ABSTRACT
Dear Cockerell. Thank you for your good natured attention to the patriarch, (I am not aware it has not been said, that I know of that patriarchs were blessed with wits as well as (y)ears) whose ‘philosophy’, as you are pleased to butter him with, has been just a trifl e upset by this ‘memoir’ business – bother all biographies, say I: whether from the sham religious airs of Oriel, or the Jowett fl unkeyism of Balliol.1 There was Froude who made a cesspool mess of it;2 and W. Rossetti, who stirred up a his brother’s quietly decomposing bones to stink-pot pitch wh’, if it had been let alone tenderly dealt with would would not have beenoffensive had a sweet savour:3 and now our particular Solomon must cater unconsciously for the vulgar noses. Geo. W told me there had been a bit of a bungle about Merton stained glass, and he wrote at once to see if the careless crack could not be leaded up a bit.4 You see, I have not read a single proof sheet, and can only guess on report – added to wh’, I am more personally interested perhaps in the subject than perhaps any other could be, so I ought not to write to the Mrs – and therefore I thank you for so doing. I fancy Balliol5 may be obstinate, and not like to have h its stew tasted privately – or without pinched noses. I only really care in this matter for Jenny – sick people often get hard usage, often being looked upon as criminally ill – as starvation wage-workers are labelled maliciously poor.6 O, Where is your ‘philosophy’ O, Ph W.?
