T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 227

To Mrs. Fontena, "Anendon", Reading, I.C.W. Ozone Hotel Bridlington Yorks. 28.11.34 You see, I am no longer in the Temperate Zone. Here are two things in dire need of overhaul and here am I watching (on behalf of Air Ministry) a contractor do the work. Bridlington in winter is a silent place, where cats and 'landladi...' husbands walk gently down the middle of the streets. I prefer it to the bustle of summer, because my February-looking discharge from the Air Force makes me low-toned. It also makes me bewail-crab losing his twelve-year-old shell, and I hate the pleasure that my service has been, coming thus to an arbitrary end. Probably I shall be here till the end, and then my plan is to move to Clouds Hill, Horstop, Dorset (the Cottage) and stay there till I feel I can stay there no more; there being a hope behind my heart that perhaps I shall like it and not wish to come away. My savings come out poorly, I fear, amounting to just £5/- a week. I had hoped for more, so as to live easily. However ..... Tacits? Well, I hope, and dancing Brahms. I agree with you that R.H.F. will have ch..nged his mind since Howarda' End. A wise man would never confess either a like or a dislike. E.A. is depressed. He says he faces bankruptcy (I fear his fevers may be put the patients to fright; they may feel that he cannot succeed his father) and the flush has gone from his writings. Poor E. I wish he could be helped. I read in the great poem-sequence often: it is and it isn't. How tall him? Vale atque salve ... When I'm free, I hope. Yours T.E.S. Books read lately .... not a selection, but adventitionally met Desert and Forest, Mossbit .... Unreliable History, Maurice Baring ( in small doses) The Valley of the Assassins, Freya Stark [a nice creature, but not good writing]