T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 58

To Captain R. de la Bère, Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire. Mar. 11th, 1989 Ad 3 Quo Quos ... ... ... . V. J. to got Mrs D's ... to present one of DW's ... to... ... About ... to get Mrs D's ... to prevent one. 94 Barton Street 11.X.29 S.W.1 Dear Captain de la Bère I saw Mrs Derwent Wood, a day or two before your letter came. She lives in one of his former studios, filled with his works. She has not much money and feels that they are potential capital, though she also likes them, and does not want to sell them. Consequently she does not sell them, for of course she much overvalues them, being the only person from whom the slump in Derwent Wood values is concealed. She was delighted with your letters, and the notice in the Heading, and told me that nothing would give her greater pleasure than to see the forms in the new College. She valued it at £700, but would let it go for £500, in such case. This was really generous-minded of her; but she does not know that at auction the group would probably not fetch half the sum. At a guess, it might be worth £200, for it is a very pleasant little thing. It is much smaller than my recollection of it; about a life size, which feels smaller than it actually is, in practice. I liked it very much, and think it better than anything else of his in the room. It is very bronze coloured, polished and dark green-brown. In the circumstances all I could do was to stress the moral and aesthetic reasons why the group should be in the College, and confirm her inclination to have it there. She was hoping vaguely for a benefactor - mentioned Sir B. Hoare and Philip Sassoon - I gave her no hope in the first-named. The proper person would be Old Rorge, her brother, as a thank-offering for Laghorn & Atcherley. I shall put it to her, probably. I'm sorry things are like that. It would have been a most pleasant sight at Cranwell, very fitting, & graceful. I think one of your brothers was at Jesus with me, about 1903; and fancy that he was killed in the war. Is that right? Yours sincerely T E Shaw. She will ask him, I think: I wonder if the old thing (A) will!