"In the sketch I am writing about the early days of the School of Economics. I am devoting one chapter to personal reminiscences of the survivors of the period which I hope to cover, namely, from its birth to the end of the First World War. As no doubt you know, you are the only survivor of the first opening years of the School.... You can see without my having to tell you what prestige it would give my book if I could persuade you to write a short account of anything that you remember of those first years."