Letters to a Sister (23 page)

The new play (by the angry young man) that I saw last night was quite amusing,
¹⁵⁵
and full of angry cracks against Church and State, Suez & Eden—I thought how awkward for them if he died now,
¹⁵⁶
they would have to cut some of
them out. It is very Left wing and class conscious. I must go out to Tenebrae
¹⁵⁷
now….

Very much love.

E.R.M.

… I have some v.g. American reviews of
T. of T.

27 April, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

… Here is the
Times
sermon, rather good on survival; how much better it is when preachers don't seem too sure.
¹⁵⁸
The other is a fuller account than the
News Chronicle's
of the bishops' protest. What a sensation if they were whipped!
¹⁵⁹
That would really lead to a crisis….

I have to go out to supper to-night, so shall miss the last part of the discussion on the Resurrection,
¹⁶⁰
and the whole of ‘What is an educated man?'
¹⁶¹
Remember to listen. I shall be home for Lionel Trilling (who is v.g.) on
Emma….

V. much love.

E.R.M.

5
May, 1957

Dearest Jeanie,

... I decided that the
Life
of Baring-Gould
¹⁶²
wasn't worth sending after all. It got rather dull, and I don't think is worth your time reading it. I forgot to say when I saw you, you might perhaps do some writing. It is such an absorbing way of spending one's time, when one has any. Nothing makes one happier and more interested. Reminiscences, essays on this or that, thoughts on this & that (religious or secular). I find it a good way of meditating, to jot down ideas that occur to one on prayer, the Prayer Book, the Church, religion, or just ideas & descriptions of things seen or imagined. Or, of course, stories. I wish you would do some of this, now you have more time. Not for publication, but just as a form of interesting occupation. I couldn't do without it, however purposeless my writing extrinsically was; it helps my mind. Even reviews of books one has been reading. Do try it. For one thing, it makes the worries and anxieties of actual life slip into the background, except when they are very acute and absorbing, when writing rather deserts one unfortunately.

I have just been lunching with my German friend from the Embassy, who is very interesting & amusing company. I always enjoy his accounts of the various types of church service in Germany and elsewhere. This morning he came to Mass at St Paul's, Knightsbridge. Now I must get on with the endless business to do before I go tomorrow, including packing. I get stupider and stupider at all this kind of thing....

I shall be with friends in Venice, who will tell you at once if I am not well or become drowned or anything. Dear love always.

R.

[Venice]
¹⁶³
Wednesday
9
May, [1957]

This is our pretty and economical small hotel
¹⁶⁴
—such nice proprietress and staff. Journey was tedious, but it is lovely to be in Venice, walking about the little streets and bridges and by the little green canals. It is May, the
Mese Mariana,
¹⁶⁵
so a lot of fuss in the St Mary churches. We just missed a great procession to crown the Madonna del Salute, close to our inn. R.C. Church must be the most charming of the Great Myths, and the most ornate. Were I an atheist, I would join it, instead of the reasonable and sensible Anglican Church. But not in England; it would have to be in Italy, and preferably Venice. England cramps & stunts it & makes it priggish & smug & tiresome. Very cold yesterday, but today lovely sunshine, though cold wind still. Very much love. Write soon how you keep.

E.R.M.

La Calcina, 780 Zattere, Venice 15 May, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

… I'm glad the Christian Action letter about South Africa got into [
The] Observer
¹⁶⁶
I'm also glad to see that Canon Collins preached against hydrogen bombs. There is a letter in yesterday's
Times
supporting him strongly, which I enclose.
¹⁶⁷
It is brave of Canon C, as it may mean he isn't promoted in the
Church. Stepney will be excellent in Cape Town
¹⁶⁸
; but he will be missed here.... I heard a rumour about the
News Chronicle
and
Daily Herald
and hoped it wasn't true,
¹⁶⁹
as it would mean the end of the only London Liberal paper (wretched as it now is) and of course the Trades Unions would run it completely on Socialist lines. Little by little Liberalism recedes from view.

It is
lovely
summer weather here, really hot, and sun all day. We are v. lucky. Did you see the total eclipse of the moon on Monday evening? I am enjoying Venice very much. The two people I am with are v.g. companions. We did a lagoon expedition one day, and another today to Murano & another island. We wander about Venice looking at the lovely little canals and narrow streets, visit the beautiful churches and the beautiful picture museums. Yesterday I climbed to top of the Campanile, marvellous view.

The nights are very beautiful, with all the lights shining across the canals. On Sunday I went to 8.30 mass at the English Church, which is quite near—a nice service in a rather bleak little church which has a tabernacle on altar but no crucifixes. A Methodist girl from New Zealand spoke to me outside and asked me if I thought she could ‘take communion' tho' not confirmed. I said of course, and she did. Talked to-day to a nice old retired surgeon called [W. G.] Howarth, 78, who was at King's when Uncle W. was tutor
¹⁷⁰
; we knew a lot of the same people, and he and his wife had just read
Trebizond.

Lunched yesterday with a v. rich American woman
¹⁷¹
who lives in a palazzo with a gondola and motor boat…

Very much love, and love to Nancy.

R.

La Calcina, 780 Zattere, Venice 18 May, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

… There seem to be bad storms everywhere but here—people killed in Texas and in Dagenham by lightning etc. We had a little rain yesterday morning, but it cleared up, and now is gloriously hot and sunny again. We have now done most of the essential Venice things, including two lagoon trips. We spend a lot of time strolling about the streets, admiring the things we see. Tomorrow is Sunday again, so I am going to the English church at 8.30. I'm glad we attend more to our Mass than the R.C.s do, and don't make the priest run straight on by himself [saying for instance] ‘The Lord be with you, And with thy spirit' etc., which sounds so silly.

They are going to drop
another
H. Bomb soon, this time in the Pacific.
¹⁷²
I think the whole thing is kept going by scientists, who are interested in developing fresh ways of making the things. It is interesting that nearly all the arguments against it seem to be that it will make us and our children unhealthy—nothing about whether it is right to do such hurt to other people. But I expect Canon Collins preached about that.

Very much love.

E.R.M.

La Calcina, 780 Zattere, Venice 22 May, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

... I am saddened by Gilbert Murray's death. Of course one ought not to be, at his age, and with that magnificent life behind him, and all the things he has enriched us with; but his going leaves the world a poorer, meaner, less idealistic and
civilised place; besides, I was very fond of him, and he was very kind and friendly to me always. He wrote such good letters, full of the work he was doing, and sometimes of my books, and sometimes just friendly notes about nothing much. I always loved talking to him. And his wonderful scholarship and good works have never, I think, been so united in any one. He was a man in a thousand, both in intellectual and moral gifts, and the use he made of both. I hope they'll bury him in the Abbey. Meanwhile his memorial service isn't till June 5th, so I can go to it. Will the Oxford University Church contain all those who want to be there? I shouldn't think so. I must be early.... I hope [the service will be taken by]… either the Bp of Oxford
¹⁷³
or the Dean of Christ Church.
¹⁷⁴
…

The Bishop of Tewkesbury, who is in Venice for 3 or 4 days with his wife and two friends, whom I met yesterday, has invited the Clergy wives of his diocese to a garden party at Cheltenham on June 18th, ‘to meet Miss Rose Macaulay', as I rashly some time back said I would go, not thinking I should be printed on the invitations. They won't know why they are to meet me, and it will be rather embarrassing for them, I think. I shall pretend I am an archdeacon's widow....

The Times
has a splendid page about G.M., and some good lines by Masefield about him….

V. much love.

E.R.M.

La Calcina, 780 Zattere, Venice 26 May, 1957

Dearest Jeanie,

Sunday again—how the days race by.... I went out to the English Church at 8.30. Certainly the R.C. Church comes out well in comparison with our bleak little
unadorned church and rather plain Prayer-Book service—
how
we have improved on that in the last half century! I don't like leaving out the Prayer of Oblation, as we did this morning; it is so very good. Nor any of the other ‘strict P.B.' uses. I went to a very beautifully sung Vespers in St Mark's, and a nice evening Mass in the Gesuati,
¹⁷⁵
close here. [Two Roman Catholic friends of mine]… (whom I met at lunch yesterday)... he a convert, she born… said the indulgences and miracles etc. don't bother them; they regard them as only meant for very simple people, and by-pass them altogether. I think it would be rather bothering to have a lot of things like that taught, which one had to by-pass as only meant for the simple. I think it is a mistake to teach the simple (who will believe it) that saying certain prayers and making certain pilgrimages will let them off so many years of purgatory. And if the priests who teach it don't believe it (though no doubt the simpler priests do) it seems to me wrong. I should say that what [my two friends]… believe seems much what we do, on the whole, except for the Pope, and a modified view of transubstantiation. I also met at lunch a delightful old Italian colonel, who doesn't speak any English, with whom I talked about what he calls ‘government by the priests', whom he hates. He is R.C. by birth and bringing up, but a great anti-clerical. He says he supposes the priests are rather better than Communist rule; but he would like himself to be an Anglican, which he regards as
‘moderate, gentile, educato',
but, he said, it would be silly for an Italian to join it.

Tuesday I lunch with [my Roman Catholic friends]… and go a trip round Venice in their gondola. Tomorrow I have a trip in the Guggenheim motor launch, I hope to an island. Tuesday evening I go to
Titus Andronicus,
which Laurence Olivier is bringing to Venice for 3 days. Then on Wednesday morning I start home, arriving Thursday evening. Friday I hope to come to Romford….

I had a lovely day going to Asolo on Friday, driving in a car with Victor Cunard, to lunch with Freya Stark, who has a beautiful house & garden. Venice tends to get almost as sociable as London, after a few days in it. Of course it is a place everyone comes to, and one is liable to meet friends both visiting it and living in it. But what I like
much
best is walking about it alone, seeing all the little streets & canals & bridges & squares & churches—every step brings one to some fresh beauty; it's like living in some lovely poem. What a pity you can't be here with me. I shall miss it terribly when I am back in London, and have to step out into ordinary ugly streets, & no glimpses of green canals and little bridges and campos….

Very much love.

E.R.M.

[London] [13 July, 1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

... Here is the
Times
sermon for last week
¹⁷⁶
(v.g.); today's didn't seem much good, so I haven't sent it, it's about the redemption of creation in the end, including cruel animals, so I didn't think you'd care for it.
¹⁷⁷
I don't myself care for sermons or prayers about creation of the world, as I can't suppose the world did anything but grow out of chaos, or that God was responsible.

I was shopping a little this morning, and looking at clothes, but only began after 12, when they were just going to shut; I saw no dresses I thought would do for you. If I were you I would come up and look at some materials in John Lewis's, which is the best for these. I saw some nice navy rayon etc.
with white spots, which would look very nice, and if you had the top part made buttoning down the front and overlapping the skirt, would have the appearance of being outdoor, so would be suitable for street wear. If you decided to come up, I could meet you anywhere and make suggestions. I also have a few things that might do, if you liked them; a grey costume (skirt & jacket) which looks quite nice, if you liked it. If you take a little pains, you will be a very well-turned out woman soon. I hope you won't think this too tedious a fuss; but I think it's nice to be dressed much like other people, which is all I aim at myself. Of course you would always look nice in yourself whatever you wore. Dorothea said once that the Croppers
¹⁷⁸
used to chivy her about her clothes, which, she said, never fitted properly because she got them ready-made and they hung loosely on her. Alfred
¹⁷⁹
too used to nag her about them, as he liked her to look nice when she came to Eton. Still, it is people's own affair how they dress, unless they are the parents of children at school and visit them. Dress has never been a gift in our family; neither father nor mother had it. Do you remember Cape's at Oxford?
¹⁸⁰
Looking back, I see we were dressed most eccentrically.