I was glad to get your note saying that you had received another of mine from Lisbon there were three altogether ; and sorry that I could not write last week.
It is the most difficult kind of speech to prepare, a speech to school-boys or school-girls just on things-in-general. I do not feel that I did brilliantly, but at least it is over without any harm having been done. I England Cornwall;e2 TSE's visit to;a1 went down on Thursday and came back by sleeping-car on Saturday night: so that I had one day of speaking and one of being shown the country.
I was in Methodist circles, of course, but Cornwall is very Methodist; and at least I saw Cornwall among Cornish people and not as a seaside tripper. It is of course a foreign country, but not so unpleasantly foreign as Wales, and indeed appears more civilised, as there is a certain amount of architecture, and the local dialect is not unpleasing: it sounds to an untrained ear simply a variant of West Country English.
Some of the country is quite beautiful although perhaps not so extraordinary as the Cornish like to think especially the upper reaches of the river Fal. Ives and St. Mawes are picturesque, but the fishing industry is pretty dead, and these towns are infested by artists.
You will confirm the name of the boat before you sail I take it you will stick to the New Amsterdam and whether you disembark at Plymouth or Southampton. If the former, I imagine that I meet you at Paddington; if the latter, Waterloo: but a Dutch boat is more likely to stop at Plymouth.
