Geoffrey Watkins Smith - 13th Rifle Brigade, kia 10/7/16

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 6, 1905.

Dear D,

.......We have been in a great state of ferment here owing to the visit of the Emporer of Germany. He came to-day to visit the Acquarium and have an interview with Professor Dohrn, as he is giving most of the money for the new buildings which are being added to the Station. The Emoprer drove in a carriage to the entrance with the King of Italy and his brother, the Duca d'Aosta, escorted of course with mounted troops. Then they all went inside after being welcomed by old Dohrn, who looked quite patriarchal, and we all waited on the balcony for them to come out. While they were inside two motor cars drove up and took the place of the carriage, and then after about three-qaurters of an hour the royalty came out. I had an awfully good view of the Emporer, who is a splendid looking man with a really intellectual face, utterly unlike the usual photographs of him. He got into one motor and the King got in with him, while the Duca d'Aosta got into the second motor which he drove himself. The Duke offered the Emperor a pair of motoring spectacles, but the Emporer produced a pair out of his own pocket and said 'Danke schon'. That is all I heard him say, and they all motored away.

The Emperor seemed to me to look awfully careworn and nervous, and I believe he is in a very bad humour, as he is probably finding out he has rather put his foot into it with regard to Morocco. There is a gala-night to-night at San Carlo, the opera, but as the cheapest seats cost 50 francs you will be surprised to hear I am not going.

From the account of all this frivolity you will think that we do not do any work here; as a matter of fact I have executed another rather ingenious coup, owing to the arrival of a friend who brought some creatures with him that he could not understand, and handed them over to me. where upon I hit upon a rather pretty discovery which I had been searching for in vain for a long time. I really have the most extraordinary luck in my work, and my book will be so full of strange things that every one will think I am fabricating, which will cause me great amusement......

Love to all.

Your loving brother,

Geoff.

[marina]

I wonder what the pretty discovery was.

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 14, 1905.

Dear Mother,

I am keeping in such excellent health that I thik it would be a pity to break into my work just yet by coming home, especially as just now the Station is very full ofpeople and all is going on actively. But I hope to get away for July or August anyway, and look froward to spending the holidays with you all wherever you may be.

A most interesting and charming person came to visit me at the Acquarium this morning, a certain Captain Walton of the Indian Army Medical Service, who has just come back from the Thibet expedition with Colonel Younghusband. He is very interested in Natural History, and has made a large collection of Thibetan beasts in the intervals of being shot at by the Thibetans. We got on very well together, and spent a couple of hours looking through my drawings and preparations, and then I took him off to lunch at my cafe. He is very much in with the Indian scientific men, and wants me to go for an appointment out there; there seem to be very good things in that direction.

He told me that Colonel Younghusband very often used to accompany him on his collecting expeditions and was very much interested in Natural History, but curiously enough it seems that he is of a very strict religious sect and thinks all scientific speculation very wicked, and Walton told me that he was very often indignant with him when he gave, quite innocently, some scientific explanation that could not be found in the Old Testament.

Walton said, however, that it was worth going to Thibet, if only to have hyad the opportunity of working under Younghusband.

To-day our Lawn Tennis Tournament began, not the swell one in the Villa, but a small club one. We played off the Gentleman's Singles Handicaps this afternoon, and I won after some very hard games, as I was -30. To-morrow the doubles come off, but I am afraid my partner (a certain Fraulein Meuller, very pleasant and pretty, but no idea of tennis) and I have not got much chance. However, we will get some good games, which is the main point.

Doctor Henze, about whom I have written before, thinks of coming out to live at Posillipo with me; hitherto he has been living with Dohrn, but the poor old man is so nervous and excitable now that Henze finds it impossible to go on living with him. Dohrn is a very vurious man, undoubtedly of great power and genius, and very kind-hearted, but he is so excitable and irritable that he drives everybody away from him............I went up to Dohrn's house the other day to tea and looked over his library, and was surprised to find that he has an almost complete collection of English poets, including lesser known ones such as Swinburne and Rosetti.

Best love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Villa Guariglia, S. Pietro, Posillipo.

June 5, 1905.

Dear Mother,

I ought to have written before to acknowledge the money father sent, but our letters crossed in such a funny way. We have been having the most fearful storms lately; the day before yesterday there was a hailstorm with hailstones as big as marbles, which came pelting up against the windows of the Acquarium and smashed several panes of glass. The noise was deafening. A party of us, representing most of the nations, made an expedition to Ischia in the Station launch. Reinhardt Dohrn, the old man's youngest son, who has just left Heidelberg and who is probably going to take on the management of the Station after his father, was one of the party. He seems an awfully nice fellow, and talks Neopolitan to the sailors like a native, also sings Neopolitan songs. Henze and I bathed from a beautiful sandy beach at Ischia, and after bathing we buried ourselves in the hot sand, which is a most luxurious way of getting dry, though it may sound rather gritty.

Vesuvius is quite wonderful just now: there are two broad bands of fire streaking the whole slope of the cone, due to the large outflow of lava that took place the other day.

The hot weather is taking an age to come this year; at present it is only pleasantly warm, and this is rather lucky, as just at this moment I have a good deal to do, as I want to get some chapters and plates sent off to the printer before coming home........

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

View from bedroom window

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoological, Napoli.

June 14, 1905.

Dear Cecil,

Thanks very much for your letter; I was delighted to hear the news of the safe arrival of the latest Milford; please give Mouse(1) my love and felicitations when you see her.

I expect to come home at the end of July, as Lankester has not written again about the Museum, and I don't intend to leave my work here and go in for it unless I can make certain that it really is a good opening. I got a long screed about a month ago from Lankester, who was in Paris at the time, I suppose in his old haunts, in which he advised me not to go in for the Museum if I could manage to wait a few years longer and produce some research work. In any case, as Professor Dohrn offers to continue my appointment here indefinetely, and as I can live here very cheaply and happily, I don't intend to worry just at present.

I went a lovely walk the other day with two friends from the Acquarium, one Dr. Henze, who manages the chemical department, and a Bavarian sculptor who is making allegorical decorations for the library of the new buildings at the Station. We had glorious fun, quite losing ourselves among the mountains round Amalfi; however, we arrived safely in the evening at Ravello, and after dinner went out into the piazza, where they were having a festa, with a band and fireworks, and we played at games with the peasants for soldi. Of course Behn (the sculptor) lost his heart, evidently a very soft one, to a beautiful creature; and the next morning when we wanted to start back, we found he had got up early and left a message to say that he had gone to pay a morning call on his lady-love. We waited for him for an age, and then decided to abandon him to his fate; however, after walking for six miles or so we saw the huge creature running after us singing 'Im allerschonsten Edelstein' at the top of his voice, and in good spirits. He is a most amusing fellow, a very successful artist, and so delighted with Italy that he makes love to every one he sees, ostensibly with the pretension of learning to speak good Italian.

The latest thing in Naples is the Miracle of the Madonna of Monte Vergine. All the people who can afford a carriage drive out on June 9th to a shrine about fifteen miles from Naples, and there make offerings to the Madonna, and have a general jollification. The day before yesterday they all returned, and the great idea is to drive through Naples at top speed, waving flags and ribbons, and see how many people you can knock down. Well, it seems that a woman left her child in the middle of the road and one of the carriages went over it, but, strange to say, the child was not injured. The mother told the people that when she saw her child about to be run over she prayed to the Madonna of Monte Vergine to save it, and so a miracle had been performed. You may imagine how delighted all the Neopolitans were, and now they are selling pictures to commemorate the miracle all over Naples, and nobody talks about anything else.

I am sorry to hear that Nowell nearly cut me off with a shilling and didn't quite, as a shilling would come in useful just now. However, he was quite right to make plans without me, as I could not make out for certain when I was coming home. I am pretty certain now that I shall come for August, so that I hope I shall see you in Winchester then.

Love to all the family.

Your affectionate brother,

Geoff.

(1)His sister Mrion Milford, then living in Oxford.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica.

June 23, 1905.

Dear Mother,

I am cutting a wisdom-tooth, which is extremely painful and irritating in the hot weather and makes me swear horribly. The Dyer's little boy is also cutting teeth, so we sit opposite one another with our fingers in our mouths, inventing new imprecations. Henze has come to live out here, so we are quite a gay party; the bathing in the evening is gorgeous. We went to dine with the Foleys the other night, an English family, who have a house built on a little island just off the cape of Posillipo. Mrs. Foley is a sister of Conan Doyle's, and Mr. Foley is an engineer for the Italian Governemt; she is his second wife, and her step-daughter is nearly as old as she is. They are awfully nice people; also very musical and play trio's with Henze, who is quite good on the violin. We are getting up a little dance at their house on Saturday, to which Henze, young Dohrn, a sculptor called Behn, and I are going as the cavaliers, and we are bringing the music, which is going to be performed by some porters at the Acquarium, who can play on the mandoline. The sculptor is a Munich artist who is doing some decorations for the new buildings at the Acquarium and aslo a bust of Dohrn: he seems a very clever artist, and is very amusing and erratic person, like all the Munich artists. Dohrn has a way of getting hold of good artists to work for him; there are some frescoes in the library of the Acquarium done by a painter called Marree, who has since become quite famous in Germany, also some things by Hildebrand the sculptor; and it seems likely that this man will turn out quite a swell, though at present he is quite young of course.

Can I have £30 to pay off my debts here, and also to bring me home in July? It is more than I shall use, but while travelling it is better to have a margin. That will be the end of my expenses for the year.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Summer 1905.

Dear Dad,

Thanks very much for the cutting out of the Standard. What do you think of the paper now? I think it has fallen off dreadfully, both in style and matter, and I hate its absurd controversies about Faith and Reason, as it apparently exercises no selection for the letters it publishes. I think I will give up having it anymore, and as I shall be coming home fairly soon it is not really worth while ordering it, as I can see most of the important news in Italian newspapers.

I have just discovered a kind of malarial parasite which infects crabs, and, as it has never been found in anything but Vertebrates before, I am rather excited. But I may be all wrong, as I have not got very far with it yet.

Vesuvius has been erupting like anything lately, and to-night there are two large streams of lava flowing down from the cone. I went up Vesuvius the other day with Shearer, and we stayed a night at the inn half-way up, and watched the explosions in the evening, which were quite fine, large red blocks being thrown out from the cone and thundering down into the valley below.......

I have not heard any more from Lankester lately about the British Museum. On the whole I believe it will be better if I stay out here longer, and really produce some good work, on the strength of which I ought to get a better appointment with more scope for going on with research work. When one is in Government employment one becomes a mere slave, especially at museums. But we must discuss the whole thing when I come home, probably in July. Now that I begin to know the ins and outs of Naples better, I ought to be able to live much more cheaply, and at the same time have a very good time, as there are a lot of awfully nice people here.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

July 2, 1905.

Dear Mother,

The heat has arrived at last with a vengeance; I had quite forgotten that it was so terrific, but at present I am keeping quite fit.

Did the girls get the postcards I sent them from Paestum? Henze, Behn, and I made a splendid expedition there; the Greek temples are most beautiful, and we had a glorious bathe in the sea close by.

Is it possible for Henze to come and stay with us while I am at home, any time from the middle of August to the end of September ?

He speaks English very well and is an awfully nice fellow; I am sure you would all be charmed with him. I should like to show him a bit of London, and if possible Oxford, if the Mouse could put up with us both for a few days some time. Do you think any arrangements could be made ? But if it is too much of a bother, please say so and I shall quite understand.....

By the way, the Oxford scholarship here is offered again for competition next year, so I have applied for it. I am very glad that it has been started again, as, whoever gets it, it will please Professor Dohrn very much. Also I am going to send in my monograph for the Rolleston Prize (£60), so I have several financial speculations on hand, some of which ought to come to something......

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

July 27, 1905.

Dear Father,

I start north on the day after to-morrow with Henze, who is going to his people in the Tyrol; but we are first going to the St. Gotthard Tunnel, and walk over the pass instead of training it, in order to enjoy some Swiss air after the heat here. We mean to spend a week altogether walking, so that I shall arrive home at the beginning of the second week in August about, but I will write from Switzerland to let you know exactly. I have enough money to last me.

Henze will come to England (if we are not then at war with Germany) at the beginning of September, but we can arrange about that later.

I have just received a letter from Professor Weldon.........

As Weldon tells me that I am really certain to get the Oxford Scholarship here for nest year, I shall be better off than I was this, i.e. I ought to have a salary of £110, which though not brilliant is fair for a scientific gent. Also a Cambridge man is coming out next year, and is, I believe, going to live with Henze and me, so that we shall be quite a gay party.

I have now described the complete status quo as far as business is concerned, but now I must tell you how beautifully I dive nowadays, having taken nlessons from Henze and the Foleys: I must give some exhibitions in the swimming bath at Winchester. I am awfully pleased with the achievement, becuase I am really a ghastly funk of the water.

Bathing and reading are the only possible recreations now; I read Pendennis and the History of Ancient Rome by turns.

Best love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel Piora, Switzerland.

July 31, 1905.

Dear Cat,

.......I am afraid a letter of mine must have miscarried as you all seem to be in doubt as to my plans and whereabouts; I arrived here with Henze, a friend of mine from the Acquarium at nNaples, yesterday; or rather yesterday evening as we came by train to Airlo, which is just at the entrance of the St. Gotthard, and to-day we walked up here, about three thousand feet higher, where there is a small hotel and a lake and some very fine mountains, some of which we are going to climb.......The air here is most exhilirating after the fearful heat in Naples, and I have already developed a prodigious appetetie; but the people here seem accustomed to that, and look after us excellently in the way of food. It is a very simple sort of hotel, and we have got a room right up in the roof, with a sloping ceiling made of huge beams of wood. The lake comes right up to the hotel, so we can bathe in it in the morning.

Just round here there are no difficult peaks to climb, but I believe they are quite good fun, and Henze is a crack man at the game.

After being in Naples for a year at a stretch, where the climate is so slack and the natives more so, it does one a lot of good to do a bit of hard exercise with a spice of excitement thrown in.

I was rather amused at your remarks on my efforts to achieve fame: it is rather quaint the way my negotiations with all these people come to nothing, but Dohrn, who is really an awfully cunning old man, thinks it better for me to remain in Naples another year and make my book really complete, so as to entirely stun the scientific world.

As a matter of fact abd seriously, I think he is quite right, and that I shan't regret the time I shall have spent in trying to make the work as solid and careful as possible.........

Love to all.

Youe affectionate brother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel d'Angleterre, Kjobenhavn.

September 30, 1905.

Dear Mother,

I arrived here this morning at 8.30 without any mishap, thopugh I had rather a hard time of it on the steamer, being more or less sick all yesterday, and only being able to eat two petit-beurre biscuits the whole time I was on board, to the infinite chagrin of all the waiters. The boat was a very fine one and very comfortable I should say on a calm day.

From Esbjerg I got a second class sleeper and went sound asleep, but woke up a few hours later to find, to my horror, that we were on board ship again, with the screw working immediately under me. I could not think what had happened at first, as I was still in the railway carriage, and then I realized that we were crossing over to Zealand on the ferry. It was pitch dark and raining, otherwise it would have been rather interesting to see how the whole thing was done.

I am going out now to call on Professor Hansen, and inquire for a lodging, as this hotel is rather too oppressively big and expensive.

I will write again soon.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel Hafnai, Kjobhavn.

Oct. 4, 1905.

Dear Mother,

This is a very comfortable and moderate little hotel that I have got into, and I am very much pleased with Kopenhagen altogether. The streets and people are very bright in appearance, and some of the galleries, especially for sculpture, are very fine. In the evenings there is a great deal of music going on; the other day I went to hear a men's chorus, which gave a lot of German ballads very well, and to-night I am trying to get into a quartette concert, but it is quasi-private and I do not yet know if it is possible.

I find that it is well worth my while to come here, as they have some very interesting things in the Museum, and they are going to allow me to take a few specimens away with me. Dr. Hansen, the man who is looking after me at the Museum, is an interesting charcter, as he is a great political writer and has just written a pamphelt which has caused a great fuss in the Danish papers, at which he is greatly delighted. I believe he can say rather bitter things when he likes. He is a great reader of English books, especially of Naval History, and has the biographies of Neslon, Collingwood, & co., quite at his finger-ends. I am going to dine with him to-morrow at his house; he is married but no children, and his wife has adopted two orphans and apparently does a great deal of social work among the poor people. I have also met a young Danish naturalist, called With, who seems a very decent sort, and has taken me to see some of the sights of the town, so you may gather I am not at all dull. I shall stay here until Friday night, and then go on to Berlin. I have been very much struck by a collection of modern French sculptures here; I had no idea they were anything like so fine, though I remember Hunze said the same of the French sculpture in Paris. I supposed he has arrived in Naples by now; oh dear, it seems a terribly long way to go in a stuffy train!

Love to everybody.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel Englischer Hof, Munchen.

Oct. 1905.

Dear Mother,

I have arrived safely as far as this, and to-night I go on over the Brenner Pass into Italy, and so straight to Naples, as I shall not stop anywhere on the way. I was very well satisfied with my visit to Kopenagen, and have brought away with me several specimens which were obtained in Greenland by a Danish Arctic expedition and which ought to be of value. Dr. Hansen continued to interest me very much; I went to dine with him at his house, which is a very simple establishment, and we talked all night aboiut animals and English Admirals, which is his pet subject and Collingwood his great hero. I was rather ashamed to know so little about the subject, and wished that D. was there to prompt me. Hansen's other hero is Cromwell, whom he thinks the greatest man in history. It was rather charming to find English hero-worship of so ardent a nature going on in Denmark, and expressed in more or less broken English.

Last night I saw a most charming little play in the theatre here, all about University life in Germany. It was a very humorous and good natured, though sharp attack on the professors, who are represented as choosing their assistants, not for the benefit of the students but at the instigation of their wives, who want likely men to marry their daughters to. The whole thing is interwoven of course with a love story, and though it is rather sentimental, I thought it exceedingly witty and artistically arranged. I was rather pleased at myself being able to understand what was said on the stage almost perfectly.

I paid a visit to Professor Hertwig here, and saw another man I knew here who has just returned from an expedition in Japan, and says he will send me anything he has got in my line at Naples.

I expect to arrive in Naples about Friday.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zollogica, Napoli.

Oct. 15, 1905.

Dear Mother,

I arrived here yesterday and found everybody in a flourishing condition. I stopped one day in Verona and saw something of the town, but otherwise I did not linger any longer on my journey, as I began to feel that it was about time to begin work again. There is a Cambridge man here, called Potts, whose acquaintance I have just made; he seems a very mnice fellow and is, I should think, very able, as he got a First Class in Zoology and Gelogy as well last year at Cambridge. He is not living with us out here, as Dr. Shearer is probably going to return and will want his room again.

Our house is much more comfortable now, as the Dyers have imported a second servant - a North Italian and not a Neopolitan, thank goodness!

Henze and I went a long walk to-day to the Solfatara and through a lot of vineyards where the peasants insisted on our trying their this years wine, and as they are so very hospitable we were lucky to return not quite drunk......

Vesuvius is in a fine condition, all covered with flowing lava, and in the evening the new moon rises just over the top of it and it looks like a huge soap bubble that has been blown out of the crater.......

I find I like Naples better than ever; I was a little sick of it at the end of last summer, but now I appreciate it properly, being in such excellent spirits after such a splendid holiday.....

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Oct. 23, 1905.

Dear Father,

.....Professor Dohrn arrives to-day, and Henze has gone to the station to meet him. They are in great jubilation because the young Dohrn, who is going to take over the management of the Station, has got off his military service owing to being half an inch too narrow roud the chest.

I have been very busy since my arrival, working out the material I got at Kopenhagen: it is very lucky I went there, as I have got some things which are quite new and will add greatly to the value of my work.

Potts, the new Cambridge man, was at Trinity Hall, so you will not be surprised to hear that he is a very decent fellow indeed. We generally lunch together and tell scurrilous academical stories about our tutors and professors, and generally scandalize the cafe with our uprorious laughter. I am going to introduce him to the tennis club to-morrow, as hitherto he has been without clothes, his box having taken four weeks to come from Germany.

I made Henze read Der Privatdozent, the play I saw in Munich about German University life and which has made such a sensation, and he says that it is quite true to life. In return he made me read Schiller's Kabale und Liebe, which is a fearful tragedy and very fine in parts, but not all tru to life. Please send me a copy of your book when it comes out, and I should like to have a copy of D.'s article on Nelson, if possible.

Does D. know the story of Collingwood, that they wanted to make him a Knight Commander of the Bath, and a year afterwards sent him a bill for it to the tune of £360, and when Collingwood protested in the House of Commons and some official said that it was very hard on him, Collingwood said it was nothing of the kind as he didn't intend to pay a penny of it? This was shown to me in a life of Collingwood, by Hansen, the Danish gentleman in Kopenhagen; he was hugely delighted, as I suspect him of being a rank Republican. Did I tell you about in his house, which is the poorest little hovel ever seen, there is only one picture, and that is a large portrait of Oliver Cromwell, his great hero?

We are having very fine weather too, but I wsh we had the frosty nights and mornings to freshen things up.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[ianw]

A fascinating thread. Am I right that he does not describe visiting Pompeii or Herculaneum. I see he went to Paestum and rome but no mention of the great Roman sites of the bay of Naples.

Not sure I fancy being half way up Vesuvius when it's erupting and chucking out red hot boulders.

My , the going was certainly good in those days. A few £ hundred went a long way - not my experience in Italy a month back!

[stiletto_33853]

Villa Guariglia, S. Pietro, Posillipo.

Nov. 3, 1905.

Dear Cat,

........ The great news is that Oxford people have given me the schol. again this year, and I have received the first instalment of £25. Also Dohrn has given me £9 for my Kopenhagen expenses, and as I only asked for £4 it is pretty handsome of him. So please tell Dad that I ma set up for a long time, and that I won't commence offensive operations against him until emerging from winter quarters.

The tennis tournament in the Italian Club is coming off soon, and I am playing in the mixed doubles with a Marchioness by special request; if I don't win I shall have to fight a duel with the Marquis, I expect. I am pretty busy at the Acquarium, as I find the things I brought from Kopenhagen require a lot of working at, but in the evenings I find time to do a good bit of reading. I am reading Esmond and Henze is reading Pendennis, and we sit opposite to one another in armchairs smoking bad Italian cigars and alternately slapping our thighs and shedding tears.

Dohrn has come back with a whole lot of new ideas in his head, among others to build another laboratory at Ischia, a little island just outside the bay where the water is beautifully pure, and he has also got the idea of having a big steamer for doing fisheries investigation and oceanography. It is eatraordinary how he keeps the thing up and gets rich people to fork out money for it.......

Are you going to bring off your journey to Npolean's battlefields ? If you came here you could study the Caudine Forks and the battle of Cannae, but I suppose that isn't modern enough.

Good-bye, with love to all.....

Your affectionate brother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Nov. 14, 1905.

Dear D,

... We are in the middle of the tournament mow, but as the weather is fearful we don't get on very fast. In the open singles I defeated the redoubtable Pflucker after three excellent sets, and now I have to play an Italian Ricciardi, a very nice chap, for the finals. To-day I was defeated in the handicap singles, for which I am not very sorry as I had to owe 40 and it made it an awful fag. All the nobility in Naples turn up to watch, and to-day the Duca and Duchess D'Aosta, brother of the King, came with beautiful carriages and crimson coachmen. It is screamingly funny to read the papers with their accounts of the tournaments, as they have no idea what it is all about, and only describe the dresses of the beautiful princesses and ducheses that were looking on. The Italian nobility are really rather entertaining, especially to a mere commoner, as he finds that Luigi and Vincenzo and their sisters, with whom he has been ragging on most intimate terms, are really dukes and duchesses of the most noble and indigent families. Thus poverty makes brothers and sisters of us all.

Some of the ladies play excellently, especially a quite young Russian girl who has quite the bel air, and I intend asking her to play with me in the tournament in April. N.B. No anxiety to parents, as all topics not relating to tennis are strictly barred.

Despite all this frivolity my work (I know you despise science, but you may be glad I don't take up belleslettres, as I should cut you and Dad out utterly) is going on all right, and I have now got Potts to take up a bit of my work, so that I feel quite Socratic and the corrupter of youth. I am rather keen on it,as if he finds much the same as I do, people will hesitate before bringing Cambridge as well as Oxford on their heads.

....Henze has just received a stack of postcards from the Cat, depicting the Crystal Palace in every possible attitude, with which he is immensely struck, and quite overwhelmed at the idea that he once lived in its vicinity. I, too, quote sentimentally 'I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged pile', or words to that effect.

It was an awful shame about that wretched cheque I wrote to Dad about. I first of all accused Henze of stealing it, and laughed sarcastically when he protested his innocence; I then indicted the whole management of the Acquarium and committed them to the under-fiends and fishes, and on coming home in the evening I began quarrelling furiously with Dyer about it, when he cooly informed me that I had paid his bill with it about a week previously. I can't think how I got into such a confusion, and I am very sorry about it as I am afraid it must have caused father some bother. However, I never lost the cheque at all, and I made Henze so angry that he nearly threw ten pounds at my head to keep me quiet, so that I am beginning to think I must be a business man in disguise.

Love to everybody.

Your loving brother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Nov. 23, 1905.

Dear Father,

.....The tournament is over now; I won the singles championship, a silver cup, but nothing else.

I am glad to say that the weather is getting a little colder, as I don't like these warm damp south winds; they make me feel so idle.

Potts has taken up a bit of work on the lines I am doing, and I am glad to say is getting out some good results. I am very anxious that other people should work on the same ideas as myself, as by oneself one never feels quite confident. Dohrn is building a small laboratory at Ischia, to be run in connexion with the big one here; that is to say it is meant for people who are tired of Naples, and want to go into the country but at the same time do some work. It is a very good idea; I wish it were ready now, as I should certainly take advantage of it. One gets rather sick of the town here after a time, especially if it rains all day.

Henze is reading Treasure Island, and gets the jumps whenever I speak to him, as he thinks I am in a league with Pew and Long John Silver. I am reading The Virginians, and am of course delighted with it; I am also reading the Ethics of Aristotle in a translation which ought to be highly edifying, but I don't believe Aristotle is half as deep as Plato, although he is a scientific gent.

You have never sent me a copy of your book, so I can't say whether it is better than Aristotle and Plato combined, but I fully believe it is.

Best love to all, and kind regards from Henze.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Dec. 9, 1905.

Dear Nowell,

I ought to have answered your letter an age ago, but to-day being my birthday I intend to reform in this matter and always answer letters punctually, so I begin by making up all arrears.

I suppose you have had sixes(1), or will have had by the time this arrives. I should rather like to play in sixes once again, but I suppose if I tried I should come in half in the middle.

I was very glad to get the Oxford scol. again, as it not only helps me along financially but makes everything run smooth here. My week at Kopenhagen was a great success, as I made great friends with Hansen, the man who looked after me, and gave me a splendid lot of material which I have now about finished working out and which has enabled me to make some important additions to my book. I am practically finished now, but there is ojne point which I have stuck at all along and which I do not want to give up as hopeless, as people would criticize the omission.

I have had rather a stroke, as I have got the Cambridge man who came out here this year to do a piece of work which proceeds naturally from some of my experiments, and which will show them to be either right or wrong, right as I think, and if so, it will be rather a good thing all round.....

With love to all the family.

Your affectionate brother,

Geoff.

P.S.- I really am a pig not to have answered your letter before.

(1) The six-a-side form of Winchester football.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Dec. 28, 1905.

Dear Mother, The parcel has not yet arrived, but many thanks all the same for the presents which will be greatly appreciated. I am sorry to say that Dr. Henze has heard from home that his father is very ill, and so he has gone off to Dresden somedays ago to be with his family, as his mother and father are both very old and quite by themselves.

.... Mr. Goodrich and I went for a little expedition for two days to Beneventum, a town in the hills near here, where there is a very fine Roman triumphal arch and other buildings of interest. It was the great centre in Southern Italy for the Lombard princes in about the seventh century A.D., and one of the few places in Italy where they have left any remains of their civilization. We had a very good time, and found the inns quite clean, though we expected to be eaten alive. It was bitterly cold as we were quite surrounded by mountains, but we made the people in the inn give us braziers of glowing charcoal, over which we sat and discussed zoology and other interesting subjects. He has been all over the place, in India among others, and he relates his experiences in a very dry and amusing manner. I spent Christmas evening with an American family of the name Paton from Baltimore. Dr. Paton is working at the lab., and is a very pleasant man, but he has a dangerous taste for old books in which he tries to make me participate. But I find that the Neopolitan bookseller is not such a fool; so I look on while Paton makes wonderful bargains with my tongue in my cheek; he is very rich, so it doesn't matter for him.

Best love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Feb. 2, 1906.

Dear D,

I have had two letters from Dad, one from Mother, and one from you lately, in return for which I have written one to the Cat, however, I discovered in my pocket last night, having failed to post it, so that I feel rather ashamed of myself.

Your plan about Munich and Berchtesgarten in the summer sounds splendid, and I hope you will keep Dad up to the mark about it. It would just fit in with my work, I think, and if I wanted to leave here a little sooner I could go to Munich and do some work with Professor Hertwig, who always professes himself ready to take me in again.

I have made great friends with the American people staying here, Dr. Paton and his family; he is a most charming man. Last Sunday we all made an expedition to Capau, the most perfect day I have ever seen here, brilliant blue sky and the Apennines all covered with snow. We had a fearful adventure with three villanous cabmen who drove us out into the country far away from any policemen, and then demamnded three times their proper fare. They became most ferocious when we refused, and one man even began handling a knife, but we threatened them with our sticks, and they were finally brought to reason. I found myself talking very voluble and ungrammatical Italian at them with all the appropriate gestures. An English retired Colonel is staying here and plays tennis with us; he got into a great scrape the other day, as a post office official was very rude to him, so the irate colonel knocked off his hat. This is a fearful crime, as the post office clerk is a high state official, so the colonel was marched off to prison where he remained all night, while his distracted wife and children could not think what had become of him. However, they let him off with a fine, after a barrister had made a speech of an hour all about the beautiful manners of the English people and what a lot of good they did for Naples.

Mind you remember to send me out anything of yours which appears in the Outlook. I am meditating writing a little sort of Christmas masque, for which I have got the idea from hearing the Christmas music in a church here, about which I think I told you.

But I am so occupied with my stupid scientific stuff that Ifancy I am rather rusty at rhyming......

Best love to all.

Your loving brother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

A note from Dorothy appears here:-

While I was correcting these proofs a letter arrived from Mrs. Pton to my Mother "....Some of the happiest days of our life were spent in Naples......So much fun was mingled with it all that I wish I could tell you all about it.......As soon as I can get it copied, I am going to send you a poor photograph of your son and Mr. Potts in their laboratory at Naples. We often had tea with them there, or we would stop and pick them up for a game of tennis at the near-by club, or for long walks over the hills back of Naples. Life was so full of promise, and the surroundings so inexpressingly beautiful, and your son's response to it all so whole-souled and unconscious......."

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

Feb. 22, 1906.

Dear Mother,

The chief news is that Dr. Henze is engaged to be married to Miss Foley; it did not come as a great surprise to me, and I think that they will suit one another very well. Henze says that he holds me resposible, as after his stay in England he became convinced of the superiority of English people over any other, but this is mere humbling as I tell him. It is really very lucky that he has found such a nice girl to marry out here, and one who is devoted to Naples, as of course they will have to live out here, and that requires some one who is trained to deal with the Neoplitan people and their ways. I believe they are going to be married at the end of the summer.

Potts and I had two day's splendid walking up in the hills; we were tramping through the snow most of the time, which we found most invigorating, and in one place we came across the tracks of a wolf. We spent the night at a little pension at Ravello, which is a small village on the cliffs above Amalfi; the pension is kept by a Scottish woman, beautifully clean and neat, but we found that the proverbial 'bang went sixpence' came fearfully tru.

....My funds of money are getting rather low, as I don't receive the rest of my scholarship from Oxford till May, and they have postponed the Rollseton prize till the summer which I have hopes of getting. Will Dad send me £20 ?

We are all taking a long time getting into spring.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.