To Rosamond Thomas Bennett Sturgis
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. Dec. 7, 1946
In general, tea and coffee remain the greatest and most constant desideratum: also biscuits, crackers, or cookies–anything substantial to have with my tea. Some raisin biscuits that you sent me once or twice long ago were excellent. Fruit cake and sweets I like, but on the whole they become a bit cloying, and then (such is human vice) I miss them when they are all eaten up. Plain nice biscuits or wafers are more satisfying for every day. The paste you send, good for sandwiches, also goes splendidly at teatime, when there is no cake, buiscuit, or marmalade. I don’t ask for this last, because I know there is trouble in sending glass jars that may get broken and make a mess in the box, although this has not happened in most of those that have come. Now I have three fresh jars sent by a Mr., Miss, or Mrs. Thompson whom I don’t know, but who is here in Rome.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA