BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [27 AUG. 1917]
BRACERS 19201. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Monday1^, 2^, 3

My Darling

I found your little letter4 of Sat. morning here when I got back this evening — I think probably you sent one to Garsington5 which missed me but I am not sure. It was a joy to get your little letter this morning — I was unhappy at Garsn. — because O.6 was unhappy — one can’t really help it, and yet one feels guilty. I am glad to be back here — I have had a busy morning and afternoon — CEM7 says her people8 love you and Miles.9 She is in an angelic mood. Tonight I am dining with the Hollands,10 where I shall see Littlewood11 (a Camb. mathematician whom I am fond of). I am reading a book on Psychoanalysis, and thinking about the philosophical lectures12 I am going to give in the autumn. I must get back to working at eternal things as soon as I can.

My dearest Darling, it seems not so long now till you come home. I still don’t know if it will be 30th or 31st — I do long for you, my Heart’s Comrade13 — It has been an eternity since I watched your train leave Shrewsbury — I found afterwards that we could have started later from Woofferton and gone together as far as Birmingham — but my glimpse of Bradshaw14 was hurried — It is cold and wet — the summer is over.

I long for the warmth of you — the feeling of happiness and peace right deep down that you bring — I long for your lips and your arms my dearest, my Love, my Joy — Goodnight my Beloved.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200181.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | Hawse End | Keswick. Pmk: LONDON.W.C | 6.15 PM | 27 AUG 17B

• 3

  [date] The date is from the envelope postmark.

• 4

  your little letterof Sat. morning Her letter of 25 August 1917 (BRACERS 113050).

• 5

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

• 6

  O. Ottoline Morrell. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19077, n.5.

• 7

  CEM Catherine Marshall (1880–1961). For further information on her, see BRACERS 19043, n.5.

• 8

  her people Catherine Marshall’s parents. Colette and Miles had been staying with them in Keswick.

• 9

  Miles Miles Malleson, Colette’s husband. For further information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.

• 10

  Hollands H.A. (Henry Arthur) Holland (1884–1974); he had studied classics and law at Cambridge and was a Fellow at Trinity from 1909 until his death. He was Dean of the College from 1922 to 1950 and then Vice-Master until 1955. Since BR refers to “the Hollands” he had presumably married — in 1914 Holland was pursuing a young woman with the last name of Warren — but the name of his wife is not known (SLBR, 1: 230).

• 11

  Littlewood John Edensor Littlewood (1885–1977), mathematician. He and BR shared a farmhouse near Lulworth during the summer of 1919. Littlewood had two children, Philip and Ann Streatfeild, with the wife of Dr. Raymond Streatfeild.

• 12

  philosophical lectures From 30 October to 18 December 1917 BR gave a series of lectures on mathematical logic every Thursday in Dr. Williams’ Library. These lectures were later rewritten as Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (B&R A30, 1919).

• 13

  Heart’s Comrade For the history of this term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.

• 14

  BradshawBradshaw’s railway timetables, named after their creator, George Bradshaw, were quite thick and took some skill to interpret.