5, LEON Y CASTILLO,
TELDE,
GRAN CANARIA.
_1st February, 1902._
I am sorry indeed that the part of your letter to which I looked
anxiously contained such bad news--and having said that I think that I
won't say more--it is so useless.
The Spaniard ends his letter with S.S.S.Q.B.S.M. and I understand this
to mean su seguro servidor que besa sus manos--but he puts it in
even when he writes to the papers and there is no thought of any real
kissing in the case. I send you two little bits of English for (!)
decipherment. They appear day by day and month by month in the _Diario
de Las Palmas_ and I hope that they are intelligible to its non-English
readers. The said newspaper is one of some half dozen daily rags
published in our "ciudad"--I am surprised by their number. They seem
largely to live upon ancient English papers--I mean papers which have
taken a week to get here and have then been lying about in the hotels
for another week or more. Hence queer snips from _Tit Bits_, etc.
Which makes me think of Acton. (His professed admiration of _Tit Bits_
has some basis in fact: at least I once entered a railway carriage and
found him deep in said paper.) What a prodigious catechism he addressed
to you! I should like to have seen your reply.... Many thanks for news
of the _History_. I hope that all will go well now: I think that the
team looks strong. I hear that I am to serve on the Press Syndicate:
I doubt I shall do much good there--still I am quite willing to hear
others talk and shall be interested in all that concerns the big book.
These last weeks I have been doing splendidly and have got through
a spell of copying which would never have been done had I stayed in
England--as you say, life in Cambridge is an interruption. Buckland is
a good companion and I think that we have taken our cycles where cycles
have not been before--a crowd of ragged boys pursues--"chiquillos"
convinced of our insanity.
If you have good news to give, give it.