Sept 1 Wednesday.

7 pp pages Smuggler

4 pp pages Belisarius

Laura had a bad night: she slept in afternoon, after working on Letter Book.

Letter from Deyá with photographs of the children & of Magdalena: all well.

Harry returned.

Decided to stay in England in spite of Income-tax.

Laura not well: went to bed. Talked to me & Harry about Inside Peoplemost likely refers to Part IV, The Answers--Beginning From the Inside, of The World and Ourselves etc. after supper.

Attempt to torpedo the HavocHMS Havock, Destroyer in Royal Navy eds..

Sept 2 Thursday.

6 pp pages Belisarius ch chapter VII in morning. 2 pp pages in afternoon.

Insurance representative called & asked questions. He was Eric Tattersall's 2 nd cousin & called Mr. Neill.

Laura has felt unlike work for days, but works.

We went by night to Guildford & had drinks in a pub there.

Tomorrow is the day I dreamed of as eventful about five months ago at Lugano.

Sep 3 Friday.

Worked again on the note to my poems, and on the poems themselves.

In afternoon 5 pp pages of Belisarius ch chapter VII and walked back from Cranleigh after a bus ride there.

Laura working on difficult material in the Letter Book: recommendation for good things A Canon of Good Things Part V, (2) of The World and Ourselves eds..

Harry away for the day & night in London.

Laura went talked with me over The Smuggler so far.

* Govt Government capture Belchite: claimed as their most important victory since Guardalajara. My dream?

Short sent us a safe address for uncensored letters.

Sept 4th Saturday

6 pp pages & going over revision of Smuggler.

Letters. Allen, tailors, promise restitution for trousers worn out too soon.

Bus to Cranleigh & returned.

The best day this summer.

Laura working on letter book

I am feeling really well again.

It has not rained for weeks & the ground, which is clay, is all cracks: I lost an arrow head in one of them.

Solace the kitten was given a collar with a bell; caught a huge mouse & chased it round the sitting room for hours. (The bell was off temporarily).

Talked with Laura about the 'emancipation of possessions'for Part V, The World and Ourselves eds..

Sept 5 Sunday

Laura working on letter book still (recommendationsfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. for ownership).

I rewrote the Red Dog, breaking up stanzas (morning & afternoon) & finished it. Then worked again on the Note to the poems.

A lovely day.

Smoking too much.

More work on Smuggler.

Harry went for a walk to Leith Hill all afternoon.

Sept 6 Monday.

Once more working on note to Poems: all morning.

In afternoon & evening 13 pp pages of Belisarius, finishing ch chapter 7.

To Cranleigh on foot, back by car with Laura (police re regarding alienage) & Harry (dentist).

Laura wrote a poem. 'So far moonlight'. My red dog poem needs elaboration, she says.

Sep 7 Tuesday.

Dictated a letter to Strenge.

Laura in bed most of morning: then Karl announced (what we had long suspected) that he & * Marie were in love with each other: & proposed to marry. All right with us.

12 pp pages of Belisarius. Ch Chapter 8.

Usual daily walk from Cranleigh, after bus. there.

Worked over part of ch chapter 1 of Swiss Ghost with Laura who has been writing the Int.Lett. recommendationfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. to do with sex.

Sept 8 Wednesday

Finished going over ch chapter 1 of Swiss Ghost with Laura.

Got the 12 pp pages of Belisarius I did yesterday ready for typing: and went off over typed Ch chapter VII.

Laura and I went to Guildford saw nothing hopeful: decided to go to Hampstead in Nov November .

Alix back in London from Germany.

Sept 9 Thursday.

To Cranleigh by bus & back in morning to be examined by Dr. Cameron on behalf of the Scottish Provident Insurance Co: he took all the usual tests & gave me a clean bill. Said I had a low blood pressure, which accounted for occasional giddiness I get from standing but had no physical ill-advantages. My lungs are perfectly normal. I weighed just under 14 st stone one stone equals 14 pounds eds..

8 pp pages of Belisarius Ch Chapter 8 (but I may put it back into Ch Chapter 7) and then 6 more pp pages .

Harry & Alix will not return till until Saturday.

It rained most of the day: first time for weeks, it seems.

Electric heater needed, first time for weeks, also.

Going over Ch Chapter II of The Ghost with Laura: who has begun dictating the Smuggler to Karl.

Sept 10 Friday.

Went over typed ch. chapter 7 and 8, now completed, of Belisarius.

Chill: went to bed in afternoon.

Listened to Laura's Recommendationsfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. which she has worked on all day: for dealing with misbehaving countries.

66card game eds. seems ended by Karl's thing with Marie.

Walk to Cranleigh & back: brought back fish & writing paper. Green wood-pecker & magpies & cows with calves, (suspicious) rabbits, pheasants.

Cold weather: though sunny.

Sept 11 Saturday

10 pp pages of Belisarius Ch Chapter IX; which is now at 143 typed pp pages , practically half-way, in just over seven weeks.

Walk to Cranleigh & back: no trouble now.

Laura working hard on recommendationsfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds.: this time for a new ethic.

Alix & Harry returned. Alix gave me a bottle of German Kümmela distilled, caraway-flavoured liqueur eds. and Laura an old Florentine glass necklace of 5-piece-crystal & flat- amethyst beads, not graded.

Very cold again.

Finished going over Ch Chapter 2 of Swiss Ghost with Laura.

In Cranleigh I saw Samson & Delilah this years' winning pair of bull-mastiffs: they come from Alfold. They were beaten at Crufts by a pair of toy Pomeraniansdogs eds..

Birth of Jensine Jensen .

Sept 12 Sunday.

8 more pp pages of Belisarius Ch Chapter IX; archery (which Alix mistakenly called lechery) with her & Harry.

Marbles resumed, I won heavily.

At lunch we discussed plans for the winter: A & H did not like the idea of Hampstead.

Harry had shots at a herd of cock-pheasants.

Walked up over the hill & round. Then all 5 of us went in the car to Leith Hill & by the Abingers and Sulton & Shere: contrast between really nice old villages, and Tea-Shoppe and Lavander Ladye places & filling stations

Laura read some Ethic writingfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. to me.

Alan back from Italy

Sept 13 Monday .

10 more pp pages of Belisarius Ch Chapter IX

Thunder and rain; walk to Cranleigh and back in car (Harry from dentist)

Laura doing more 'recommendations'for Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. & starting The Smuggler again.

No;See beginning of this entry eds. 21 pp pages of Belisarius in all, finishing ch chapter IX.

'Les silences de Monsieur Hache' donnent à penser a Madame L. qui s'inquiète Mr. Harry's silence concerns Ms. Laura eds..

Gave Harry & Alix the spare solitaire-board & marbles.

Sept 14 Tuesday

Warmer, & sunny.

In morning 5 pp pages of Belisarius, (starting ch. chapter 10) and going over yesterday's work, adding another page.

I have a lazy habit of writing in bed in my dressing-gown.

Ethel came: talking. The most tiring person woman I know. I took her for a walk to get her at least into out of a confined space. She talked & talked about constipation, bree, communication in the ether (I said, afterwards, I was nearly asphyxiated; because L. called her, afterwards, Ether Herdman), Mallik & his conflict-theory try-out in Nepal. She came as a sort of emissary of M. who is finishing his philosophy book & will then retire to the mountains, having done his duty by the race. We took Ether to Guildford, & then Margaret Russell & Leonard came and was perfectly sweet, with yarns about the Woodsher employers KG.

* Nyon agreementan international agreement made during the Spanish Civil War to protect merchant vessels from submarine attacks . eds. signed.

Sept 15 Wed.

Arrows with Leonard: in competition, with distance handicap.

9 pp pages of Belisarius ch chapter X.

Went to McCormacks at Old Bursledon in time for tea. They go to Jugoslavia Yugoslavia soon.

Stopped at Petersfield on way & bought (all for 8/68 shillings, sixpence eds.) pair of white china candlesticks, pair of Spanish tortoiseshell small-combs, a necklace for Alix, a book on education (1853), a cut fine glass water jug, a pencil stand.

At Bursledon Harry & I went for a walk & found a village speed track and a centenarian (105) old Mrs. Carver walking towards a pub at 7.15 pm. Then a hedgehog came to the door & was given milk.

We talked & played marbles (with Violet McCormack) & the dreadful Usbornes came & Mrs talked all about lending library books.

I slept in the cabin bed in the room with the priest's hole.

Sept 16 Thursday

It was a fine thunder showery day. We spent the morning in Southampton where I (at Gievesnaval outfitters KG) ordered 2 pr pairs of corduroy trousers: grey & brown; & roast beef lunch there at Bursledon , & drove back in the rain: looking at ribbon architecture.

Stomach upset by the drive.

5 pp pages of Belisarius, & going over last 3 day's' work.

Margaret & Leonard's last evening.

Alan returned.

Sept 17 Friday.

Thunder storms, several of them, alternating with strong sun.

Goodbye to Margaret & Leonard & in the evening David Reeves came.

9 pp pages of ch chapter X Belisarius.

Saw some Chippendal Chippendale chairs at Ch Cranleigh: thinking of furniture, now, for flat.

Walk with Alan there: suggested first lines for his poem & mine.

mine: 'That ghosts walk here, forgive me.'an early version of No More Ghosts? eds. Check drafts in Buffalo for this 'first line'. DW

his: 'Marshes|should|not be drained, because....'

Sept 18 Sat

5 pp pages of Belisarius & going over a week's typing.

Archery, nervous stomach, & to Cranleigh & Guildford with David Reeves looking for furniture: no luck.

My two biennial game of chess with Harry: a king left to his king & pawn.

Laura working on Alan's poems with Alan, who went, on poems & with David on Furniture and Harry on Politicsi.e. The Left Heresy in Literature and Life eds. & did some recommendationfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. & then some Swiss Ghost

Sept 19 Sunday.

A difficult and unsuccessful poem about 'The patriarchal Bed'see "No More Ghosts" eds.3 drafts completed ch. chapter X (9 pp pages ) Belisarius.

Laura writing a poem & working with David: who went back after a chicken-tea.

All these days & flights of arrows the target has escaped except from the English arrows. The Indian ones drop all around and graze it by half inches: but never hit.

Sept 20 Monday

Chill in stomach: headache.

Walked to village & bought cost-price kitchen things for the flat we think of taking in Hampstead or Regent's Park.

Also a fourth version (& a new stanza) of yesterday's poem, now called No More Ghosts & Laura approved it after I had changed 2 lines.

Read over Ch Chapter X of Belisarius.

Sept 21 Tuesday.

Went over back chapters of Belisarius, smoothing out contradictions and wrote 9 pp pages of Ch. Chapter XI

Laura has been having trouble with her poem now called Bloom Doom in Bloom & did little else all day but 8 lines of it: but working on recommendationsfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds. late at night.

She & I took a long walk past Karl's house & round by Ewhurst Green – the first together for a long time.

Read Wodehouse's Something Fresh Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse. London : Methuen, 1924. eds.

Bombardment of Nanking

Arrest of Troncoso

Sept 22 Wednesday

Alan sent MalalaJohn Malala eds.'s & TheophanesSt. Theophanes the Confessor (c.732-818) eds. Latin accounts of the Nika riotsa week-long riot that took place in Constantinople in 532 eds. so I had to rewrite Ch Chapter X & add 3 pp pages to it.

C.S.Evans sent a present of six Loebs (FrontoMarcus Cornelius Fronto eds., JeromeSaint Jerome d.419 or 20 eds., ClaudianClaudius Claudianus c. 370-404 eds. 2, EusebiusEusibius, Bishop of Caesarea c.260-c.340 eds. 2).

We went in the car to Holmbury St Mary & walked on Hurtwood Hill – bracken, whortleberries, gorse, heather, New Zealand (?) pines, elephants ear, logan berries & had drinks at the Royal Oak.

Laura working on 'allegiance' recommendationfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds..

3 pp pages of Ch Chapter XI Belisarius.

Sept 23 Thursday

Best day this year.

8 pp pages Belisarius Ch Chapter XI in morning. Walk to Cranleigh and bus back: only shirt & trousers.

M. Hache plus silencieux que jamais, après une promenade de vingt-deux milles Harry more silent than ever, after a 22-mile walk eds..

Feeling that Spanish situation will soon be cleared up: the Troncoso case has just come up come to light.

Alan sent Atlas and more information.

Laura finished allegiance recommendationfor Part V, The World and Ourselves eds..

5 pp pages Belisarius in evening.

Sept 24 Friday.

My corduroy trousers came.

Laura in bed all morning: once more the publishing question owing to disappointment with Seizin sales.

We decided to get some money together and start a school in Deyá.

7 pp pages of Belisarius.

In afternoon L. was exhausted after a long talk with H. and went to bed and had no supper.

Sept 25 Saturday

Heavy bad day.

Laura still in bed & had no breakfast or lunch. Alix sat & talked with her, & so did I.

2 pp pages of Belisarius.

Invented a marble game: same as other but with

figure: sketch of marble board and arrangement of marbles

this arrangement which makes moves very different.

Laura ate su pp pages er & she talked to Harry & me about the teaching of mathematics

I went to Cranleigh by bus & back in the mist, getting wet in the woods.

Three versions of a poem called The Grudge

In Cranleigh I bought Laura an old English drinking glass (9/-9 shillings eds.)to take the place of the one Karl broke while I was in Hospital.

Sept 26 Sunday

More work on Grudge & Laura passed it.

Laura in bed all day: talk again about publishing situation. And in evening with Alix & Harry.

I went for a walk on Hurtwood Hill & got lost in a wood & had to guess my way home by the sun.

Sept 27 Monday.

Funny day. Hot & dull.

1) I had a letter from A.G. to whom Charles & Peggy had accused me of starving Jenny. I wrote to Jenny, ordering her to break with Charles unless he apologised & retracted, and to A.G. informing her of this.

2) Laura after a long break, looking very pale started work, but didn't get far.

3). Karl has been told by Marie that she doesn't like us enough for her to want to marry him: & given notice.

4) Alix had customs troubles over cheese.

5) Harry's tutored pupil flunked again.

6). Sweet letters from Lucie Julie KG – Tom now Commissar of Culture for Time.

7) Solace was away 20 hours.

8) I twice hit the target, once with an Indian arrow.

9) Mr. Burt gave us heather wine.

10) Harry, Karl & I to Dorking: where by a ruse I got the Highcroft advt advertisement from Cubitt & West the agentestate agents eds. which said 2 ¼ guineas not the 3 ¼ we have paid: & then to Down Scott & Down for legal advice. They said no action lay; but there was a further fraud about paying Mr. Burt in which we had right on our side.

11.) I did 14 pp pages of Belisarius ch chapter 11.

12) Talked to Laura (who has been busy straightening Karl out) about Seizin Company.

Sept 28 Tuesday

Yesterday's queerness continued until the early morning: two bats got into Harry's room & mine, Solace had a lover, everyone woke up at 3 & we drank heather-wine in Laura's bedroom & talked, I showed Laura how to deal directly with burglars, Laura advised me to change the outlook of Belisarius from Antonina to a eunuch, Alix's father died at Nürnberg.

11 pp pages Belisarius (end of Ch Chapter XI beginning of XII) letters, walk to Cranleigh & back in the car with Harry & Alix after a haircut.

Revising Belisarius to change authorship.

Marie decided to stay, after a sensible talk with Laura.

Laura doing letters: working with Harry: a poem.

Sept 29 Wed.

Announced as a lucky day for Capricornists (Laura etc) by PetulengroEve Petulengro, famous Romany Gypsy astrologer eds.: but shortly after breakfast she had violent colic pains, & almost sent for a doctor.

I went over typed Belisarius but most of day was with Laura. Bus to Cranleigh, where I bought camomile for Laura, & walked back.

Alix also rather ill: nerves: with repercussions.

On the way home from Cranleigh the little girl who had two days ago said 'That fat man' and whom I had corrected with 'I am tall, not fat' said 'That fat man again.'

Laura did nothing but finish a poem 'Seizure of the World'.

It was a lovely day, for weather.

Reading that awful JeromeSaint Jerome d.419 or 20 eds.'s letters.

Log Entries for Letters from 29 August - 30 September 1937

Letters and Phone-calls.

Sunday. Aug 29th.

To Daily Telegraph (letter)

Monday Aug 30th.

To Julie; Margaret Russell; Rennes; Watt with agreement; Mary Lucy, about crows in her field.

Tuesday, Aug 31st

To Catherine N.; Jenny about flat, refusing guarantee; to David, Catherine, Sam in answer to theirs.

Wed. Sept 1.

Phone-call with Jenny: about flat: discouraging.

Thursday Sept 2.

P.C Postcard to Allen about trousers.

To J.F. about insurance.

Friday. Sept 3

—

Sat. Sept 4.

To Allen agreeing about trousers; to W. McCormack (insurance & letter; paying Dr. Easter for Jenny & asking if there were 2 consultations); to Watt about Lawrence book (will he do what is best now Cape has turned down the lim. ed. limited edition )

Sunday 5

–

Monday 6

To John Lucy: amicable but stern about no separate relation from Laura.

Tuesday 7

To Strenge.

Wed 8

Sam; pc postcard to Neill (insurance): one Robt Robert Andrea re regarding a pt point in Claudius. C.S.Evans re regarding Loeb: night telegram of congratulation to Marguerite: to Alix about McCormacks & visit.

Thurs. 9

To Alix with season ticket. To Jenny. To A.G. Paid Epps Thatcherhomeopathic chemist KG.

Friday 10

–

Sat 11

–

Sunday 12

To Nancy for her birthday.

Sunday 19

—

Monday 20

To A.G., to Jens Jensen.

Tuesday 21.

To Watt: enclosing letter to Scottish Provident guaranteeing that I am myself.

Thurs 23

To Midland Bank Curzon St re regarding Jenny's a/c account To Jenny. (And phone call). To Moraima of Spain (brandy).

Monday 27

To Jenny, A.G., N.N.: all about the Charles libel.

Tuesday 28.

To Evans thanking for Loebs: to Alan about AgathiasAgathias of Myrina c.536-c.582, historian and writer eds. etc.

Wed 29.

To A.G. about Charles again: to Catherine.

Thurs 30.

To Dulan & Brough: ordering books.

Sept 30 Thursday.

Better health day. Laura at work again on Letter Book.

Lovely weather and talk most of morning on whether to go to France or stay in England: decision to withold decision for a month.

19 pp pages Belisarius Ch. Chapter XII

Walk from Cranleigh: have reduced my weight a lot.

Triangular marble contests, new style, between Alix, Harry & myself.

Laura wearing her best red & green brocaded skirt & I my new brown corduroys.