BRACERS Record Detail for 17260
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
"Opposite N. Fenland. Thursday aftn. My Darling—It has been such a comfort all through this journey having your little letter with me."
BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, [14 SEPT. 1911]
BRACERS 17260. ALS. Morrell papers #179, Texas
Proofread by K. Blackwell et al.
Opposite N. Foreland.1, 2
Thursday aftn.
My Darling
It has been such a comfort all through this journey having your little letter with me. It was very dear of you to come to the Nation with it, tho’ it must have confirmed young Rufuskin’s suspicions. I have not met a soul I knew on the journey — hardly anybody is travelling, and I have stuck to 2nd class on the boat. The deck is defaced by a cargo of many pigs’ carcases hung up in open crates, but from a just sense of like to like, the authorities put them among the first class passengers. The sea is quite smooth, and the 8 hours’ crossing passes easily with eating and smoking and Sandra3 and sleeping. I meant to post my last letter at Cologne, but I slept through it, and only woke up later after a long shaking by the ticket collector. The N. Foreland looks rather fine — I never see my native shores without a glow of patriotism.
I am very happy — your image is so vivid in me that I haven’t begun to feel absence yet. And I am very ready to get to work — I want my life to be more useful, not less so, and it is time for me to be hard at work. Writing is pleasanter, but ideas don’t come fast enough to fill one’s whole working time with writing.
Dearest I long to hear everything about you even the smallest things — and how you are and all. There is a great deal more in me than I can yet find words for.
Tomorrow I shall see Lucy Silcox and go to Ipsden. The day after tomorrow I shall hope for a letter from you. Goodbye my dearest Love.
Your utterly devoted
B