page_0001

Telephone:
Balerno 3214

Bankhead
Balerno
Midlothian

24 October 1937

My dear John

Our letters have evidently
crossed. I won't let another day
elapse without thanking you for
the beautifully got up Augustus
which I have taken at headlong speed
up to Actium, because it is the later
part I want to be at. The narrative
is beautifully easy & the mass of
learning it carries so lightly is
quite amazing. Cleopatra is at last
comprehensible. Curiously enough the other day
on re-reading the Odes of Horace
& marking certain for learning by heart
(which I do walking to the train) the first
one (not learnt at school) I felt drawn to
was the 31st of Book 1 - Quid dedicatum
poscit Apollinem vates? & there I find
it quoted as in Conington on p 192 of