Dear Kate - letter two of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

The call numbers for the four letters are: RB/MSS004/1, RB/MSS004/2, RB/MSS004/3, RB/MSS004/4. In each case, I arranged last year for the SLNSW to digitize the letters. The first letter was the one containing the reference to A Study in Scarlet. 

This second letter is RB/MSS004/2. I believe this letter may be the earliest of the four letters (possibly prior to 1885), though it is almost impossible to date. The absence of references to a spouse or children, and the implication that the letter is being written after friends have visited to stay and drink suggests this may from written in early 1885 or even earlier.

Private
1 Bush Villas

Southsea

My dear Kate -

When your comforting presence and that of the bold brain wrencher and cerebrum annihilator was removed from me I sickened and took to my bed. On Tuesday I was very bad and we had to have a Doctor in who - much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule - was certainly very kind to me. On Wednesday I was worse, and really in a bad way. On Thursday I was worser still and on Friday affairs reached a climax . Beyond a faint yodelling at intervals there was neither croak nor kick in me. This morning however I awoke comparatively fresh and have crawled down stairs and am amusing myself by writing to thee. I am as weak as a kitten, groggy on my legs and swimmy about the head - but still - however - I know I am round the corner.

Oh Kate, I could write thee a funeral sermon which would move thee much - I could attain fame as a writer of epitaphs, I could dwell on aught that is ghastly and morbid but to write in that happy sprightly manner which your own vitality and appearance and age demand is as impossible to me now as to smoke my pipe or eat my dinner. But still. Let me assure you before I go any further what a very great pleasure your visit was to me. When Bill proposed about Xmas time that you should all four come down I threw cold water on the scheme, knowing what a censorious little place this is, what a headquarters of gossip the hotel next door is, and how absolutely necessary it was that I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did. As we managed it however nothing could have been better and we enjoyed ourselves without risking anything. I have only two regrets - viz that Bill was not with you and that my confounded seediness should have thrown a damper over things.

If I am capable of walking I shall be in London on Monday. If I only  get better as rapidly as I got ill 36 hours may work a great change in me. If I do come I will call on you between 2 and 4 and take your life (sounds rather bloodthirsty) if it wont be inconvenience to you if it will be the least inconveniencing wire and let me know. If I don't turn up you will know that I am too seedy to leave Portsmouth.

By the way Kate I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours. There is not the least reason why you should not take 50 pounds or 70 pounds a year out of Life Assurance. You would get 15 per cent of all business you did. Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do all you would need to say in your own taking way would be "Guess what I am now. I am a Life Assurance agent. Won't you give me a turn. It's the best office in England" - and for very gallantry they could hardly refuse. When you had half a dozen cases ready, I would run up and do the filling up of forms - so that after the initial step you would have nothing to do but pocket your commissions. What think ye of it?

I could write away for ever, Kate, but my hand is shakey, and all my strings seem to have come off the pulleys.

Goodbye, my love to Dan and Bill and, my dear Kate, to yourself from 

Your affectionate friend

Arthur Conan Doyle 

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

This letter does not provide a great deal into events in Doyle's life. The letter is addressed to Kate, and Dan is again referenced, along with 'Bill' (believed to be William.K Burton).

The letter is written to Kate following a visit by four people: Kate, Dan and Bill, along with a fourth unidentified person. Following the visit, Doyle was exceedingly sick.

'much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule': contemn is to treat with contempt. ACD himself being a doctor of course.

'I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did': this passage suggests that this letter is written early in ACD's time at Southsea, as he 'had nothing to fall back on' and worried about his reputation. Later in his time at Southsea he'd build a reputation as a man of letters, and his practice was more established.

The 'hotel next door' was the Bush Hotel. It can be seen in this postcard depicting the intersection of Elm Grove and Kings Road, clearly marked as such, a four-story building on the right corner. Doyle's practice at Bush Villas can be seen, between the Bush Hotel and the church at the center of the postcard.

'I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours': This is an intriguing passage. First, it is another demonstration of Doyle doing all he can to supplement his income. In the first letter, it was via earning extra income as a surgeon for the army, and here it is by organizing life assurance policies. This section also emphasizes that Kate Bryson is involved in artistic circles in London, as he states Kate is 'Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do...'.

'Assurance' in the UK is 'insurance' in the US and other countries. During this period, Doyle worked for the Gresham Life Assurance Society in his professional capacity as a doctor. The collected letters contained in 'Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters' includes multiple references to Doyle's work for Gresham - which would be performing a medical evaluation as part of the application process. But Doyle was more enterprising, and in one letter to his mother refers to the idea of traveling to Edinburgh with George Barnden (the Southsea agent for Gresham) to drum up business. 

In this case, Doyle is proposing the same to Kate Bryson - to identify individuals in her London circle who could be signed up for a life assurance policy, at which point Doyle would head to London to complete the process (with a royalty for Kate).

Edit/update: Many thanks to Edith Pounden and Mattias Boström for providing suggestions that have improved these transcriptions.