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P. Beazley Glengarriff, Rudgrave Square Egremont Cheshire 7th October, 1916. My dearest Pierce, I have delayed this letter too
long, for I know how anxious Mother
and I were to hear from you and that your anxiety to
hear from us has been equally great. I need not say what
a delight it was to get your letter and to find that after
the long interval your spirits were as bright and cheerful
as when you wrote previously. Of course we feel that when
writing in such a happy, contented way you are, to comfort
us, taking as pleasant a view as possible of a situation
which, at the best, must be irksome owing to monotony
and perhaps trying in other respects, but we thank God
that your health keeps good and that your mind is so free
from worry and distress. May it be so all the time! Your
letter dealt with so many matters that I may not be able
to touch on them all this time, but as I shall have the
opportunity, please God, of writing again next month I can
then refer to any points I now pass over. I am very
glad that you have been mastering Spanish. It is, as you
know, a language which has great literary stores as well
as being important to-day for practical purposes. I was
not less gratified to learn that you are studying Virgil.
There is scarcely one of the classical authors from whom you
could derive so much benefit under present circum
stances. His pictures of the old Roman world are not
only charming, but always reposeful and soothing. The
Bucolics are more difficult than the Aeneid, but they give
glimpses of old pastoral romance which repay any trouble,
though the interest they excite is far inferior to that created
by the Idyls of Theocritus from which so much of them
is borrowed. I must pass from the old to the present
world. My holiday at Bray with Father James was
very pleasant. The weather could not have been better.
We spent a great deal of time on the promenade
and on the walk along Bray Head. There were a 2 good number of visitors, nearly all from different parts
of Ireland, I was told. We went to Dublin on several
occasions. I went twice to Gill's to see Mr. O'Kelly about
your manuscripts, etc., but he was out each time. I was
told on the second occasion that he was going on his
holidays. I had no opportunity of seeing any of your
Dublin friends as Father James regulated all our move
ments. He told me that Sara Scanlon (Mrs O'Connor)
and her husband happened to be in Dublin during
the trouble and had some exciting adventures in looking
for you. He also said that Ben's daughter, Frances, is
dying in a Paris convent. The only one of the relatives I
saw during the holiday was John Clancy. I called at
Sandycove and remained just about ten minutes. People
told me that I could not look better after the holi
day. I certainly felt very well, as I feel now, thank
God. Mother, though she has had no holiday, is also
well, thank God — in fact wonderfully well. But Lang
ford, I am sorry to say, is not in quite such good form.
He spent the three weeks of his holidays here. When he
came he seemed to have been suffering from a severe
cold. He looked rather thin. His voice was somewhat
hoarse, and he suffered on his feet, being unable to walk
as briskly as usual. He returned to Dublin a week
before I came back from Bray. He then walked nearly
as well as usual and his voice was considerably im
proved, but not quite clear. I wanted him to see a
doctor, but he very strongly held there was no need to
do so. Mr. Smyth, of the Fireside,has been in Dublin
for his holidays and on his return last Monday I
asked him how Langford was. From what he said I
gathered that Langford still suffers from his feet when
walking and that his voice is still husky. I have, in
a letter, again impressed on Langford the advisableness
of seeing a doctor. In his letters he is cheerful and says
his feet are all right and that his voice is nearly so. Now 3 as to business. We have left your books and manuscripts at Lang
ford's. I understand that Dr. Davitt is the man to apply to for the
money due for the shorthand note of the Anti-Taxation Society's meet
ing. I shall find out his address and write to him. As to
what you left in the Irish Journalists' Association's Office,
the building was partly destroyed by the fire which raged from
Abbey Street down to the river on the occasion of the insurrec
tion, but Langford says the handbag has been saved and also
a manuscript in your handwriting. As I stated in my last
letter, a souvenir of yours was likewise found and pres
erved, but there is no account of a stick. The account will
be all right. The gold tiepin and Belt Langford will get. He
has seen Mr. Burke. I have had letters from Messrs.
O'Kelly, Hegarty, O'Sullivan and R. O'Foghida, all ask
ing to be cordially remembered to you. Mr. Hegarty said
he would attend to your request in regard to the production
of your play by the London Gaelic League and the copies of your
latest play for Gill's. Your play was not produced at the
Gaelic Festival at Waterford. The Festival was held not in
Waterford but in Dublin. There were, I am told, no enter
tainments beyond a reception and a concert. The atten
dance was large. The lay vice-president was promoted
to the presidency and Mr. O'Kelly to the vice-presidency. The Irish
speaking League has prospered by leaps and bounds and
you were elected president at the annual meeting. The
Aisteoiridhe are arranging to produce one of your
plays at the Samhain festival. Langford has seen the
Merries and explained that they could not communicate
with you except through me. All your old friends have
been enquiring about you and have asked to be remem
bered to you. Carey was up here for his holidays and
stayed here a couple of nights. He is as lively and as
fond of jokes as ever. Mr. Smyth and a large number of
their friends often talk of you. I have to draw to a close
now as mother is to fill the other page; so I send you our
hearts' fondest love — Mother's, Langford's and my own and pray
that God may always bless you. Ever affectionately, Father.