T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 137

To A.E.Chambers: 21.3.23 Dear Jock It makes a good letter: but god help you if ever you decide to write a book. Your bill for raw paper! To start Earlor requires courage. To finish is pretty near folly, to my mind. I don't think Carlyle was quite the best possible (... J.M. was) and I don't think he has much to say 'idiosyncrasy' of 1823. Some ... day people will take pleasure from him: but not me. You want to know about Lilith! I once read a ...iaeval German ... her (a farault to make her a ........., an the first world: but I forget her name & just book hadn't a name. Look up Lilith in the Encyclopaedia Brit. and see if they refer you to other authorities. The only ... I've ever seen in English about her is Rossetti's poem, & that is more beautiful than informing. I've written to a learned man who lives near a reference library, & he perhaps will reach to the point - but I haven't a book dealing with the lady, & she's so rare an interest that all her books will be even rarer. However patience & time. The British Museum allow no books to be taken outside their Reading Room. It's an Act of Parliament says so. For books to borrow, & read at home you would have to go for educational books to the Workers Educational Association, who have a very decent library, & are very decent to deal with... and for more learned books to the London Library. This, I think, is run by "the'll Manstfield, a very eminent but excellent man. The L.L. by Dr. Hagbort Write, a scholar with an international reputation. Let me know which you choose & I'll write the proper him a letter smoothing your path. Yes, it was hard luck that my A.C.Ingram should have come upon two such as Cliffoyle & Pearce conjoinec. I bear them a grudge, because I liked Ryall and the R.A.'s and tims were a decent crowd: and the present lot with me [pencil note: W.G.W.R.A. is in Eccleston sq. nr Victoria. The L.L. in S.James' Sq. The L.L. would cost a little.]