Dateline

BOAR’S HILL, OXFORD. 31 Aug. [1918]. Masefield informs Bull that he is sending young poet Robert Nichols to America with letter of introduction in hand. Nichols, he reports, is nice but badly shell-shocked and in need of being ‘a little looked after’. Closing, Masefield excerpts from an Erasmus letter to help Bull resolve her creative ‘troubles’.

Scope and Contents HILL CREST, BOAR’s HILL, OXFORD. Undated. [1930, December inferred. Printed pamphlet enclosure with Masefield handwriting inside cover: No.: "9" For: "Dorothy" From: "John Masefield. Christmas, 1930".] Masefield sends Bull Christmas greetings with thoughts, remembrances, and blessings for the New Year. Pamphlet is a printing of his October 1930 Address to the Councillors of Hereford. King George V appointed John Masefield Poet Laureate in 1930, possibly on the 1924 recommendation...

Scope and Contents BOAR’S HILL, OXFORD. Undated [1930? Questionable.] This Masefield notecard to refers to an "enclosed photograph" of Ledbury Church. [The image is found in Series 3 - Photographs (Item #6) of the Bull Collection.] The postcard image depicts an 11thC 'Old Parish Church' Masefield calls a “small cathedral". He notes that it was the setting for his long poem, "The Everlasting Mercy", and that his childhood home lay just beyond the churchyard. [For correspondence referencing other images...

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[64 words] Oct 6 [1916] at Aix les Bains. (waiting for a train.) Masefield notes receipt of Bull’s letter written 25 days earlier; discusses artificial limb(s) for wounded French veteran(s); instructs Bull to avoid sending another gift; explains that he won’t be able to ‘administrate it’; expresses hope that Bull continues writing verse; remarks on battlefield death of American poet Alan Seeger.

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Lollingdon, Cholsey, Berks Nov 17. 1916. Masefield is greatly pleased by Bull’s recent letter and poem; is glad that she enjoyed his copy of “Philosophies”; offers to critique a Bull typescript; responds at length to Bull’s questions about papers he reads and ‘non-party’ newspapers in England.

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Lollingdon, Cholsey, Berks Nov 19, 1916. Masefield compares the merits of donating to veterans in need of artificial arms (vs legs); reports no word from surgeons charged with selecting a ‘deserving case’ to receive Bull’s gift; characterizes the battle of Gallipoli as a 'game of firecrackers' compared with the Somme; admires Poet Laureate Robert Bridge’s anthology “The Spirit of Man”.