"A decree nisi was granted in the Divorce Court to-day to Countess (Dora Winifred) Russell, of Telegraph House, Harting, near Petersfield, Hants."

"She petitioned for divorce from Bertrand Arthur William Earl Russell, on the ground of his alleged misconduct with a Miss Marjorie Spence, since the beginning of 1933."

"I received your letter of the 3^rd with the valuable letter from Randall which however would lead to something more valuable if we could obtain a statement from the acquaintance of a friend of his at whose house Dora committed adultery in the summer of last year. Would Randall be willing to give us any names and addresses to enable us to pursue the enquiry?"

"With reference to my letter to you of yesterday about Randall's letter, the words at the end 'to pursue the enquiry' should not be stressed. If the names and addresses are now available, and it would not upset Randall for you to ask him to give them to you, I think it would be worthwhile to ask him, but it probably would be wise to let him know that what he said could be substantiated in case of need, and that at present you were not intending to take any steps."

"The children are now Wards of Court, and apparently must remain so unless the Court sees fit expressly to discharge them from its care. But although they are Wards of Court, the Common Law custody by the father remains until it is varied by some Order."

BR requested changes to be made to the insurance policies: "... and of the two changes in the Contents Policy which stands in your own name, namely, that the cover of £2,250 in respect of your own furniture and effects will be increased to £3,000, while the entry as to School Furniture to the sum of £30 will be deleted. The Policy for £800 on the structure of Telegraph House Cottage will remain unaltered."

On the price for Telegraph House.

"The price which the other Agents have been instructed to quote for the freehold is £10,500."

"Alternatively, the property might be offered on lease at a rent of £300 per annum, or furnished for a short tenancy at twelve guineas per week."

"In the meantime you do not refer to the fact that I sent you the cheque for the children's school fees on the 20th December with a letter of which I received no acknowledgement an omission probably due to the approach of the holidays."

"Yes, the cheque for the school fees was sent by you with your letter of the 20th December, and as I had left on holiday that day, I am afraid no acknowledgement was sent to you."

"Thank you for your letter of yesterday's date and for the enclosed cheque in favour of Lady Russell for £100 (for which please treat this letter as a formal receipt) together with the Dartington accounts and cheque in favour of the school for £90 which has been signed and is enclosed with the accounts."

"Lady Russell finds your costs and mine a great deal higher than she ever anticipated even on the reduced basis and deprecates the impoverishment of the funds."

"I have not heard from Russell since he left for the Canary Islands for a holiday."

"You may be aware that Russell is in a very stringent position with regard to money as his income from investments amounts to about only £300 and the market for his writings had been declining, as well as his capacity for writing for the market. He is weighed down by the extravagant rent of £400 which he has to pay for Telegraph House under the Lease, which he took to enable Dora to carry on the School...."

"I note what you say about the shrinking of Bertie's income. It would be a great pity if the amount of alimony has to be revised so soon after decisions adverse to Dora, and Lloyd and I, who are parties to the series of agreements and understandings of which this is one portion, would of course have to be satisfied that a downward revision was necessary before we could with a clear conscience feel able to justify it to Dora."

"I heard from Buckland that Miss Otter had told him that she wished that her ashes could be scattered at Telegraph House where Frank's were scattered. He wished me to ask whether you would have any objection, and whether some arrangement could be made with you."

"I enclose a form of letter to Maw, and shall be glad to hear from you on Monday morning whether you approve of it being sent" (see record 130966).

A draft letter to Maw. Davies asks for BR's approval before he sends it.

"I am bearing in mind anxiously your financial position, and am distressed at the efforts which you have to make to earn money...."

Enclosed is a copy of a letter from Meynell to Davies (see record 130968), Davies' reply (see record 130970) and a letter from Vandercom Stanton & Co. about Miss Otter (see record 130969).

"Bertie the other day asked me to put pressure on Dora to resign from the Trusteeship of the children's fund on the ground that by not doing so she was violating one point of the concordat."

"We have in this office certain items of silver which were left by the late Miss Otter to Bertrand Earl Russell and there is also a large applewood chair which belonged to the late Earl Russell which was also left under the late Miss Otter's Will and this is at the premises of Messrs. Johnson Dymond & Co. of Kingsway...."

"I do not know whether the last paragraph of your letter was written to give me any news or to elicit any comment or suggestion. It conveys no surprising news to anyone who knows Dora. It is her nature to be wholly dissatisfied with any situation, which is not wholly to her liking, and with a continuance of any relations which are tolerable to the other party."

"I have your letter of yesterday, and however Noah's-Arky and silly-birdy it may be, I will review once more the flood of disappointment and difference in the hope of descrying ground of confidence and a green olive leaf of agreement. My state of mind may reek of anachronistic metaphysic, but yours has a whiff of Mid-Victorian spinsterliness, with its fussy underlining over-emphasis of forcing and cannoting, which gives only a sham bloom of importance and precision to those futile and faded bouquets of speech."

"The phrases which after my first reading stick in my mind are your more or less accurately quoted description of yourself as 'an obscurantist and litigious person'—which was doubtless put in to make me feel small...."

"The main objective is the Decree Absolute. There is only about a month to go. Meanwhile there is nothing acute or urgent. Let us eschew tactics nakedly designed to corner the enemy or force him to capitulate. We discredit and weaken ourselves by attempting to play Dora's game."

"If you take any step with the obvious intention of fixing Dora into some position or forcing her to act in some way, she re-acts contrariwise. ... She has at present, so far as we know, no motive for not making the Decree Absolute. ... If you withhold the costs, you supply such a motive; which she would be all the more ready to act on, because the withholding of the costs would not involve her own detriment. She would be in the happy position of being able to spite your face without cutting off her own nose."

"May we trouble you to refer to the correspondence which began with a letter to Sir John Withers from our Mr. Llewelyn Davies dated 13th July 1933 and ended with a letter from Sir John dated 26th February 1934, with which was enclosed a copy of a letter to Sir John from the Duke of Bedford saying that Sir Odo Russell would go through Lady Agatha's papers and look for the case containing letters written by Lady Agatha, her two brothers and Lord and Lady John to Lord and Lady Amberley, which belonged to Lord Russell. ... Lord Russell is engaged on writing a Memoir of his parents, and these missing letters leave an awkward gap."

"The Decree Nisi was made on Thursday, the 22nd November 1934. Application cannot be made for the Decree Absolute until after the expiration of six months, which would be on Wednesday, the 22nd May 1935."

"I have heard from Buckland that Miss Otter's ashes are to be scattered next Monday, and that of the articles left to you he has sent some to Rogate Station, and is taking others to you in a bag, and that he has arranged with you about the transfer of the Venezuelan Shares."

"I enclose the cheque for the school fees, which has been signed by Dora. Will you sign it and return it to me to send to Meynell and Lloyd for signature?"

"I found that according to legal arithmetic the first day on which papers could be lodged applying for the Decree Absolute was yesterday, Thursday, the 23rd May."

"I enclose a copy of a letter of yesterday's date from Withers about the letters which belong to you, but were in Lady Agatha's keeping when she died" (see record 130980).

BR has underlined "Withers" and in the margins, notes: "Duke's lawyer and M.P. for Cambridge University. My Aunt Lady Agatha had left letters (from my parents) to me but the Duke destroyed them."

"Referring to your letter of the 15th instant we have to-day heard from the Duke of Bedford, informing us that his Grace had looked through all Lady Agatha Russell's letters, but amongst them none appear as the property of Lord Russell and lent by him to Lady Agatha Russell."

"He also informed us that he had come to the conclusion, that all letters ought to be destroyed, and this had been done."

"The Decree of Divorce was made Absolute to-day. The Deed of Separation has ceased to have effect."

"... Dora was still harbouring a grievance that she was not seeing enough of the children, and that she was in difficulties with her present School, not being able to get a sufficient number of elder children, and that it was likely that she would have to close it, in which case she would be in serious financial embarrassment."

Enclosed is a letter from Davies to Meynell (see record 130982).

"I have now heard from Mr. Maw that Lady Russell agrees to the sale of securities sufficient to provide for his and my agreed charges in the Chancery Proceedings."

"I received your cheque for £100 and sent it on to Maw; also your notes about your financial prospects and my pencilled note."

"Maw came to-day. I shewed to him your figures, 
£460 unearned
676 earned
----------
£1, 136
Rent of Telegraph House 400
----------
736
Income Tax 165
----------
3) 571
----------
£190."

"He said Dora had no income. She may not be able to continue the School, and there is a rent of £250 payable for two more years, and no doubt other debts."

On the rent of Telegraph House. 

"It is possible to say that the whole rent of Telegraph House is an obligation previously incurred by you (and so incurred at the time for the joint benefit of Dora and yourself), for which you are now getting no advantage. From this point of view it might be argued that the expense involved in living at Telegraph House and keeping it up is so great as to wipe out all the advantage of having it free as a residence, and that therefore you ought to be allowed to deduct the whole of the rent from your income without per contra adding anything for the cost of residing elsewhere. On the other hand, it might be answered that living somewhere else would cost you something, and indeed so much that its expense would not be swamped by the unnecessary expense of living at Telegraph House. I expect that Maw would be prepared to allow some deduction for the rent of Telegraph House as an unprofitable charge...."

"The comparison of expense of living at Telegraph House and elsewhere seems to prove that the whole of the £400 rent is an onerous charge on your income, and I will so represent it in any further communication with Maw."

"At present there is no sign of any further move on their part, and I think we may well acquiesce in the matter being deferred, especially in view of the report that Barry is in funds and wishes to marry Dora." BR has underlined "Barry" and notes in the margin: "father of Dora's younger children".

"You will remember that it was necessary to provide by means of sales of securities the sum of £223.7.10, which, with the sum of £258.8.8 standing on the Trustees' Account as at the 28th ultimo, makes the total of £481.16.6 for payment of the costs of the Chancery proceedings."

"You will remember that the Brokers suggested putting the balance of the proceeds of sale of the New Zealand Stock from Kate Russell's Trust in the Bournemouth Gas & Water Co. 7% Maximum Ordinary Stock. By the time I had received all the Trustees' instructions, the Stock on offer in the Stock Exchange had been sold, and the Brokers have since been unable to obtain any of it."

"I spoke to Maw, saying that, to help Dora out of her present difficulties, and at a further sacrifice of your already diminished capital, you would pay £400 less her tax liability for two years, if she would agree thenceforward to £200 a year for her life or until re-marriage, and would herself write a letter to you to that effect."

"You may like to have this letter which records that we have obtained and put in our Storage Room for you an officially certified copy of the original Decree Absolute by which the President on the 1st July 1935 by final decree pronounced and declared your marriage with Dora to be dissolved."

"I am sorry that I was not at the telephone to speak to you this morning, and more than sorry that you should have been troubled by the clerical slip in my letter to you of the 29th instant. Of course it should have been for your life, or until her re-marriage."

"As regards the publicity re Harriet, I can understand the publicity-mongers taking their stand upon the entry of the birth at the official registry at Somerset House. I do not know whether, and if so how, any change in that record can be made. ... I am all for putting you right, and putting Dora wrong in this as in all other matters, but I do not wish at the present moment to raise the matter by way of formal complaint."

"For the rest, whenever one or two are gathered together with Dora it is certain that her own personal interests will bulk more largely than any other topic. Besides other unforeseeable grievances, her lack of pence will be emphasised, and the disaster which has overtaken her school, and the sad prospects of her lonely life."

"I saw Maw last evening. He said that Dora's animosity seemed to be abating and that relations may be easier. I do not know whether this is because she hopes to get everything she wants out of you. She is going on with her School. She is not likely to marry Barry. He has not yet put to her your final proposal about alimony."

"I do, of course, bear in mind your desire to avoid being obliged to set aside investments to secure an income to Lady Russell for your joint lives, or to enter into a covenant to leave her part of your estate by your Will, but the position is that Maw is determined to proceed with the Petition for Maintenance, and we must make every effort to resist any such Order being made."

"Order John return Dartington next term work for scholarship and that he spend Christmas holidays Dora. Liberty to either party to apply further directions".

"In the letter setting out your wishes and the reasons, could you not state your objection to the domestic and scholastic influence of Dora, and exhibit the several letters which are in our strong room."

"I enclose a Note setting out the principles on which the Court deals with the question of what maintenance should be allowed to a wife whose Petition has succeeded."

"I have sent to you to-day by separate registered post a parcel containing the following, which I have just received from Mr. Maw's office:
1. The gold watch with its chain.
2. The piece of brown paper in which it was wrapped up when posted to Telegraph House.
3. A small white cardboard box in which the watch with its chain was apparently placed wrapped up in tissue paper."

"You will see that there is a registration label on the wrapping, which would appear to indicate that the parcel was posted by someone in London to Telegraph House in the first instance. It was then forwarded from Telegraph House to Dora Russell, who subsequently took it to Mr. Maw's office."

"I forwarded your letter about the gold watch to the Guardian Insurance Company, who have replied that the Policies at present held by you are only Fire Policies, and do not cover burglary or theft, so that if the gold watch has in fact been lost you will not receive any compensation from the Company."

"In conversation with him to-day, Mr. Meynell told me that he had not been able to see the children about whether they liked Dartington, but that his wife had seen them, and had made notes of her conversation with them, which satisfied him that the children liked Dartington immensely, and were very happy and contented."

A blank slip of paper was inserted between pp. 50-1 of BR's Icarus or the Future of Science (Russell's Library, no. 3096).

A blank slip of paper was inserted between pp. 42-3 of BR's Religion and Science (Russell's Library, no. 3122).

A folded strip of partly yellow, thick printed paper was inserted between pp. 248-9 of William James' Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (Russell's Library, no. 1544).

A blank slip of paper was inserted between pp. 222-3 of BR's Human Society in Ethics and Politics (Russell's Library, no. 3165).

A blank slip of paper was inserted between pp. 114-15 of Lester Denonn's The Wit and Wisdom of Bertrand Russell (Russell's Library, no. 3206),

A note was inserted before Hermann Cohen's Das Princip der Infinitesimal-Methode und seine Geschichte in a bound volume of pamphlets (Russell's Library, no. 70). The note refers to a number of sections and pages in the pamphlet.

A note reading "For Edith with all our love" (dated on BR's 91st birthday) from Ralph, Susan, Pat, Chris, Alastair, and Pat was inserted between the title page and a half-title page of The Stealing of the Mare (Russell's Library, no. 34).
 

A Christmas card was inserted between the title page and a half-title page of The Stealing of the Mare (Russell's Library, no. 34).

A quality control slip was inserted between the front endpapers of Verve Revue Artistique et Littéraire, Vol. 7, nos. 27 and 28 (Russell's Library, no. 9).

BR has had his own geometrical diagrams and notes (3 pp. on 2 sheets) bound between pp. 60-1 of Mario Pieri's Della Geometria Elementare come Sistema Ipotetico Deduttivo (Russell's Library, no. 28).

Half of a Telegraph House postcard was inserted between Veblen and Young's A Set of Assumptions for Projective Geometry and Edward Huntington's The Continuum as a Type of Order (Russell's Library, no. 28).

This letter was published in a monthly bulletin of the New York Chapter of the Rationalist Press Association for February 1959.

"I am much encouraged by the evidence which I receive both from you and from many others that rationalism in America is full of vigour and apparently making progress against the obscurantist forces which, in your country as in mine, are misleading the minds and hearts of men. May your work prosper and lead an increasing number of minds into true liberty."

Ali thanks BR for his "recent thoughtful and sensitive response to my humble letter", although he doesn't think IWCT evidence could be used in his defence in resisting the draft.

The heavyweight champion of the world is sorry he had to give Henry Cooper and Brian London a "drubbing", as the English people have been so kind to him in his plight.

[This letter was in the Russell Archives display portfolio for many years and escaped BRACERS until now.]

A leaflet advertising 3 lectures.

The leaflet written by BR for which he was fined £100 in June 1916.

Enclosed with document .056031, record 80564.
 

Enclosed with document .056043, record 131036.
 

A newsclip from Today titled "Burglar versus Pacifist. A Revolutionist's Objection to Objectors" by G.K. Chesterton.

"I think the misapprehension which I mean haunts the mind of men like Mr. Bertrand Russell when they write about the Conscientious Objector."

A newsclip column from the Morning Post, 9 March 1916, p. 6, titled "University Pacifism. A Conspiracy of Cranks." It concerns the Cambridge branch of the Union of Democratic Control (U.D.C.). Macleod, who published anonymously, is sufficiently identified in G.H. Hardy, Bertrand Russell and Trinity, p. 17.

"It is true that two of the most dangerous protagonists are no longer in residence. Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson is in America on some mysterious mission; the Hon. Bertrand Russell is supposed to be in London working on the National Council against Conscription. A recently-issued leaflet, which put the numbers of Cambridge adherents at 170 (of whom about 130 were in residence), bears the following signatures: C.F. Angus, J. Baker, E. Cunningham, G. Lowes Dickinson, G.H. Hardy, B.A. Howard, L.E. Matthaei, E. Power, Bertrand Russell, and R.R. Sedgwick."

Baker, Matthei and Power were women (the letter says 3 signatories were women).

The leaflet has not been found.

A newsclip from The Spectator titled "The Great Opportunity for Capital and Labour".

"We review elsewhere a book in which Mr. Bertrand Russell delivers what is perhaps the most damning judgment on Bolshevism that has yet appeared—most damning because it is perfectly dispassionate. But Mr. Russell was by no means the first in the field."

On evolution versus revolution in Russia and in the West. Conservatives. Ireland.

"Thank you for a most enjoyable afternoon at Plas Penrhyn. My brother and I were thrilled to meet Lord Russell."