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Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter

Page 33

by Diana Souhami


  My dear Mrs George

  The Prince of Wales to Mrs Keppel, May 1901 (Royal Archive, Windsor)

  a number of other

  Edward VII: A Portrait

  The Queen has taken

  The Glitter and the Gold

  the complete supremacy

  8 April 1901, Lady Curzon’s India: Letters of a Vicereine

  Dear Soveral

  quoted in Uncle of Europe

  I came to rely

  Edwardian Daughter

  one of whom

  Edward VII and his Jewish Court

  I hereby acknowledge

  7 March 1901, (Cassel papers, Hartley Library, Southampton University)

  Referring to our

  5 March 1903, ibid

  My dear Cassel

  Edward VII to Ernest Cassel, September 1901. ibid

  The drawing room

  Lord Esher to his son Maurice, April 1908. Journals and Letters of Reginald Esher. Ed. Maurice Brett (Nicholson and Watson 1934–8)

  Israel in force

  July 1900, Lincolnshire papers Bodleian Library Oxford

  I quite made up

  The Diary of Sir Edward Hamilton, ed. Dudley Bahlman (University of Hull 1993)

  one of a new breed

  Edward VII and his Jewish Court

  When she came

  The Enigmatic Edwardian

  The poorer classes

  Ernest Cassel to Edward VII, 1902 (Cassel papers, Southampton)

  You will have doubtless heard

  Edward VII to Ernest Cassel, 1 June 1902 (Cassel papers, Southampton)

  The party is like

  Ernest Cassel to his daughter, 1906 (Cassel papers, Southampton)

  The King is rather pleased

  ibid, April 1902

  a stout Teutonic

  Edward VII and his Jewish Court

  I have had

  ibid

  Levee dress

  (Cassel papers, Southampton)

  greatest wish

  Recollections of Three Reigns

  The King is perfectly

  Lord Esher to his son Maurice, July 1905. Journals and Letters of Reginald Esher

  She sits next to him

  ibid

  HM was in capital

  Lincolnshire papers

  wonder dully what relation

  Violet to Vita (undated 1918)

  SIX

  Studded wardrobe-trunks

  Edwardian Daughter

  Out of a square

  ibid

  Sir Ernest was fervently

  ibid

  At Biarritz

  Uncle of Europe

  We are his servants

  Janet Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten: A Life of Her Own (HarperCollins, 1992)

  lovely little jewelled

  Edwardian Daughter

  Mama was waiting

  Triple Violette

  Mrs George Keppel

  Uncle of Europe

  I put on a frock

  ibid

  Before leaving

  Asquith to Mrs Keppel, 9 May 1908 (John Phillips)

  Monsieur Jean

  Don’t Look Round

  Every year

  Violet to Vita, 16 September 1910

  We used to come

  Don’t Look Round

  her tapering

  ibid

  in the category

  Edwardian Daughter

  When roused to anger

  Don’t Look Round

  Persuasion

  unpublished note (Beinecke Library, Yale)

  suspicious, introspective

  Don’t Look Round

  This book Mama

  Edwardian Daughter

  My first (and salutary)

  Don’t Look Round

  The great lost the power

  ibid

  of a sudden

  ibid

  to be dragged

  Don’t Look Round

  It seems to me

  Portrait of a Marriage

  SEVEN

  One never loves

  Violet Trefusis, Hunt the Slipper (Virago 1983)

  which became more

  Don’t Look Round

  I who was the worst

  Portrait of a Marriage

  Vita belonged to Knole

  Don’t Look Round

  It was necessary

  ibid

  It is above all

  Vita Sackville-West, Knole and the Sackvilles (Heinemann 1922)

  But you require

  Knole and the Sackvilles

  Had you been a man

  Violet to Vita

  Violet is mine

  Portrait of a Marriage

  as floppy as

  Vita to Harold, 19 May 1943 (Lilly Library)

  There he stands

  Vita to Harold, 8 September 1941 (Lilly Library)

  intermittent yet

  Don’t Look Round

  In her too

  ibid

  All the fast

  Victoria Sackville, unpublished diary

  He made me sit

  Vita Sackville-West, Pepita (Hogarth Press 1937)

  He put me at

  ibid

  mais pourtant

  ibid

  I wonder whether

  Victoria Sackville, unpublished diary

  Baby very naughty

  ibid

  Everybody says

  Victoria Sackville, Book of Reminiscences (Lilly Library)

  the figure of

  23 January 1927, The Diary of Virginia Woolf: volume 3 1925–30. Ed. Anne Olivier Bell (The Hogarth Press 1980)

  L says that I talk

  Victoria Sackville, unpublished diary

  those lovely, lovely

  Portrait of a Marriage

  Often when I went

  ibid

  She loved me as a baby

  Pepita

  one moment

  ibid

  it has been rather

  Portrait of a Marriage

  I thought they would

  quoted in Victoria Glendinning, Vita (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1983)

  I think she touched

  Pepita

  annual, biennial

  ibid

  she possessed

  ibid

  Do you know

  Violet to Vita, 7 May 1920

  Genealogies

  Vita

  Mr Keppel is really

  Vita’s diary, 4 April 1908 (Lilly Library)

  It speaks highly

  Don’t Look Round

  If I’d read

  Violet Trefusis, Broderie Anglaise (Paris 1935. English translation by Barbara Bray, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1985)

  stumbled out

  Portrait of a Marriage

  I can’t hear

  ibid

  How I loved you

  Violet to Vita, August 1920

  Darling, how dreadfully

  ibid, 14 August 1920

  EIGHT

  full justice

  Magnus, King Edward VII

  Mrs Keppel and the affront

  ibid

  The King’s cold

  Mrs Keppel to the Marquis de Soveral, quoted in Uncle of Europe

  the matter you

  Edward VII and his Jewish Court

  I shall be sorry

  Magnus, King Edward VII

  Poor Alice

  Ernest Cassel to his daughter, May 1910 (Cassel papers, Southampton)

  looked as if

  ibid, 6 May 1910

  Yes I have heard

  Uncle of Europe

  I never did any harm

  Lord Esher’s journal, 12 June 1910. Quoted in James Lees-Milne, The Enigmatic Edwardian (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986)

  interest I gave

  Edward VII and his Jewish Court

  It was the fruit of a quite

  ibid

  Mrs Keppel had lied

  quoted in James Lee
s-Milne, The Enigmatic Edwardian: The Life of Reginald 2nd Viscount Esher (Sidgwick & Jackson 1976)

  We went up

  Edwardian Daughter

  Why does it matter

  ibid

  Today the King

  Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My Diaries (Secker 1919)

  regular sweep

  ibid

  surely one

  Osbert Sitwell, Great Morning (Macmillan 1948)

  My dear Lady Knollys

  Uncle of Europe

  No young lady’s

  Don’t Look Round

  I want you to come

  Violet to Vita, 8 October 1910 (written in French)

  you ask me pointblank

  ibid

  O my dears

  Vita

  wife of a gentleman

  Violet to Vita, 12 December 1910

  I didn’t think

  Portrait of a Marriage

  Your speech impressed

  Violet to Vita, 31 October 1910 (written in French)

  The chauffeur sounded

  Edwardian Daughter

  My dear Harold

  Vita and Harold, 5 November 1910

  For the first time

  Violet to Vita, 12 December 1910 (written in French)

  I hope terribly

  ibid 12 December 1910

  The parting with Mama

  Edwardian Daughter

  I remember admiring

  Portrait of a Marriage

  O Vita

  Violet to Vita, undated 1911 (written in French)

  I knew it then

  Portrait of a Marriage

  like the Babes

  Don’t Look Round

  I liked the two

  Edwardian Daughter

  No I am not angry

  31 July 1911 (Beinecke Library, Yale)

  A lady caught

  Edwardian Daughter

  In these spacious

  ibid

  Not only were the rooms

  Great Morning

  masses of beautiful

  Edwardian Daughter

  After a month

  Don’t Look Round

  NINE

  exquisite beauties

  Edwardian Daughter

  their conversation

  Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians

  The house was full

  She was tall

  Don’t Look Round

  This is a rather nice

  Violet to Vita, 8 June 1912 (Beinecke Library)

  He lays down

  Vita to Harold, 6 June 1913 (Lilly Library)

  Isn’t it funny

  Harold to Vita, 28 July 1913 (Lilly Library)

  Accepté mes félicitations

  Violet to Vita, 5 August 1913 (Beinecke Library)

  Dear Mr Smith

  quoted in Susan Mary Alsop, Lady Sackville (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1978)

  How she flung

  Portrait of a Marriage

  I remember

  ibid

  Everything in me

  Harold to Vita, 11 September 1914 (Lilly Library)

  not very attractive

  Edwardian Daughter

  It required

  Don’t Look Round

  He would arrive

  Edwardian Daughter

  His courtship was too

  Don’t Look Round

  It was tacitly

  ibid

  Even Mama

  Edwardian Daughter

  You and your dog

  ibid

  There’s a war

  ibid

  Poor Archie

  ibid

  The idea of matrimony

  Don’t Look Round

  I think perhaps

  Pepita

  Damn that little too too

  Harold to Vita, 7 June 1917 (Lilly Library)

  I used to invent

  Pat Dansey to Vita, 4 September 1922 (Nigel Nicolson)

  Part Two: Portrait of a Lesbian Affair

  TEN

  I simply cant

  Violet to Vita, 29 October 1917

  bloody time

  Harold to Vita, 6 November 1917 (Lilly Library)

  untidy or crawly

  ibid, 6 November 1917

  like a searchlight

  ibid, 7 November 1917

  And I shall be

  ibid, 7 November 1917

  my whole soul

  ibid, 7 November 1917

  frightfully opty

  ibid, 15 March 1918

  We were in fact

  Portrait of a Marriage

  in the unaccustomed

  ibid

  I was infinitely

  ibid

  I am young

  Violet to Vita, undated 1918

  I felt like a person

  Portrait of a Marriage

  How triumphant we were

  Violet to Vita, 20 July 1919

  I wish I was more

  Harold to Vita, 9 May 1918 (Lilly Library)

  where no one will want me

  Vita to Harold, 11 May 1918 Vita and Harold

  Darling one day

  ibid

  God Mitya do you wonder

  Violet to Vita, undated May 1918 (Beinecke Library)

  I am drunk with the beauty

  Violet to Vita, undated 1918

  she looks so charming

  Victoria Sackville, unpublished diary, 18 May 1918 (Lilly Library)

  God knows it is

  Violet to Vita, 23 January 1918

  O Mitya come

  ibid, 14 August 1918

  How happy we were

  ibid, 20 July 1919

  I adore you

  ibid, 22 July 1919

  Married life under

  Victoria Sackville, Lady Sackville

  What sort of life

 

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