Dearest Fergie,

You'll have seen about Gurney - in fact, the press has given him in his death more attention in a week than they gave his life in 47 years. I thought the enclosed headlines from The Gloucester Citizen would amuse you, knowing what precious little attention his native city paid to him before. I went to his funeral, a sad little affair at Twigworth, and H.H. [Howells] played ‘Sleep’ and ‘Severn Meadows’ on a wheezy little organ, whilst his brother Ronald stood by, looking exactly as though he had won a medal, so pleased, complacent and high-collared! Poor Marion Scott, in tears at the end, but remarkably brave and calm considering how much it must have meant to her. And now for ‘The Late Christopher Bean'1 all over again, for there's no doubt that the ‘Music and Letters’ articles have already set the ball rolling and people are discovering that they have MSS of him, that they knew him quite well, ‘and were always amazed at his genius', that they visited him regularly when he was in the asylum, that they were his best friends, etc. etc. Even H.H.[owells], who was a great friend of his in R.C.M. days, but seldom went to the asylum in the latter years, now implies that he was a regular visitor. (But then H.H. is now talking about ‘my College at Oxford'. See what a Mus. Doc. at the age of 45 can bring one to!) But, Lord, I'm glad those articles came out before he died, even though he was practically beyond understanding what and whom they were about. It's been worth all the trouble, irritation and obstruction (which reminds me: have you got the two violin pieces yet?), and something, however much in the back- ground, I'm honestly proud to have got done, since his own ‘friends’ hadn't the spirit to do it.

And when do you get back? I might possibly get up for the Moeran Symphony. Have you any intention of going?

Any word about the site yet? The cottage [gardener's cottage at Ashmansworth] is getting on finely; but alas, each floor, as one gets to it, proves to be rotten - joists and all - and one might as well be building a new place. I think it'll be ready by March, or April for certain.