [...] If you know enough about the bad relations of your mother & me, and the moral & spiritual collapse of our marriage, I will not continue my narrative. You must tell me so, & tell me about her early letters, whether you would like to have them. I have not destroyed them because I thought that, with your literary outlook on life, you would like to read them as a help to the understanding of your mother's character.' FIFTY. 10 May 1943. Manor Road. 12pp., 12mo. In envelope. Discussing his marriage in frank terms. 'Your allowance of happy years to me is excessive. Happy weeks is more like it - courting - time in the Spring of 1882 and the September of 1883, and a passing phase on your m's part of warm affection in 1887 were the periods of our joint life I should mark with a whiter stone. [...] As a matter of fact your m. showed signs of discontent not long after we were mated. I don't think she took pleasure in the thought of N[orah]'s coming into the world, whereas she did when you were on the way. You were her "white baby" and remained the apple of her eye. In 1896 I think it was she flung some bitter words at me one morning, and I said to her that, if she meant to leave me, she would have to leave the children with me, as I had done nothing to her which the law would hold as justifying my being deprived of them.' The letter ends with a discussion of Mrs Arthur Wilson's 'deadly love' for 'Tchaikowsky, a Russian that had escaped from Russia, where he was in the books of the police as a dangerous Nihilist'.FIFTY-ONE. 14 May 1943. Manor Road. 11pp., 12mo. In envelope. An important letter, in which he discusses his wife's affair with H. W. Nevinson. The following passage indicates the general tone. 'It is impossible to retain belief & affection of an earlier time when one comes to realise that the household atmosphere is one of uncertainty, and that one's partner may be fickle. I don't think it mattered really that the N's [i.e. Nevinson and his wife] became neighbours. Your m[other]'s discontent with me and her life under my modest roof would sooner or later have brought for me ill consequences. It was not actually propinquity that brought the "shadow" into the house. Your Aunt Bessie was acquainted with Mrs. N., and it was her unstinted crying up of your m's good looks & talent that induced N. to make my acquaintance. And Mrs. Arthur Wilson's dreadful nonsense about Anarchism reinfored the risk to my domestic peace. H. W. N. showed signs of being converted to the ideas of the Freedom Group - it was mere blague of course - but your m. and he formed the habit of visiting some dreary street off the Tottenham Court Road in order to teach little Anarchs, and have tea afterwards together at some place in that vicinity.' The letter also contains the celebrated story about Nevinson's dog: 'An odd thing happened that year [1896] - or perhaps in 1897. I was walking up Downshire Hill from the East Heath road one Sunday afternoon, when I noticed that H. W. N. was some way ahead of me. I thought it likely he was about to call at No. 11. To my surprise he went past the garden gate. But his dog, an Irish terrier, remained obstinately at the gate, and he had to go back and drag it away with a lead. He did not notice that I was further down the road, in a position to take in this incident, which might have made a telling point on the stage in a play dealing with the customary story of triangular relations. | Yes, it was in 1897 that the break in my relations with your m. came to a head, and that our married life became a mere façade for keeping up appearances.' The letter concludes: 'She was very angry at the rupture of my relations with him, & went so far as to clench her hand to strike me. But the blow did not fall on my face. Perhaps she relented in giving it as she saw that her fist would have probably broken my glasses. And she let her hand fall harmlessly on my chest. However, she took off her finger the pretty engagement ring I had specially made for her in 1882, & returned it to me as a sign that we were no longer man & wife. And she took you in to sleep with her, and I took up my sleeping quarter in the back bedroom.'FIFTY-TWO. 19 May 1943. Manor Road. 9pp., 12mo. In envelope. He continues the story of his unhappy marriage, beginning the letter: 'You said something in one of your letters about the "shadow in the house." In 1897 I fear I became the shadow. My scheme of matrimonial felicity had gone quite agley, and in my bewilderment I felt like a doll that has lost its sawdust.' Following the return of the wedding ring, Nevinson's 'visits to No. 11 ceased; but, I think, she used to meet him, and she had letters from him now and again. I wrote to him at the time of the rupture of the relations between your m. & me - but one letter. He answered me with a short letter, of which I remember only the words "I take my good where I find it". I wonder did he also find his good with Madeleine, the French maid, & rather nice-looking that Mrs. N. had. She disappeared from the N. ménage rather suddenly and unexpectedly.'FIFTY-THREE. 16 November 1943. Manor Road. 8pp., 12mo. He discusses her financial affairs and his. 'When my will was written in 1931, I took it as a matter of course that I should pay the debt of nature in ten years time, or less. As I have survived so much longer, my span may be prolonged beyond yours. This would be a dreadful experience for me. When loved ones go, it is the survivors that perhaps are most to be pitied. If I were to accomplish my grand départ now, or quite soon, what you might get from me would perhaps in Robert's mind be claimable in part by him - or even all of it, if you followed me at no long interval to the land of shadows.'FIFTY-FOUR. 10 July 1944. Manor Road. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'You have been in Hampstead I think during the past week, & so perhaps more exposed to the winged bombs than in Forest Green. But Surrey is their highway, and the area of Horsham to Dorking cannot be counted out of range. I wonder how many lives were lost when the chapel at Wellington Barracks was hit on the 18th. June. Mrs. J. was told the same week, 300, including 150 soldiers & officers. [...] Poor Caen - I remember it and its famous church, or abbey - there are said to be 3000 French dead buried under its ruins.' He reminisces about his 'bicycling days' in France.FIFTY-FIVE. 14 September 1944. Manor Road. 4pp., 16mo. In envelope. 'Isn't Sheila's intended move to London somewhat premature? Mrs. Johnston tells me that four V2 bombs have fallen within the London area during the past week - one of them at Chiswick. They fall, she says, without notice direct from above; whereas the pig-a-back bedevilment flys low and comes within the hearing of the observer's apparatus.' The letter continues with a discussion of his 'state of perplexity over No. 6 Keats Grove'.FIFTY-SIX. 11 October 1946. Downshire Hill. Card, 2pp., 16mo. In envelope. With cutting of newspaper article 'I stole for patriotic reasons'.FIFTY-SEVEN. 18 December 1946. Downshire Hill. 2pp., 12mo, with note, 1p., 16mo. In envelope. 'I hope R.W.L. will be equal to a Christmassy article next Saturday. I am glad to hear you mean to dispense of Toby. Such a dog is too big & vigorous for a woman of your frail physique.'FIFTY-EIGHT. 15 January 1947. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. Responding to the 'very distressing news' she has sent him 'per Mrs. Johnston': 'Fibrositis is the more recent name, I think, for muscular rheumatism. Why should you suppose you are in for a long germ of seclusion in a Nursing Home? [...] 13 weeks at ten or twelve guineas per week is a dreadful financial burden for you. I don't know how you'll meet the expense. [...] I can borrow a hundred pounds from the Bank, but can see no other way of raising the wind.'FIFTY-NINE. 29 January 1947. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 16mo. In envelope. 'This Labour Govt. with its grand schemes of nationalising coal, transport, electricity, & health service, could have done better to "think first things first".'SIXTY. 18 February 1947. Downshire Hill. 1p., 4to.SIXTY-ONE. 21 March 1947. No place. 2pp., 12mo. With envelope. ARD translates a review of SL's 'Collected Poems', from the Madrid Literary Magazine, with short note at end, and another on the flap of the envelope.SIXTY-TWO. 4 May 1947. Downshire Hill. On the six sides of three 16mo cards. In envelope. 'Yes, the Jews are everywhere. Mrs. Johnston, who knows something about hotels, says they have bought most of the best hotels in Bournemouth. The Rothschilds are said to own half the county of Bucks. There is no reason why by & bye they shdn't own half the kingdom. Perhaps slow witted John Bull will wake up one of these days & realise that he is becoming in his own land a servant at will of these detestable Semites.'SIXTY-THREE. 2 September 1947. On one side of 16mo card. In envelope.SIXTY-FOUR. 16 January 1948. Downshire Hill. 2pp., 12mo. '[...] as often seems to happen, I found myself barging in when you had visitors. And I should have come away at once but the lady was in the Hall, and I could hardly scurry away at once without it looking very odd to her - my deafness makes me a kind of caput mortuum on such occasions, & I prefer to escape.'SIXTY-FIVE. 27 September 1948. On Downshire Hill letterhead. 4pp., 12mo. In envelope. 'Strange to say I am still alive - though I can't be said to be kicking - on this eve of your anniversary. [...] Here is my annual douceur [...] Probably you will feel impatient at getting it, as you have so much in your mind about expense at that dreadful house next door. I detest the sight of it, & have for many years, for reasons I need not specify.'SIXTY-SIX. 20 December 1948. Downshire Hill. 6pp., 12mo. In envelope. Discussing financial and practical matters, including 'This dreadful No. 6 K[eats]. G[rove].', which is likely to cause trouble between ARD, SL and Norah.SIXTY-SEVEN. 26 February 1949. On both sides of a 16mo card. In envelope.SIXTY-EIGHT. 26 March 1949. No place. On both sides of a 16mo card. In envelope. 'Sorry for Robert's disappt. It bears out what a Sports reporter said lately viz: that in the Grand N[ationa]l the favourite wins once in 25 or 30 years.' He goes on to discuss Mary Cumberland, and the Venus de Milo.SIXTY-NINE. No place or date. On the four sides of two 16mo cards. In envelope. Giving the 'particulars' of his ophthalmic surgeon. SEE also related material sku #s 16322, 16323, 16324, 16325, 16226.