Transcription: Letter to a Young Poet: Autograph Manuscript, 1931 Sept. 24, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, MA3333, ff. 44–6.

For symbols used in transcription please see page 210.

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, certainly we will have mutton for dinner. {And} But what is the price of mutton in this neighbourhood, I said to my cook. And she said, I think you ought to go [yourself] & speak to Mr Livestock – {Why} He has been palming us off with second rate joints ever so often lately. You can tell New Zealand by its pink [vein] They send them over by [haunches]. They arent what we're accustomed to. They arent what the best families have. Its said Princess Mary wont have an ounce of Mr L. meat in her kitchen. Think of her little princes growing up on fully [grown] meat. They do say {her} the Pss goes into the kitchen every morning. And the tricks they play, if ones not watching: the innards & the neck cant weigh all that: not two pounds 3 {oz} ounces which is what they charge us for: & then the backs come so high – its wicked in these days of want; when every penny counts; & the girls in the shops say “Prices wont stay down after this [quarter]. Of course they've the old stock on hand now. They're not making a penny change different at the moment. But if the Budget rises, [they'll] rise too. Prices follow suit. {My} Thats daylight: [reason]; though what the government is for if its not to protect us working classes I dont know I saw Mr Macdonald once myself – a disappointment he was too. Neither one thing nor the other. But then the cares that man's been through – waking at 5 they say with a [shower bath] thrown at him by one of the young ladies they keep for that very purpose. Wake she says. And thats true of the king too. {They wake him:} He has a parrot. George it says: Come along: time to get up – thats the bird that pulled him through his illness that the Queen wdnt let them take away but when they bought him past all [convalescence].