System Number: 05348
Date: [25/30 September 1888?][1]
Author: JW
Place: Tours
Recipient: James Rennell Rodd[2]
Place: [Berlin]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler R243
Document Type: ALS
You are simply delightful my dear Rennie! -
I have been to Bourges since I wrote[3] to you the other day and just got back in time for your letter[4] - the last came this morning enclosing the note from Münich - which I take it is from Cadogan[5]? - Tell me by the way what Cadogan? - is the Lord of Chelsea who holds us all in the palm of his hand, [p. 2] very properly ruling in Bavaria, and most charmingly thrusting me down the throat of Münich?!
Of course you are quite right - it would be so is much wiser to wait until after the field is won, before I appear - indeed I am not sure that it might not be nicer in me to stay away altogether just now - It might prevent thing[s] being said - ? -
However you will write and tell me -
Do tell me also where you were at Amboise? - It seems to me that I heard something of the episode - once before - did you tell me? or was it Scoones[6]? -
No - Mme. de Pelouzes[7] sale is put off -
What a lovely place? -
Do the[y] know the Biencourt? at Azay-le-Rideau[8]? -
Always
[butterfly signature]
I have brought away something lovely from [p. 3] Amboise - and on my return to London will send you one of the first proofs to hang up in your diplomatic breakfast room that you may prove your intimate connection with "Elementar Kunst"[9]! -
14. Rue de la Scellerie
à Tours.
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Notes:
1. [25/30 September 1888?]
Dated from address and #05215 (see note below). JW was in France on a working honeymoon, after his marriage to Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more] on 11 August. The Whistlers appear to have stayed with Leymarie from mid September. See JW to M. B. Ford, #01443 and to H. Whistler, #06713.
2. James Rennell Rodd
James Rennell Rodd (1858-1941), 1st Baron Rennell, poet and diplomat [more]. Rodd was then a diplomat at the British Embassy in Berlin.
3. wrote
See JW to J. R. Rodd, #05347.
4. your letter
Probably J. R. Rodd to JW, #05215 to which this letter appears to be a reply.
5. Cadogan
George Henry Cadogan (1840-1915), 5th Earl of Cadogan, politician and diplomat [more].
6. Scoones
William Baptiste Wordsworth Scoones (1838 or 1839-1906), civil servant [more].
7. Mme. de Pelouzes
Marguerite Pélouze, née Wilson, collector, wife of the chemist Theodore Jules Pélouze.
8. Azay-le-Rideau
Small town on the river Indre, dominated by the chateau Azay-le-Rideau. An old hotel named the Biencourt survives, close by the chateau; this may have been the building that JW refers to here.
9. 'Elementar Kunst'
Ger., Fundamental Art (see J. R. Rodd to JW, #05215).