I have been asked to a Foyle lunch on 31st where the Soviet ambassador is to be the chief guest244; the long telegram which invites me says there will also be present statesmen, scientists, writers, actors, industrialists, athletes, and philosophers; but I don’t expect they’ll all come. Perhaps I shall sit between an athlete and a philosopher, which will be like a banquet in 4th century Athens, only they wouldn’t have asked any dames.
I’m sorry I shall be away on Friday. I go to Dorset for the week end, with my 4 gentlemen friends at Crichel,245 and any one else they may have asked. I hope the weather won’t be very cold. In cold weather there is no place like home. Luckily our management has postponed the operation they threatened on the boiler, so we keep warm. I hope you do, but I wish you too had central heating.
Next Monday I am asked to a sherry party at the clergy house of St Mary’s, Graham Street, one of the most extreme churches (no chalice unless you wait on for it) to meet some young men who it seems were persuaded into Anglicanism by the Towers of Treb. I feel very proud of this. Next thing should be to persuade them into intercommunion with dissenters. I went to the Weigh House again on Sunday evening, and stayed on for the communion. I like the Epistle, very short (in the 1928 P.B., I mean).246 We used it on Sunday at St Paul’s.
Jan. 7. We have the famous Mr Stott lifting our hearts this week: he is the most influential Low vicar in London. I thought him poor yesterday, but good today. Tho’, as he was religious enough at school to pray often alone in the chapel, I don’t quite see why it was news to him to be told of Christ; he should have been told about that before, both at home and at school. But tomorrow he will no doubt ‘accept’ him.
Now I must go on wading thro’ my letters and cards. Writing to you is a restful interlude….
E. M. Forster says ‘What a silly title!’ He is right.
[No signature]
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 17 January, 1958
Dearest Jeanie,
... I enclose our abolition [of nuclear weapons] papers, also the [Church] Unity Week notice; I only got to half this meeting247 as I had to go first to a wedding reception. Neither abolition of nuclear weapons nor of Church divisions got far, I’m afraid. The [abolition] committee discussed and talked too much about differences in wording of our propaganda, instead of making plans. But there is a large public meeting on Feb. 17th, with several good speakers. The Unity meeting was nice, every one very polite and charitable to one another but no definite plans laid. The Methodist speaker248 was v.g. Afterwards some of us went and had supper at a neighbouring restaurant; I was with Gerard Irvine and another priest and two women from Gerard’s parish. The Bishop who had presided249 came over & spoke to us, also the Methodist, both very nice. A R.C. reporter went to visit the Methodist & the vicar of St Martin’s [-in-the-Fields]250 for the Catholic Herald, and wrote a nice ecumenical polite account of what they had said to him. The Methodist, Mr Spivey, he said, had a crucifix in his study, and laid great emphasis on sacraments, as Wesley did. Mr Austen Williams laid more stress on the Good Life. But it was quite a nice useful article to have in the Catholic Herald, and I hope will do good to the more intolerant R.C. writers in it. The editor251 is a v. nice man.
Thank you so much for your letter. I don’t believe Dorothea is right about R.C.s and communion, but I will find out & let you know, and if it is true will certainly go.252 It might be the turning point of our lives, like being converted and accepting Christ. Perhaps however it would be rash, as our C. of E. communions might after that seem empty….
I hear there is no Scottish Episcopal church in London so can’t join it. Yes, Belloc was boring and revolting about the Church. Enough to keep anyone out of it.
V. much love….
E.R.M.
24 January, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
… When next I come we will have a mutual ‘Frankly Speaking’. I should be hopeless at it in public, I am much too shy. Violet B. C. was splendid.253
I thought Unity Week as silly as ever. Simply shadow boxing; drawing red herrings such as ‘getting together’. When it comes to intercommunion, they all say there must be sacrifices on both sides. I see no need for any sacrifices at all; just an announcement from the heads of each church that in future intercommunion with every one else was o.k., and no nonsense about the Pope, bishops, orders, elders, and whatever else they’ve got. I like the article about Dr Fisher254; it is true that he seems sometimes to blow both ways, on many subjects. But I think he wants the right things. I doubt if he’ll get round to stopping nuclear weapons; he is one of the many who think them a good deterrent that will never be used. He doesn’t seem to see that even in the background they are savage. Like announcing that, if people do this or that crime, they will be burnt alive. It would no doubt deter, and would probably be never used, but it would be like having some awful savage standing at the ready in a corner; quite out of keeping with civilisation….
I am now quite sought after by royalty. I have been commanded to dine with H.M. and the Duke of Edinburgh on Feb. 18th. I hope I shall behave rightly. Today I have an invitation to dine somewhere else and meet the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, also on 18th. I won’t reply that unfortunately I can’t because I am dining with the Queen that night, tho’ it is tempting.
I thought Janet Adam Smith very understanding on the ‘Critics’ about The World my Wilderness.255 She is one of the two literary editors of the New Statesman. … The others256were, I thought, quite polite and honest, and I more or less agreed with their views. Of course even if it hadn’t been by me, Arnot Robertson wouldn’t care for a book about ruins, or about ideas; she is all for people and nothing but people. The only thing she liked, she said, was a remark I made about the cook. However I don’t think it matters what the ‘Critics’ say about a Penguin, [when the novel itself was] published so long ago. What I don’t like is the picture of Barbary on the cover, they’ve made her so hideous, and I feel the Penguin audience wouldn’t care for that.
I am reading a lot about Newman, besides this new French Life which is v.g.257 A strange man. Nothing is quoted that he ever said or wrote in letters which isn’t about religion. It must have been very monotonous, and tedious to those of his friends whose interests were different. But an extraordinary number of them just then had the obsession too.
I go on getting furious illiterate letters about Anglicans thinking they have Mass. It is an interesting psychology. They sound like snarling dogs with a bone when they think someone else has a bone like it; or perhaps a woman with an exclusive model dress, learning that others have it too. It seems very shocking & unchristian. I’m glad we don’t write to Nonconformists in that strain, furious because they think they have communion services. I am told there is a great element of bitterness imported by ignorant Irish priests who hate the English. Gerard Irvine was told the other day, apparently in good faith, that of course Protestant priests always repeated what they heard in confession, as they weren’t vowed not to. Nothing he could say convinced the man who told him; he had been told so by his priests, and was sure. Such hate is uncomfortable. I wonder if one day the R. Church will suddenly see the light and realise that it is very wrong. I enclose an article258 by Dr Micklem (‘Ilico’) that I like. May I have it back, sometime, please.
Very much love. Do stay in & keep warm, like me.
E.R.M.
Long Crichel House, Wimborne, Dorset [14 February, 1958] St Valentine’s Day
Dearest Jeanie,
I looked for you on Tuesday after the ceremony,259 and also in the audience room when I came into it after my own bit was done, but I couldn’t see you. I expect you came out before the end. I had to wait till it was over, as all the others did. We all met beforehand in another room, as you did before your investiture, and received instructions. I knew several knights—Julian Huxley, Jim Butler, Steven Runciman, the Master of Pembroke,260 and also met the Bp of Gloucester,261 whom I liked. His knighthood isn’t much use to him, and none to his wi
fe, as they won’t be called sir and lady, which is rather dull… The Queen was very charming, and said nice words to us all. When I got home the Evening Standard rang up asking what she had said to me. I said ‘nothing’. I was half afraid of seeing a heading in the Standard ‘The Queen snubs Dame Rose’, but luckily there wasn’t.
I meant to write earlier, but have been living such a lethargic life in this comfortable house, lying in bed till lunch time nearly, then lunch, then a short stroll of about ¼ mile, then back to more lethargy. Raymond Mortimer is alone here this week, and after the morning, when he works, we talk and read, and it is all very nice.... I am reading a lot of interesting books here. Very much love….
Your loving E.R.M.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 24 February, [195S]
Dearest Jeanie,
Thank you so much for yours, and for returning the Abbot.262The young man263 at the Faith Press, who are publishing the book, thought I hadn’t enough conveyed his charm, which seems to have been almost hypnotic, so I read it again and thought I hadn’t, and put in a few remarks to improve it. I also altered ‘manic depressive’ to ‘paranoiac’, which I am sure is the right word, and what he was. I hope the author of the book, Peter Anson, will think it all right.264 He was really very fond of the Abbot, though brings out his faults clearly. I should like to meet someone who was under him at Caldey,265 but I fancy they are all dead now, except Anson. I can see he might have been fascinating, but I should have been repelled by all that fondling & kissing that went on, as well as by all the extravagance.
I enclose a letter from Dorothea.... I like Fanny Macaulay’s remark to John Cropper about how the paper he made might be used for R.C. tracts.266 I sympathise with her distaste for these.
I am coming in for a lot of Lent addresses just now. We had the Bish. of Kensington267 on Sunday, and he was excellent. On Sunday evening at St Paul’s Fr Harris has started questions and answers instead of regular sermons, and asked us to put questions into a box for answering. A very dull question about church organization was dealt with. The curate told me he was answering next Sunday one about prayer, that he had asked himself, which doesn’t seem to me fair. I put in one. I think it will be a popular service, tho’ the TV religious competition on Sunday evenings is heavy, of course, and will always keep a lot of people at home, till they alter the time of the religious discussion to later in the evening. On Wednesdays [at] lunch-time I see St Cyprian’s [Clarence Gate] is having an ‘Any Questions’ service, which I may go to sometimes when free. I think TV has put the church on its mettle, which is all to the good. I’m afraid I can’t come this week, by the way, as on Friday I dine somewhere to meet the Duchess of Kent, whom I missed by going away before. I hope she is as beautiful as she looks in her photographs….
The rocket site news gets more & more disgusting.268 People write letters about nuclear [disarmament] and ask me to join in signing them, but I seldom do, as they don’t usually say what I think about it. It’s no good saying nuclear weapons aren’t deterrent, they probably are, but are just wrong and cruel and uncivilised, which is the point. Burning people alive for stealing would be a deterrent, but no one now would dream of it as a possibility, we have got past it. But not yet past the dream of mass bombing. I suppose we shall one day. Constance thinks Christ didn’t disapprove of war, but I can’t remember that he ever mentioned it, and he certainly would have disapproved, it seems to me.269 I am reading the Bp of Cape Town’s Uncomfortable Words,270 which I bought, and will give them to you later.
25th. … This fashion for violence at meetings is alarming. The Rent Act one seems to have been terribly brutal.271 I feel like throwing chairs & tables, but refrain. I suppose many young men enjoy violence for its own sake, on whatever pretext; a very alarming symptom.
Very much love.
E.R.M.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 12 March, [1958]
Dearest Jeanie,
... Re religion, I think it would be interesting to note down, day by day, the religions, when known, of the people we meet. If we both do that, and perhaps get Dorothea too (I think it might interest her), we could be a kind of research institute. (Omitting those we only meet in church, and the clergy.) This week I met: Monday, Lunched with a non-religious man (called in my list m.); Tuesday, Lunched with a non. (m); also present 1 R.C. m. (from cradle), 1 non.m…. 1 F. non (lapsed French R.C), 1 m. (lately down from King’s, I think non, but don’t know), and 2 girls not met before, so don’t know. In evening went to church with Anglican priest (no, of course I am not counting these) and his brother, a lawyer, also Anglican (extreme). Today I have had communication with couple upstairs, both non. Also in this block of Hinde House are 3 Jews, I think practising, but I only know one of them well enough to ask; she is Sara, the hairdresser on ground floor. The single Jew has that little token like a snail that they put outside their doors sometimes,272 so I assume he practises. Tomorrow I am going to lunch with a non couple, and will note whom I meet, but usually most are nons there, and mostly literary or political. I had a middle aged Durham carpenter the other day mending my window, and I gathered he was non, from something he said. I find there is a good deal of connection between religion and churchgoing. All believing R.C.s go to Mass (unless excommunicated by un-confessed mortal sin) as not going to Mass on Sundays (when possible) is a mortal sin, a R.C. friend told me. There is a list of these. Lying isn’t, unless complicated by some mortal-sin motive, or mortal in its effects on someone. I think fornication etc. is and must be confessed before communion.273An R.C. (m) told me the other day that he had had a great relief once, some years back, when he made his confession in a strange church, & confessed a great many bad things at some length, and when he had done the priest said a few words in Latin and then absolved him without remark and when he got outside the box he noticed that it was the box for Spaniards, so he concluded the priest hadn’t understood a word of what he had said. I suppose he would know some English, but not enough to follow an English confession. Another time, said this talkative R.C. man, he confessed to a priest who took him for a priest, and was very severe on his sins, till he said suddenly before the end of his lecture, ‘You are a priest, aren’t you?’ When he said no, the priest’s attitude changed, and was quite tolerant and indulgent and he only got the usual nominal penance. I suppose it is right to be sterner with priests.
I will bring on Friday my reports up to then. I expect both you and Dorothea meet more religious people than I do, as literary people seem on the whole apt to be non…. Thank goodness I have at last finished my wretched foreword to Peter Anson’s book about the abbot…. [He] was a most shocking character—someone who knew him advised P.A. not to write his life, but ‘let him be forgotten’….
Very much love.
E.R.M.
20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 [17 March, 1958] St Patrick’s Day
Dearest Jeanie,
Many thanks for C.S. Lewis’s letter274 which I return. It gives quite a reasonable answer, I think. When I read the book I didn’t get it all, e.g. about her [Orual’s] jealousy of Ungit for being beautiful and good. But I read it rather quickly and probably not very carefully, being slightly hampered by its unplaceable period & people.
I am sorry you were worried about me; I was a little tired on Friday, but quite well now. I suppose all our memories are getting muddled; mine is. It is a nuisance, losing things and forgetting appointments and to answer letters etc. But what I’m afraid of is getting the part of my brain muddled which I use for writing. So far I think it is all right, but if it begins to fail, and I find myself unable to put my words together properly, and [start] writing awful sentences, and general low-grade nonsense of the kind I don’t like in many writers, I shall give it up. I don’t actually remember any writers who have gone to pieces in that way thro’ age, so perhaps it doesn’t happen, tho’ one’s intellect certainly fails in business & other matters. But I am relieved to notice that most elderly people go on writing much the same as befor
e....
Do you hear ‘The Way of Life’?275 It seems rather bitty and silly to me. I like more sequence. I was a little disappointed in John Huxtable last week. He wasn’t bad; but I heard him preach such a very good and unusual sermon one evening in the King’s Weigh House, and these morning talks are rather commonplace compared with that. I went to the Weigh House on Sunday morning for their communion service. It is very nice, and very like ours, but we sit in our places, tho’ sometimes we go up to the rail, which I much prefer. Fr Harris on Sunday evening answered my pulpit question about intercommunion; he explained the Church rules about the need for confirmation, and endorsed them, which I suppose officers of the Church must, in public. But he didn’t really answer about our going to dissenting churches. However, I go and like it, tho’ not really so much as our sung Masses. I suppose what some Anglicans would say is that something happens to the bread and wine when consecrated by a priest ordained by bishops which doesn’t happen when not. I wish we knew the earliest history of the development of this view. There is no evidence of it in St Paul’s references to the service. I expect it was thought of pretty early, to enhance the position of the clergy.
Very much love….
E.R.M.
Soon after this Rose had a fall and broke her right wrist and femur. For two weeks she was in Charing Cross Hospital, then University College Hospital. Towards the end of April she was home again.
30 April, [195S]
Dearest Jeanie,
… Today I went to the Orthopaedic276 for arm and hand treatment, by radio [sic] heat, and massage and exercises, and also a little leg treatment. The therapist had heard from Mr Trevor277 that I had mended quickly, and she thought the same herself. She said I should do hand and wrist exercises, and use my hand, as it has got v. stiff and swollen, so I use it much more freely now. She says there is no danger of it coming unstuck. Tomorrow my help comes, so between us we shall get the flat much cleaner. Yesterday I had a nice god-daughter278 to tea, and she did a lot of washing up. She is an interesting girl, and interested also in religion, and can discuss it quite intelligently. Like many of her age she reads a lot of C. S. Lewis.
Letters to a Sister Page 20
