33. H. F. Scott-Stokes to Harrod, 3 May 1927
business only: - I think I spoke of a young cousin, P. Clothier, whom I'd a mind to send to Oxford - his parents are ageing, and I am his guardian-elect. Well, this April, things arrived at his being put at Balliol entrance - I thought & think him a Balliol type - to go up in 1928 after a year in the factory - very important, because at that age he can take his coat off & get down to it. He failed; and that's that; & I am largely to blame, for having put him at it; and now what about the House?
The difficulty is the leaving school this July; that means that after that date he would probably do nothing at a `prepared' examination; is it possible that you could examine him this summer, & done with?
The boy is no fool. Has done Responsions (or the like), and is doing `Higher Certificate' this term - would that admit him? He is a great-grandson of John Bright & the only child of two very live [? CSS] people. He is a scholar of `Leighton Park', an odd Quaker `public school' near Reading; and he has always been ahead of his age. I will guarantee that the House would not regret taking him. He wants to do Modern Greats, I think. And it would relieve me of a great reproach to have him firmly on his way again. I have written without consulting the sorrowing parents - I should like to have some solid crumb of comfort for them!
And that's that - I am well and middle-aged and at peace with all the world and a Member of the Liberal Council, to whom I am persistently rude. They are hopeless.
Suppose I drove over to dinner on Whitsunday?