9 Bedford Place
London WC1
August 17Dear Miss Turner,
I've thought of you a dozen times this week, on receiving your card & before and since. This British Museum is a pleasurable place. I went into the reading room and wished I were a scholar. The manuscript room gave delight. Among the scripts of the people who write, Charlotte Bronte pleased me. I thought as I looked about how making books was an art & that when printing came a kind of glory was lost. And I thought of your handwriting and how beautifully it says what you have to say and how higgledy piggledy mine is. Oh London has been a pleasure.
I've met some stimulating people - (trite phrase) - among them a preacher of the gospel whom I could agree with, - the first in I don't know when. And a couple of scholarly men who could converse with verve for a whole evening on Addison & Pope, but who seem rather far away from doing anything about Hitler and the Jews or Mussolini & the Italian soldiers who are being plunged into malaria and dysentery and all the misery of the tropics.
There is a Koran, illuminated, 15th century as lovely as a mitotic figure and a Hebrew tome of Talmudic doctrine that was utterly lovely and a French map of Newfoundland of 1615 with "Noterdam Bay" and a French map of New England, 1737 with "Nordhampton" on it and a French treatise on surgery of the 15th century. On 16 pages were 9 small paintings each, the top three on each - life of Christ on gold background, the other 6 small figures on alternate squares of pink and blue depicting the treatment of women. There was Nelson's last letter to Lady Hamilton and a VICTORIA written by the queen at the age of 4.
It is a welter of things to remember.
All of which leaves me anxious to get back to work. I've postcards of lots of the manuscripts - Latin - English - etc & will put them up places when I teach the children printing.
And the bookstores. You probably know Lewis' on Gower St. I found 4 sections second hand of Jamieson's anatomical atlas with the plates all loose leaf & they will post beautifully. There was a new Sobotta - 4 1/2 guineas that tempted me or would have if I'd had the guineas.
Oh yes in Edinburgh I found a Tennant 1770 British mammals - 4 volumes - for 2 shillings. Find!
And I went into Liberty's. That such fabrics were I didn't know.
And I went to the Zoo and the biggest lion smiled at me.
And I came up suddenly in the National Gallery to see Turner's Evening Star. Do you know it of old.
All of which leaves me nowhere & wondering if I have the nerve to plunge into an indefinite struggle for a PhD in Anatomy. Is it only a clinging to childhood to think I could do it at this late date, late for beginning you'll agree. Or did I settle affairs for a nursing school limitations [sic] when I went to P H in 1921.
Would the less cost of trying to do it at University of California be a good reason for trying there - or would the P & S. plan of 4 years back be better. That does cost so much.
This holiday was far too expensive & my conscience has not been easy 2 consecutive minutes all summer long.
No doubt your letter which will be in Beirut when I get there August 27 will have some pertinent and helpful remarks.
I went to two movies with Jo Wood Smith & her husband tonight. Tomorrow will be time for packing up and sneaking in to the Museum for further hunting and Saturday I leave for Paris. I rather dread the days there and the trip to Trieste but have [been] reading, knitting, sewing, & writing to occupy the time from Trieste to Beirut. I'm booked on an Italian boat & expect it will be fearfully crowded.
Today's papers say the Stanbul & Black Sea shipping has been diverted to meet the demands of the war preparations.
Can you believe this world is in the mess it is? What can any one do.
You are so good to read through these pages. I'm glad to have an anchor tho I'm afraid most of the letters I write are selfish.
This summer has interrupted the tendency to brood over much. And work will soon be beginning.
Love, as ever
Katy