Poems, Letters and Memories of Philip Sidney Nairn. E. Eddison R.
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out about three miles from the Operahaus. I was over at Homburg the other day, in the Taunus Mountains, no end of a flick place. Beauty is rare. However, I met a rather jolly girl yesterday, who is staying an hour’s walk from here across the country, and I find I can always learn a foreign tongue better from a pretty girl. Ireland is, however, in no danger. I am making vast progress in German, and shall be quite sorry to leave here, which I do in about a month. Where are you?
‘Ever yours,
‘P. S. N.’
The next two letters belong to the beginning of his fourth year, when most of his friends of the year senior to his own had gone down:
‘21, MICHAEL ST.
‘Friday, October 20th, 1905.
‘My Dear Old Man,
‘What the blazes can have happened to you? Where are you and what are you doing? Moreover, when are you taking your degree and why have you not written to me? Are you at Wren’s or are you in love?
‘These are just a few of the questions I should like answered.
‘Here I am in Oxford once more, where the cold is damnable, and the place deserted by most of those tried old friends whose footsteps resounded erstwhile on the paving of Cornmarket Street.
‘Pot and MacB. were here a day or two ago, previous to a three-months sojourn in Hanover – tomorrow I believe they are contemplating giving a 21ster (pray note the gibe) to the marine denizens of the North Sea.
‘Milly is reported due here tonight at 8.10.
‘Sid Field is reported assiduously polishing a high stool in a Leamington office. Duggy Graham is once more here (at Marcon’s Hall) and Maurice ably adorns the Presidential Chair.
‘The G— is married and H— (my God!) I still detest.
‘Ever yours,
‘PHILIP S. NAIRN.’
‘OXFORD UNION SOCIETY.
‘November 5th, 1905.
‘My Dear Herrick,
‘I am rejoiced to hear that we meet again at Philippi on the 9th inst. Can’t you make it more than a flying visit? Of course you understand that you will put up at the hotel – 21, Michael St – so many people drop in that we have had to christen the diggs “St Michael’s Hotel” – less charitable people may designate it – the pub.
‘I suppose you are working very hard; so am I. One H— don and I are at loggerheads, and from rather doubtful collections he is piling on the weekly tale of essays, in the idea that I am more ignorant than I should be – a year off schools. A sublime error on his part, except in the matter of constitutional history, which makes me inclined to spew up the little knowledge of it I possess.
‘P. is chucking slice-eating: a good thing for him, as he was acquiring fresh vices in Chichester – a most banausic spot, in which the only society to be found was in the local bars. He and W— are going in for the consular service. I am going to have a slap at the Egyptian Civil, but doubt whether I have any chance, as they will probably plough me over eyes.
‘Do you know Ernest Dowson’s poems? John Long has just brought out a new 5s. edition. I like his poems immensely.
‘I went with Duggy Graham to hear Yvette Guilbert last night. She is magnificent – if you have a chance, don’t fail to see her. I wish to heaven I could hear her sing that portion of her repertoire which I fear did not pass the Vice-Chancellor’s blue pencil.
‘Tonight I am going to the Ouds to hear one of the “Follies” at a smoking concert. I am going as my Twin’s guest. It is quite useful his being on the Ouds.
‘Ever yours,
‘P. S. N.’
Nairn, like most of his friends, worked prodigiously hard in the months preceding his schools, but he also kept up a wonderfully good average of reading both in term time and in the vacation for a man of such varied interests and so sought by, and seeking, society. It had been Dean Farrar’s wish that he should become a schoolmaster, a calling for which he considered him peculiarly fitted; and this was the career that Nairn had in mind when he came up to Oxford. In the event, however, his degree was not destined to prove a sufficiently brilliant one to give him the best start for an academic life. Moreover, he did not look forward to such a life with any lively pleasure. And so it was that some time before his History finals were in sight he was contemplating a preferable alternative in the Egyptian Civil Service, the posts in which were to be filled for the first time by a system of limited competition wherein mere ‘bookish theoric’ was to count for less than the qualities of leadership and savoir faire which he possessed in so marked a degree.
‘I am working like hell – eight hours a day,’ he writes early in 1906, ‘and also putting in for the Egyptian touch, but as there are about eighty applicants from either ‘Varsity and about twelve berths, the chances of success are not rosy. I spent a very merry ten days with the Fields at Leamington. The rest of the vac. I did about four hours a day.’
A little later he writes:
‘UNION SOCIETY, OXFORD.
‘Sunday, March 11th, 1906.
‘Dear Ric,
‘Thanks frightfully for your frequent letters. I’m sorry I have not answered them before.
‘I suppose you have fixed it up all right with Mrs Honey? I am looking forward to it very much. I go down to Pains wick (Glos.) on 17th, immediately after collections, to stop with Brucie for a few days, but I shall be home before 30th.
‘How goes it with you? Your letters tell me so little about yourself. H— and I are almost amicable
now, as I took a pure a on a collection of Stubbs’s Charters. We have two more at end of term, one on my Foreign Period, which I know, and the other on my Special Period, which it will take all the cunning I possess to survive, without betraying the fact that my knowledge of it, if not elementary, is still very superficial.
‘I have been rather North-Oxfording it this term: progressive bridge, whist, etc. Result – acquaintance with one really nice girl, but she, alas! has now departed for Portugal.
‘Adieu,
‘Yours ever,
‘P. S. N.
‘P.S. My application for E.C.S. is now awaiting consideration. Pray for me.’
Nairn did not obtain the Egyptian appointment. On coming down from Oxford, in order to occupy his time profitably and improve his knowledge of German, pending his entering on a definite career, he went, under an arrangement then in force between the British and the German Education Departments, as English master to the Schiller Gymnasium at Stettin in Prussia, where he was to learn German in exchange for English. Here he spent many pleasant months, and here as elsewhere he was popular with the professors and the students. The following extracts from his diary kept in 1907 give a picture of his life in Germany. They cover the last six weeks or so of his time there:
‘January 3rd. – Bundled out of the train [at Berlin] at 5.30 this morning feeling very sleepy. This wore off after a cup of coffee at the station. Drove to “Hotel Stadt London”, deposited my bag, and then explored Berlin in the half-light. Night was like day. Berlin life is continually looping the loop; it is like a cat chasing its own tail. Visited the market early. Very interesting. Then came back, shaved, dressed and washed. Saw the Schloss, Dom, statuary, and modern pictures before lunch, which I had “Unter den Linden” about 3. Later went to Café Opera: good music. Met a very decent German – travelled, and dressed in London – with whom I spoke for about two hours. Then went to Kleine Theatre, and saw Oscar Wilde’s “Idealer Gatte” very fairly well played – 150th time. Had supper “Unter den Linden” and then walked in Friedrich Strasse for some time. At about two turned in. Feeling tired.
‘January 4th.