BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, [22 DEC. 1911]
BRACERS 17381. ALS. Morrell papers #292, Texas
Proofread by K. Blackwell et al.

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1^, 2
In the train
Friday

My Darling

What heavenly days these have been — all our talks have been so wonderful. You do give so generously and so whole-heartedly and with such understanding.

You will be surprised to hear that I did tell the porter to water the palm tree. As I had just given him a Xmas box I expect he will. He was much upset, as was my charwoman, by the fact that the owners of the flats lost their action — the jury found that some of the flats were used for improper purposes, which the old scoundrel declared to be such a nuisance to him that he had to leave. The porter poured forth a catalogue of his crimes to me — at last, after detailing his immoralities, he sank his voice to a whisper to reveal the worst — the man was a pro-Boer! After that what could you expect. He wrote a book called the born Uitlander,3 in which this awful fact appears.

Darling I hope you will get rested at Oxford and get your cold better. It is dreary weather, pouring with rain, the country under water — yet there is something pleasant in seeing the green again — London is a prison. Bloomsbury is very immoral — innumerable prostitutes accost me whenever I am out at night. It is unpleasant — if one were doing anything for them one wouldn’t mind so much. I often feel an impulse to talk to them in a friendly way and tell them I don’t want from them what other people want — only cowardice keeps me from doing it.

I hardly know whether this will reach you by the first post tomorrow, but I hope it will. I have written a line to Julian. Goodbye Dearest Love.

Your utterly devoted
B

• 1

  [document] Document 000292. Proofread against a colour scan of the original.

• 2

  [envelope] A circled “292”. The Lady Ottoline Morrell | Black Hall | Oxford. Pmk: ?EBE | 4 PM | DEC 22 | 11

• 3

  the born Uitlander No book was found with quite this title.