To Charles Augustus Strong
University Arms Hotel
Cambridge, England. September 29, 1923
After a week in London I have been for four days to Telegraph House—actually driven there by his lordship in a new glass car. I asked no questions on the way, and received no information as to what awaited me, thinking I should very likely be greeted by “Mollie” with all her old Irish cordiality. Not at all. In the hall stood a man-servant and two maids at attention—and not a soul besides! We had good weather and took some drives, and discussed only indifferent subjects, barely touching on politics (on which we don’t agree). Russell was unchanged save for whiter hair and a somewhat more subdued manner. There was a cat and four dogs (not counting a big one in the stables) and we went one day to tea at a widow’s, who I suspect may be the star now in the ascendant.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Three, 1921-1927. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
Location of manuscript: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow NY