March 1 Tuesday.
A bad day somehow: slack weather.
To dentist – my gum inflamed – he says it must be operated on. Suggests at Cranleigh – I can't get there manage that.
At Mr Mills bought pair of Staffordshire dogs for Honor 7/67 shillings, sixpence eds..
Trojan Ending.
Long talk with Laura until late (she wearing her white flannel dress with the Mallorquin buttons) about count-on-ability of friends and their seriousness.
Norman came to supper and took part in the talk until he went at 11.30. His Mitzi has gone off her head: guilt-fantasies and is in an observational ward.
March 2 Wednesday
Trojan Ending: several letters, long ones.
Len to lunch & all afternoon with Laura making out Pilgrim ProspectusPilgrim Trust Prospectus KG.
To Mills bought 'A Voice from the Main deck' and a Georgian Travel Book 3/-3 shillings eds.. Also a Finnish bone spoon with reindeer 2 and got back amethyst-&-brass beads from restringing.
Laura finding Letter Book very sticky.
A charming walk with her, along Hamilton Terrace, Hall roadWestminster eds.. We discussed prologue to Trojan Ending play.
Constant iodining of my gum.
March 3 Thursday.
Trojan Ending all day.
More money wanted by Jenny for Liverpool.where she found work with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre. eds.
A black kitten from the Square came in to play with SolaceGraves' cat eds. and was the principal topic of the day. Would not go. Also a new moon.
With L & Karl to see Tanny Brown's pictures at the Storran gallery: nice but nothing must-buy-it.
Tea at an A.B.C. A woman coming from Walt Disney's Snowwhite
Snow White
an animated film released by Walt Disney in 1937 eds. to waitress: 'yes, I liked it, it was different from the ordinary.' The waitress agreed.
Laura joked about a book 'Ordinary from the different.'
Juan of the Moli got 12 years, it seems.in prison? eds.
Bought for £1.1.0 a pair of Norwegian house-slippers (Burlington Arcade).
Laura unwell, went to bed early. I read German peasant-revolt history to/her.
March 4 Friday.
Trojan Ending: ¼ way through rough draft.
Laura still a bit weak.
Jenny goes to Liverpool tomorrow.see note for March 3rd entry. eds. Once more paid her debts & gave her blessing. She stopped to lunch.
To Dr. Stobie who said I must go to nursing home on Monday & have wisdom stump cut out.
On return found Margaret. Walked with her in Park & with her all day until she went after supper.
Then L & I went to Mount Royal where Honor & Gordon told us at great length their experience at Borley Rectory, Suffolk with the ghost and Norman & Noni Lloyd Williams. It seems a great muddle of old fashioned Ingoldsby Legend
The Ingoldsby Legend, or, Mirth and marvels by Thomas Ingoldsby. London: R. Bentley, 1879. eds., ghost-nun badness of the original rector Mr Bull, a poltergeist child of a later Mr. Foyster (who kept a diary) and the spiritualism of present incumbent, Mr. Henning.
March 5 Saturday
Trojan Ending
: finished draft of Act 2 Scene 1.
Lunch with A.G. and two brothers, protegés; Ernest York an officer in the
S.
South
staffs., Alan York an interne in London
Hosp.
Hospital
Ernest intelligent, good-hearted. Alan opiniated, ambitious. Walked across the Park to the Zoo where I left them and ran into Sally & she had
Richard. Laura had been working with Len.
A Koran from Mr Mills.
Jenny went to Liverpool.see note to March 3rd entry. eds.
Supper.
Alan, Beryl, Laura, Marie, Karl, me, chicken.
To bed early.
March 6 Sunday.
Walk up Marlborough HillWestminster eds. and then to the right:
investigation
investigating
a group of houses under demolishment. Rescued a broken majolica flowerpot holder from a cellar. Brought it back because it had the pieces inside & Karl & I repaired it. Wrote a factual account of it.
Karl took black kitten as a present to Alan & Beryl. +
Helping Laura with clerical jobs on Letter Book.
With L to Big Broadcast of 1938
The Big Broadcast of 1938
(1938) movie directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring W.C. Fields eds. at Plazacinema KG (W.C. Fields(1880-1946) America comedian and actor eds. and a liner)
* 'BalearesSPS Baleares eds.; cruiser KG' sunk off CartagenaMurcia, Spain eds..
+ It died later.
March 7 Monday
To Duchess Nursing Home & operation on tooth at 2.30. by Stobie,
anaethetist
anaesthetist
Dr. Young Johnson.
He took out impacted wisdom tooth & tooth next door.
In the morning I had been reading L's Letter Book.
Alan & Beryl stopped the night with Laura.
I was interested in waking up on the great gap between orders given by mind & the physical actions, which seemed violent and disconnected.
March 8 Tuesday
Feeling a bit jarred.
Read a bit more of Letter Book, back after lunch.
Laura working with Len.
Belisarius chosen for April by Book Society.
Cassels may do Dictionary.
* Marie & Karl decided to leave us.
We go went to Josef's with Norman... Mitzi is violently insane... he has decided against Nella because of one Gerald Fox-Edwards intervening.
March 9 Wednesday
The problem of a job for Karl wastes a lot of time.
Toothache.
Tidying documents etc.
Dinner with Harry & Alix.
Trojan Ending.
March 10 Thursday
Struggling against toothache.
To Mr Mills bought gilt-frame & a bone ring made by Napoleonic prisoners, 2.9d2 shillings, ninepence eds. the pair.
Honor to supper & Alan & Gordon after.
Annoying paragraph in Standard confusing a statement I have made about Belisarius, involving me in an apology to L.H.
Head no good. Long talk with Jenny.
Extraordinarily hot weather.
x Insurgents recapture Belchite.
Depressed at Belisarius atmosphere of success.
March 11 Friday.
Jaw less swollen (iodine, mouthwash, veganinVeganin: a headache-relief medicine that contains codeine and caffeine eds.)
Hot weather continues.
Trojan Ending.
Len to lunch: talk of forming a company for his films.
Went over Letter Book checks with Laura.
* SchuschniggKurt von Schuschnigg (1897-1977); Austrian Chancellor KG resigns, following a German ultimatum of invasion.
Invasion of Austria.
March 12 Saturday.
Austrian sensation clouds the day.
To Mills (closed) so to old man in East Street & bought 3/6d3 shillings, sixpence eds. worth of marbles. Filled a bottle with them as a flower vase. Back across Spring-like Park.
Proofs of the Lawrence book all day.
Harry worked with Laura in early afternoon.
Karl chopped bit off forefingerleft KG.
SolaceGraves' cat eds. a great nuisance with heat.
Still jaw-ache.
March 13 Sunday.
Finished Lawrence proofs.
Len to lunch – no
, after.
Jaw-ache still.
Decision about Jenny: £4 when out of work, none when in, suspension of visits. Rang up L.H. who read me his note to Times & elsewhere about the military necessity of Czechoslavakia and the strategic crux being Spain. I suggested that he put it up to Churchill. SolaceGraves' cat eds.'s first love; with Mr. Fisher.
John & Lucie to high tea. stayed
till
until
10. They are at EppingNorth-east of London eds. & are buying a successor to slain Courtenaycat KG.
March 14 Monday.
June weather still; jaw and headache.
To Mr Mills across the Park and back. Bought Claude Lorraineartist (1600-1682) eds. mirror for John & brooch for Lucie, riding earrings for Laura 1.3d1 shilling, threepence eds., got back verge-watchVerge clock KG, bought
Beny
Ashantee
Ashanti
West African eds. bronze alligator charmgold weights: the first of many KG with immediately felt properties.
W. & D. Hutchinson to tea + Wanda.
L.H. proofs.
Dinner and row with Maisie. She accused L of changeableness about people.
Finally apologised.
March 15 Tuesday
L.H. proofs
all day.
To Mr Mills. Another
Ashantee
Ashanti
West African eds. charmgold weight KG 5/-5 shillings eds.. Tie pin with black mother-of-pearl (a gift).
Worked late with checks of Letter Book.
Norman has finished with Nella: she talked too much.
March 16 Wednesday .
L.H. proofs all day except for a moment on Swiss Ghost.
Margaret came & went for a walk with me. I bought her 2 silver brooches at Mr Mills & a 1750 Turtleshelltortoiseshell KG box 12/612 shillings, sixpence eds. for us.
Laura working with Len.
x Government retake Caspe.
Critical day in European situation. Russian-French British staffs confer.
March 17 Thursday
Jaw better. Laura slept
till
until
1.
Finished L.H proofs – extremely laborious job.
Honor & Alan & Laura working on Peace play.
Cummingse.e. cummings KG sent collected poems.
SolaceGraves' cat eds. surrounded by cats
Chamberlain
Govt
Government
about to fall, it is rumoured.
Honor stayed the night.
March 18 Friday.
A little more work on L.H. & R.G. proofs. Then to L.H. to lunch and went over points. Mrs L.H. was very childish & hopelessly chaotic. A friend Mrs Innes Baron was there. Most of my talk with L.H. about L.R.
's point of morality + armed forces without political intervention, and about historical analogies. He was very sensible.
Back to find Laura, Len & Humphrey Jennings(1906-1950) broadcaster for the BBC eds. talk. He was supposed to be arranging a broadcast for her but went away saying nothing: after much talk about morality, Mass Observation, Surrealism etc.
Laura worked with Len – then felt very tired.
Talk of Protocol.
Laura writing the 13th Recommendationfor Part V of The World and Ourselves eds..
Finished 2nd Act of Trojan Ending.
March 19 Saturday.
David Graves came in morning and there was talk all day – he is going to the Continenti.e. Europe eds. & is also thinking about what to read at the University etc.
Then tea Harry & Alix (Alan & Beryl & a person called 'Pina?' a German refugee.) then David again & Len & Jane & Harry & Alix again. I got hysterically over-tired. Len was talking about a subject for his 3-minute G.P.O. Film, and we making suggestions.
Adler picture back with its frame painted ivory.
Alan & Beryl's black kitten died of flu.
March 20 Sunday.
It has been fine, rainless weather now for three weeks.
Trojan ending Scene 1, Act III.
Laura writing 13th recommendationfor Part V of The World and Ourselves eds..
David to lunch.
Montagu & Dorothy Simmonds to supper & talk
till
until
11.30: in preparation for March 26th: their side of the matter, the problem of articulation. Discussed the reactions likely from various classes of people.
March 21 Monday
Karl typing again.
My jaw practically all right – no more veganinVeganin: a headache-relief medicine that contains codeine and caffeine eds., but occasional iodine.
David & his friend Michael Marks, CCC
Christ Church College? KG undergraduate to lunch. They went off at nine to Paris and Italy with letters to Jean FayardFrench author (1902-?) eds., in Paris, R. Bottrall in FlorenceItaly eds., G. Schwarz in Bolzano
Lugano KG or wherever, & Peter Brown in Belgrade.
G. Murphy in afternoon: good-intentions, diffused practise.
Trojan Ending Act 3 Scene 2.
At Mr Mills bought a flower picture & frame & a set of green Indian jade beads 7/67 shillings, sixpence eds..
March 22 Tuesday.
Laura writing 13th recommendationfor Part V of The World and Ourselves eds. still.
More of Act III Scene I T.Ending.
Headache.
Bought two 3dthreepence eds. necklaces in the Church St. (Marylebone) street market and consisting of mohogany beads, red trade beads, bobbin beads, Egyptian, ebony and with the green Indian jade made 3 necklaces. Len in afternoon: with Laura.
Norman to supper and L. worked on Rimbaud.
Rebel
Aragon
offensive halted at: new one at Huesca begun.
March 23 Wednesday.
Finished first draft of Trojan Ending play.
Spring flowers and a Lithograph from John & Lucie.
Made a flower & bead and marble design in an olive-jar.
Laura did a 3-minute Savings Bank script for Len: still on International Letter book.
I have not read a book, except in the course of work, for weeks: or written a poem.
Checking proofs of Laura's Collected Poems.
Insurgents advancing again.
March 24 Thursday
Three drafts of a poem about Doing Nothing.
Across the park to Mr Mills in search of a gift for Julian: but we will keep what I got – an 18th century English carillon of 8 bells (silver-brass)musical instrument eds. on a Sussex iron stand. (7/67 shillings, sixpence eds.)
Established a second flower-&bead &-marble-jar and found covers for both at Mr Mills' – a pair of Royal Staffordshire blue Pekin little plates. Laura worked with Len.
Bridget & Norman to supper
(Laura made a new dish – turnip & strawberry)
Then George & Mary Buchanan and Sally: talk about moral-protocols.
Chamberlain's equivocal foreign policy speech.
Enclosure – Cutting from
Spectator
Powerless in the Matter
[fold-out cutting of RG's article about the cottage in Sospan Fach, p.1.]
[fold-out cutting of RG's article about the cottage in Sospan Fach, p.2.]
March 25 Friday
Last draft of I did Nothing*, then it was typed. Revised first draft of Act I, Scene 1, T.Ending.
At Mr Mills bought a Chinese lion & a Staffordshire lamb for Julian: also a round gilt frame for ourselves. (2/02 shillings eds.)
Laura on last pages of World & Ourselves
Checked another
batch of page-proofs of her poems. Alan & Beryl helped her with typing (Karl having a
kold
cold
)
Wet day.
A.G. came in afternoon.
* Later called Idle Hands
March 26 Saturday
(Laura working till 6 am)
Going over draft of T.Ending.
James & Mary to lunch: then a meeting to decide on moral action to be taken by inside people: for outside disorders. Present:
Laura
|
Len
|
Alan
|
Tanny Brown
|
Beryl
|
Myself |
Maisie
|
George Buchanan
|
Mary Buchanan
|
Winifred Holmes
|
Honor
|
Jack Holmes
|
Mary Philips
|
Montagu
|
Catherine Vandervelde
|
Dorothy Simmonds
|
Norman
|
Gordon
|
James
|
Harry
|
John
|
Alix
|
Lucie
|
Ward
|
David Reeves
|
Dorothy Hutchinson
|
(Sally absent) |
|
Laura talked for about half an hour and then nearly everyone did:
no arguments. Agreed to draft a moral protocol on Sunday week.
John, Lucie, Montagu & Dorothy to supper: they made a good together.
Tanny gave us a brass
Ashantee
Ashanti
West African eds. scorpiongold-weight KG.
New Franco advance towards Lerida.
March 27 Sunday
Laura slept from 10.30 pm to 1 o clock the next day.
I made a necklace with gold beads Lucie brought. and another with left-overs called Ex Africa
Trojan Ending revising.
Laura correcting poem proofs.
A walk down to Paddington St.i.e. Mr. Mills' KG
Then with Laura
Harry & Alix to Piccadilly, & coffee at the Café Royal.
March 28 Monday
Trojan Ending revise, finished Act I
* Laura finished World & Ourselves & gave it to A.S. Watt who came for sherry.
In Praed St bought Delft (Rouen) cat with blue pictures on its back, white Bristol beads, a long string, with purple centres, a Rouen Delft plate (Ibis & snake),
marbles, 14/614 shillings, sixpence eds. in all and at Mr Mills a steel reliquary for 7/6.
Franco takes Fragacity near Lérida, Spain eds..
Began a poem about great-grandmothers
The Great-Grandmother
eds..
In the evening for hours L, Alan & I tried to find words for the inside way of doing things; all good words either stiff or tainted.
March 29 Tuesday.
More work on poem about great-grandmothers
The Great-Grandmother
eds..
Trojan Ending Act II
Karl went to see a firm
J. Walter Thompson KG about advertising work.
Checking another set of proofs of L's poems and helping her compose a letter about publicity on same.
A.G. to lunch & goodbye.
Laura worked on Damage and Harry's book
The Left Heresy KG now nearly done.
March 30 Wednesday.
Finished The Great Grandmother
Spring cleaning in the drawing room.
Lunch with Len and Laura at McWhirter's.
Laura went to Passport placeQueen Anne's Mansion KG.
Ethel stopped the night.
In the Praed St shop bought a Waterford tumbler 7/-7 shillings eds.
+, a Bristol purple glass vase with blue rims 7/67 shillings, sixpence eds., a Chinese star-on-wood necklace 2/-.
Government counter-attack at Teruel.
L. worked on protocols.
+ to John Aldridge.
Enclosure – Postcard to
RG from
David Graves
Robert Graves,
Esq.
Esquire
,
31, Alma Square,
N.W.
North Way
8
LONDON
INGLETERRA
(?)
Dr
Dear
R & L,
Am in FlorenceItaly eds.– been here 3 days & Paris 3 days. Going to Venice in 3 days. So far have had marvellous time; Italy more enjoyable than France. Lovely people; & amiable too. French
& nondescript.
Horrid ride round in Paris but Concorde, Tuileries etc up to expectation. Love wide boulevards & trees (now out) & fountains. Stayed in Latin quarter by Pont Neuf. Went through bed, but didn't matter. Called on FayardJean Fayard, French author eds.
& Reeves.Reeves? May be related to James Reeves: possibly his brother David? eds
F
Fayard
was away,
R
Reeves
in NiceFrance eds. but rather uninteresting. Called on Bottrall in FiesoleItaly eds.. Pleasant and amusing. Nicest country I've ever been in. My partnerMichael Marks, colleague of DG, see 21 March, 1938 Diary entry eds. has come across 7 people up at Oxford with him, 6 at C. Church, all except 2 wandering about by themselves.
Have not been round galleries – spend most of time walking round city & looking at it from various hills. People v. poor, but clean, healthy & beautiful. No slums in the English sense.
Returning in a week or two.
Love.
David.
P.S.
Post Script
Shall be returning to
Florence in
March 31 Thursday.
Finished revise of
T.E. Act 2 Scene 1
This is the best March there has ever been in England.
In the Church St. market bought 12 good china sandwich plates (Burslem) 2 bigger plates & an oval dish for 1/6d1 shilling, sixpence eds.
Laura working on the Protocols
.
Worked for 2 hours with L.H. on cross-references in proofs of Lawrence book.
Ethel went after tea.
Supper to Rebecca Clarke's with L – JulianJulian Sorrell Huxley, scientist KG & Juliette Huxley (after about 14 years). He had sinus trouble, was nice. She was a sceptic, a left, had lost all personal intuition. Rebecca was bright and regarded all arts as the same, and the fact she was a woman not a man as an unimportant accident.
Checking L's collected poems proofs
Copies of Belisarius sent.
Log Entries of Letters for March, 1938
Letters
March 1
Haas photograph, Flower photograph. John.
2
Ward cheque. Barber cheque. A.G., Aunt Agnes. Nancy. A.G again. Trace. Pinker.
4
Garnett, N.N., Jonathon, Garnett.
6.
David, Roz, for birthdays.
10.
L.H.
Haas. Barker. Bank (cheques). Flower.
11.
Library Review. Twentieth Century Fox.
13
Jenny. Nancy. E. Eliot.
14
Watt. AnaestheticianDr. Johnson; see 7 March, 1938 eds..
15
Eliot, E.
Faber. Flower.
21
Desmond Flower. Lucie about beads.
23.
N.N. (various
p.c.
postcards
's about Saturday).
24.
'Europa' publicationspublisher of reference books, including Who's Who eds..
25
Ann Walker, New York Times
30
NamierSir Lewis Bernstein Namier? (1888-1960), historian eds.
31.
Belisarius to Brooke, C.S.Evans, M. Evans,
Grenville
, A.G., Sally, Barker.