ENPages That Mention Hardy
Letter from Gerard Manley Hopkins to Alexander William Mowbray Baillie, discussing his meeting with Baillie's cousin, Mrs. Cunliffe; his impending trip to Wales; his visit to the Junior Water Colours and the British Institution; etc.
p. 6
They, I mean the shepherd and fam ily, gorged me with eggs and bacon and oaten cake and curds and whey. Thus I did what old gentlemen tell you with a sort of selfish satis faction that you must learn to do,
ROUGHED IT;
I believe it means irritating the skin on sharp-textured blankets. These old gentlemen have always had to do it when they were your age.
Your P.F. has a hard time of it to resist contamination from the bawdy jokes and allusions of Bond and Hardy.
p. 9
think me too egotistical in speaking thus at length and thus freely ab out myself and my hopes. I have now a more rational hope than be fore of doing something - in poetry and painting. About the first I have said all there is to say in a letter; about the latter I have no more room to speak, but when next I see you I have great things to tell you. I have been introduced to Miss and Miss Christina Rossetti. I met them and Holman Hunt and George Mac Donald and Peter Cunningham and Jenny Lind at the Gurneys'.
Hardy wishes you would look sharp and answer his letter, and sends his love.
Believe me, my dear friend, yours affectionately, Gerard M. Hopkins.
P.S. "Nothing so true as what you once let fall", life is a preparation for Mods.