Letters to a Sister (7 page)

... I have been
very
busy lately, and not able to do scarcely anything beyond my Anthology,
⁷⁵
which seems to demand more than one person's full-time work, to get it done in the time. There is such a
huge
mass of literature to look at, in various languages and all ages; I don't seem able to get past the fringes.

It was very nice seeing Miss Browne
⁷⁶
again—she is as nice as ever. It is good to find that we weren't mistaken in our adolescent passion. It is nice to meet and talk as equals. I feel she has such an interesting mind that one could talk easily for hours. She is now 70; and I somehow felt a little sad in some ways—at least, she said she wouldn't mind dying. I so much should that I am always sorry when people feel that. I think she would like to live alone; she has a great love of solitude and freedom, and does live with a sister. She was just off for 3 weeks by herself on the Yorkshire moors, which she obviously felt would be a great rest; not having to say (as she put it) when you are coming in, or where you've been,
or whom you met, or anything else. We agreed that living alone is a wonderful thing—if one likes it. But we also agreed that there are very many who would hate it.

No, I don't see the
Church of England Newspaper.
Do you take it in? I don't feel
very
strongly about Intercommunion, but will join a society for it if you do. The whole thing is, of course, ludicrous; but I don't actually understand it, it all seems too trivial to be visible, almost, with all the important things to be done for people. I suppose Rome should lead the way—but won't, of course…

12 o'clock striking, I must dash out with this. Very much love. Pepys says Deal
⁷⁷
was a very mean little place in 1661.

Your loving
E.R.M.

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
   9 December, [1934]

Dearest Jeanie,

... The League of Nations Union do publish a lot of rather useless stuff, I think. Still, I am sure one ought to support them. I have been sending ‘messages' etc. to say I approve of the Referendum;
⁷⁸
I really can't see what harm it can do, and I do think it is good for us to be made to think.

No, people don't at all agree about the answers. Quite a lot of people don't see any point in abolishing private arms manufacture, and don't think it more dangerous than to have it in government hands. What we all
are
agreed on, of course, is in wanting peace; the rest is just a question of ways of obtaining it, and thousands of people say this is so much a matter for experts that it is a pity the public should even think about it. I can never see this point of view, and think the more we think and say about it the better. But the government
says it may hamper them in their dealings with foreign governments, if the people of England have stated what they think about such things. It is all very difficult.

‘Justice' is, of course, a fine slogan. But, in such an unjust world, a dangerous one. I mean, how are we to bring it about, except by force, and force is the thing to avoid. What is the good, e.g., of the League of Nations Union shouting for justice for German Jews, Socialists, and Democrats, or for Italian Democrats, or Russian bourgeoisie, or for Hungarians in Jugo-Slavia (though this they are doing) when it can't enforce it? Of course the League itself is working half its time on all these European things, oppressed minorities, etc., but the drawback is that no one seems to care twopence about the oppressed of other nations except us, except when they are of their own political party. So we get called busy-bodies: as, indeed, we are, and always have been. We annoyed Europe dreadfully in the 17th century by sending deputations abroad to investigate continental cruelties and we are still at it. I
think
it's a good thing, on the whole, though it makes us unpopular.

I am sending you the Christmas number of
The Spectator,
with a series of articles on the English character in it. I wrote on ‘Have we improved?'
⁷⁹
Of course we have. You might see if you agree (p. 792). If you have any time, read the others too…

Very much love…
   
E.R.M.

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
23 January, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

… Will writes that he is sorry to disappoint Uncle Regi,
⁸⁰
but that the chances of his marrying are negligible, whatever accrued to his bank account by doing so. He says that if he had been told this 20 years ago, he might have done something about it, though probably not, but that now it is n.b.g. Still, all this might be upset if he should meet the right woman, and I'm sure the knowledge that he would be able to support a family comfortably would put him in a better mood towards her…

Are you interested in the making of English Saints? I enclose an article I wrote for
The Spectator
on it,
⁸¹
hoping the Archbishop of Canterbury might read it and act on it. I don't see why the saints should all be left to the R.C.'s. They say no-one else knows where the dead are, whether in heaven or not, and you mustn't saint a man who is elsewhere. More
⁸²
and Fisher
⁸³
are good ones, but are only sainted, of course, because they were executed by Henry VIII for not acknowledging him head of the Church. I think some of Bloody Mary's martyrs should be sainted too…

Very much love.
E.R.M.

7, Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
17 February, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

... I am sorry I disappointed you about the saints. Perhaps I dislike that particular kind of sanctimoniousness too much to be fair to it. It always makes me think of Suor Commanina, at the Convent School,
⁸⁴
turning up her eyes like a Madonna, or, worse, turning them down in the street when a man passed, saying to us
‘Abasso gli occhi!'
⁸⁵
But even to that one should be fair, of course; and I dare say a sympathetic (and amusing) picture might be made of it; only a 600-word article about another person (Sir T. More) gives little time.
⁸⁶
To-day, I have been writing about the King of Abyssinia
⁸⁷
—again, far too shortly, as I've been reading masses of stuff lately about both him and his country (some lovely 16th century travels there written by a Portuguese missionary,
⁸⁸
and other things) and a shameless Italian publication about how fertile the country is, and how it
‘fa piangere il cuore'
⁸⁹
to think how it is being wasted by not being cultivated by Italians. They are determined to get hold of it, I'm afraid. Of course I haven't touched on that, only on the king, and legends of his country & history, and about his coronation 4 years ago. Really, I should like Italy to get the country, if they could without fighting, but of course they can't. And, as someone lately pointed out, it is several centuries since Italians won a battle. They ran away every time in the last war. A British Tommy from the Italian front told some one I know that ‘the French used to shoot them in the back'—rather annoyed that he wasn't allowed to do the same, apparently. Anyhow, out of all I'd been reading about Abyssinia I had to pick 600 words only, so it was very poor.

I don't agree about human nature being the most delightful thing we know. I think many things are more so. Think of a lovely mountain side, smelling of lemons and silver with olives, and the sea below. Or a coral lagoon, with coloured fishes swimming in it. I won't mention poetry, because you will say it is by human beings…

Very much love.
   
E.R.M.

15 September, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

... I am sending you an article by Inge on our animal brethren,
⁹⁰
to help you in your relations with them. I will also send the
New Statesman
presently, which has a nice article by Y.Y.
⁹¹
on how much the nations value each other's good opinion,
⁹²
and an article which interested me on contraception.
⁹³

Aren't you relieved about France coming down on the League side?
⁹⁴
It seems to have had no effect so far on Mussolini, who announces that Italy is strong enough to fight the whole world, but it is a comfort to have France with us about it, instead of having to make a fuss alone. Only I expect we shall between us force some arrangement on Abyssinia which she doesn't want. Mussolini seems to get madder & madder; I hear that when Eden tried to talk to him at Rome in the summer, it was quite impossible; he would only shout and thump the table and froth at the mouth, just like Goring. Dictatorship has a terrible effect on the human reason.

Will suggests that everyone should draw lots, and the shortest would have to shoot the Duce. I quite agree. It would be a noble death for the assassin. I
do
wish some one would; I don't believe anything else can now stop this business. Do you think I ought to go out and have a try, as I feel so strongly about it? I don't feel it would disgrace the family name, but rather honour it. I should have done that which was righteous in the sight of the Lord, also of the nations. I should probably be made an Abyssinian saint. Tyrannicides used to have statues erected to them in old days…

I think [H.G.] Wells is right about the moral character of the brain being affected by a flaw. One has to judge morality and immorality from the outside standpoint, and if a person has a brain that doesn't see that stealing is wrong, and steals, he would be called immoral by others, I suppose (unless he was definitely imbecile). Still, I don't remember the passage, and might not agree with it if I read it. Wells is very interesting to talk to about his family—he is fond of them, but they annoy him, he says, by their narrowness, and by ‘the accent of their minds'. He is a most loveable person, somehow, in spite of his faults; and very friendly and kind to me always, which I always feel rather odd, we are so different…

I had a beautiful day yesterday, driving to Surrey and walking for 3 hours over Leith Hill—very wild and beautiful. I went to see Stane Street,
⁹⁵
the bit of Roman Road they've been clearing on Leith Hill common. They've cleared the brambles and trees away from about 100 yards of it, and come on Roman cobbles and flints that paved it; they are laying turf over it. It seems to have run for miles, right across that part of Surrey; a queer feeling it gives one, standing on it. I don't wonder Mussolini gets maddened by his Roman heritage and wants to conquer the world…

[No signature]

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
6 October, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

Thank you for yours of Sept. 25th. Since then, the world has been turned upside down by this wicked man (‘the Duce, he goes too far', the Italian fruiterer at the corner of East Street says)
⁹⁶
... I see on the placards that Adowa has fallen;
it was bound to, of course. It is all too ghastly. The one bright spot is the almost universal (outside Italy) feeling that it is a very wicked war. In England only Garvin in
The Observer
and the
Daily Mail
think otherwise. But I am dreadfully afraid, now that France has refused to take part in any but the mildest and most useless sanctions, that the League can do nothing to stop it. And that idiot Garvin going on ‘Do be cautious, or Italy will leave the League'—as if a country behaving like that was any use in the League. I went to Mass at the Italian Church in Hatton Garden
⁹⁷
this morning, to see if the sermon mentioned the war. It didn't, but was on the text ‘Do to one another as you would be done by', and was about how Christians should love each other, and especially Catholics; there was no hint that Christians were failing in this just now. I suppose he didn't want to annoy his congregation of patriotic Italians.

Did you hear Inge the other evening on the Dangers of being Human? I didn't, but read it later in
The Listener,
and thought it very good.
⁹⁸
To-night I shall hear Robert Lynd on Belfast
⁹⁹
—only I don't believe he will be audible, he has a very low, gentle, murmuring Irish voice…

I have changed my car… my new car is another Morris, only a year old, and with very little use before I had it; it is rather smaller than the other (10 h.p.) and handier, and goes much more quietly (I mean, makes less noise). I like it very much. Having a new car should have been one of my Pleasures.
¹⁰⁰
The temptation is to drive about all day and do no work. I went to Richmond Park yesterday, it was lovely, all yellowing, and the deer very tame...

Very much love.
   
E.R.M.

Do you see
The Listener? How
rude Chesterton is in his letters to his critics!
¹⁰¹
Almost incredible.

6 November, [1935]
¹⁰²

… I'm glad our foolish broadcast
¹⁰³
came over well. I was rather alarmed on Sunday at being rung up by... the
Express,
asking me if I would ‘like to mike a stitement' about my mention of various advertised products, which the B.B.C. has a rule against mentioning (which I quite forgot when speaking). I said the Debate was unrehearsed, and that I had made whatever jokes came into my head. They obviously thought I had taken bribes from Kruschen and Lux. They said they were going to ‘feature' it, but fortunately they didn't—perhaps I persuaded them it was too silly… anyhow I was much relieved…

Much love,
   
E.R.M.

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1 10 November, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

… My reason for voting for the Labour candidate in Marylebone is to increase the opposition to the Conservative candidate,
¹⁰⁴
who is a safe winner... It is very bad for any member to have a safe seat. So I am urging my fellow
Marylebonians to vote for Dr Elizabeth Jacobs, the Labour candidate, on these grounds. They are all Conservatives, but quite see my point, and agree with me that a few more votes against our member would do him no harm, but stir him up. I agree with you that I don't want Labour in at present. For one thing, I don't like any of their leaders much. And their policy of nationalizing the Banks would send down our world credit, and make trade recovery harder. I am all for Socialism later, but not yet. Though really, what all the parties promise us is so much the same that it doesn't seem to matter who gets in. Of course the National Government is safe to win as a matter of fact... (I am voting for A. P. Herbert for Oxford.)
¹⁰⁵