To Charles Augustus Strong
Hotel Victoria, Glion
Glion-sur-Montreux, Switzerland. August 26, 1936
Dear Strong,
I am glad to hear that you are seeing amusing things and that your proof-reading still keeps you profitably occupied. What are you going to take up next?
Everything here is as expected: few people, simple food, and no anxieties. The 16 francs were meant to cover pension and room: my first week’s bill, including 12 francs for the motor to bring me up from Montreux on my arrival, was about 170 francs. I have a light Neuchâtel wine; a bottle lasts two days. When I go down to Montreux to tea, which is about every other day, things look more lively and the tea-places are crowded. The weather, after a week of rain has become sunny, but not too warm for sleeping comfortably.
. . . .
You say nothing of your health, which I assume to be normal. Do you have a “bath-chair”—if not a “bathing-machine”—and do you bask on the beach in the midst of the nudities? I shouldn’t mind the nudities, but couldn’t stand the glare.
Yours ever G.S.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Five, 1933-1936. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow NY