Ballylee
July 10
My dear Tom.
Of course I dont agree with one single word you say. But then I hardly ever do. But this time from the very beginning to
the very end I utterly disagree. Possibly because you were writing with a headache (its probably your eyes, for I suspect
you have done more work..... and read more since you went to London.) I'm sure Hester is more than equal for Lennox, he'd not have a chance once she was certain of him. Of course I must say I've never met the Lennox you always tell me of and only once got a faint glimpse that you might be right when he bit Hester hard last year at Dalkey. But she's just been so hideously rude to him that a saint would have bitten back. Then as a matter of fact W.B. has often urged him to go to London for a year or so. And I dont believe anything in the world would get him there unless he happened to fall in love with someone
who wouldnt live anywhere else, and I'm not even sure that would do it. India was a better chance and he got luke-warmer and luke-warmer about that. And O Tom "a causerie" in "Vogue"A British fashion magazine first published in 1916.note — that makes me shiver.. I gather you are rather liking Hester at present!!! She's the unbending hard essence of everything I loathe mentally emotionally and temperamentally. She makes
me think of lumpy beds ??s russian fleas, and ipechacuana wine. (If you never had the latter ask the chemist to give you a sip.)
PlunkettAlthough now living in London, he was still was attempting to gain support for self-government for Ireland within the British
Empire.note was over, Willy spotted him coming into the Club and hida in a passage. A man coming by said "Who are you hiding from" and Willy said "Plunkett", and the man roared with laughter - it was [p.2 recto]Carl Walter - is that right the man I mean does the London letter to the Statesman and is a Plunkettian, but I dont know how he spells his name. It sounds like that.—
With your letter came one from Carl Miller and they both stank of scent.... so much that I cant make out which was the origin! The inside of yours stank least, so I give you the benefit of the doubt. Somehow a letter is the only thing where scent is unendurable. We had a fearful influx of visitors here The entire Gogarty family complete with Kevin O'Sheil and Mercedes Car; Willy's uncle Isaac his cousin Hilda, his cousin GuyGordon was at this time serving in the merchant navy with HMS Conway.note complete with wife, in a Canadian car, and Lady G. All unexpected. Could God have sent a more difficult plague to the Egyptians? Willy has got such a lot of relations, and the maids always say "at home" to them and to clergy who call, and one cant tell them that relations and the "cloth" (is that a purely English term for clergy?) are not always longed for. Since Anne was ill they call far more... to see the dear children.... which unfortunately includes "Willy's dear little wife" as Aunt Fanny called me once in public. She's at least three inches shorter than I and about 75 and the wife of a doctor... therefore she thinks my children very badly brought up because they eat unwholesome food. Dont you hate people who make you feel "guilty" without knowing why? Only one's own sex can do it, and they do do it sometimes.
The enclosed may amuse you.. It isnt much like Anne but rather good of Michael.
Yours
George.