BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [28 OCT. 1919]
BRACERS 19575. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Battersea>
Tuesday evg1^, 2

My Beloved

There is not much satisfaction to be got out of the telephone so I am writing to thank you for your lovely letter3 which I found when I got back from Garsington.4 I am sorry you have such a cold — isn’t it cursed? I had a pleasant quiet time at Garsington — I finished Thorndike,5 who is admirable all through — had a very successful lecture yesterday6 — I wonder how The Trojan Women are going7 — by this time you are off the stage — I never paid the good lady8 at No. 34.9 Please give the money for her to Mrs Saich10 — I already owed you some, so I enclose £1 which makes it square if you give her 9/– which is 2/-11 extra for porter etc.

Mont Blanc12 8 on Thursday — I am longing to be with you again my dearest, my Cherub, my lovely Darling — I do love you so much, Beloved — I hope you are happy in spite of your cold — I hope you are doctoring yourself for that and other troubles, and taking care of yourself, and sleeping and eating and being wise as Minerva’s owl13 —

Switzerland can’t be managed — no coal till Jan. 5 in Elizabeth’s chalet14 — so let us go back to Lynton15 for Xmas — and I will go to Holland16 first to see Wittgenstein.17 C.A.18 is really glad it is Lynton, and talks of going before I can come — Goodbye my heart’s Life — A thousand kisses and all my heart —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200565.

• 2

  [date] The date has been assigned because of its contextual relationship to BR’s previous letter (BRACERS 19574), which is dated.

• 3

  lovely letter not extant.

• 4

  Garsington Garsington Manor, near Oxford, the county home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 5

  finished Thorndike Possibly Edward L. Thorndike, Animal Intelligence (London: Macmillan, 1911). BR refers several times to the work in The Analysis of Mind (1921).

• 6

  very successful lecture yesterday BR was lecturing every Monday evening on “The Analysis of Mind”, at  Dr. Williams’ Library. The lecture on 28 October was scheduled to be “III. Desire and Feeling”.

• 7

  The Trojan Women are going Colette was acting in this play at the Old Vic in London.

• 8

  the good lady The char that BR had instructed Colette to hire in his letter of c.20 September 1919 (BRACERS 19564).

• 9

  No. 34 BR’s flat was located at 34 Russell Chambers, Bury Street (later renamed Bury Place), London WC1.

• 10

  Mrs Saich The woman who had been employed by BR for several years as a cleaning lady for his flat.

• 11

  9/– ... 2/– 9 shillings ... 2 shillings.

• 12

  Mont Blanc A London restaurant located at 16 Gerrard Street. It closed in 1928.

• 13

  Minerva’s owl Minerva, in Greek mythology, the Goddess of Wisdom. The philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel, wrote: “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk” (Philosophy of Right preface).

• 14

  Elizabeth’s chalet the Château Soleil near Randogne-sur-Sierre, Valais, Switzerland. Elizabeth Russell was BR’s sister-in-law, now permanently separated from his brother, Frank.

• 15

  Lynton in Devon where Colette, BR and Cifford Allen had spent Christmas the previous year.

• 16

  Holland BR stayed in The Hague until 20 December. “We spent a week arguing his book [Tractatus] line by line” (Auto. 2: 98, 100). In his 16 December letter to Colette he wrote “We have now gone through his whole book point by point” (BRACERS 19598).

• 17

  Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), eminent philosopher and former student of BR’s. BR would be seeing him for the first time since World War I began. Wittgenstein, an Austrian, fought on the side of Germany.

• 18

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For further information on Allen, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.