CHAPTER FOUR

Clouds Hill Books

ALL his life Lawrence was a voracious and intense reader, working his way through everything that interested him in the Oxford libraries, sometimes at the rate of two or three books in a night. Some of this must have been highly selective, and as any experienced reader knows, there are strategies for getting to the essence of a book very fast if need be. Just so, Lawrence maintained that he could tear the heart out of a book in half an hour, and that he,

‘… read every book which interested me in the library of the Oxford Union [best part of 50,000 vols I expect] in 6 years. My father used to get me books while I was at school: afterwards I borrowed always 6 vols a day, in his name and my own. For three years I read day and night, on a hearth rug which was mattress, so that I could fall asleep as I read. Often 18 hours reading in a day, and so good at the job, by practice, that I could tear the heart out of the soberest book in half an hour.’¹

Lawrence was also very interested in the technicalities and aesthetics of book production; partly due to his admiration for William Morris. If the First World War had not occurred, his plans to print and bind rare books with Leonard Green or Vyvyan Richards might well have flowered. He had got as far as buying land at Pole Hill, had acquired old beams for a roof, and bought jars of crushed Murex in Syria to stain the vellum they planned to use for binding.

Even in later life, Lawrence was prepared to put serious efforts into his reading practice. In a letter to F.N. Doubleday in 1929, he remarked, ‘One can’t read in odd half hours: reading is to soak oneself hour after hour all day in a single real book, until the book is realer than one’s chair or world.’² Similarly, with his review of Men of Letters by Philip Guedalla, Lawrence wrote, ‘The whole body of his writing seemed better on a second aquaintance. Therefore I tried it a third time. That’s hard on a new book, to be read three times straight off.’³ In passing, it may be that Lawrence was aware of the Cistercian practice of Lectio Divino (divine reading) whereby sacred books were as much meditated upon as read; until the author’s mind was one with the readers. Of course, Lawrence had great ambitions as a writer, and accumulated, judged, and analysed books with this in mind, closely examining technique and style. As Jeremy Wilson notes, ‘In the event there was to be no period in Lawrence’s life after 1908 when he was not planning or working on a literary project of some kind.’ After the war, he prepared himself for a writing career by intensive study.’⁴ The enormous difference between the impacted and highly-wrought prose style of the Seven Pillars, with its wealth of allusion and reference, and the almost laconic economy and clarity of The Mint, may be one of the effects of these studies, as well as Lawrence’s restless dissatisfaction with the Seven Pillars, despite his best efforts.

The books left at Clouds Hill after Lawrence’s death had therefore met various criteria, and were the results of complex choices and long-term interests. Even allowing for time, chance, and theft, they tell us something about the mind of their owner. We also know that Lawrence could be quite ruthless in getting rid of unwanted books. He simply posted them through random letter boxes at night.

An initial glance through the list of titles which was published by his brother after his death shows an enormous range of books, mostly in English, but also in French, Latin, and Greek.⁵ There are also many novels and much poetry, along with non-fiction that includes music scores and motor boat manuals. The list ranges from Henry Adams and Aeschylus (in vellum) to Zinner’s study of Typhus, Rats, Lice, and History.

Collecting together the books which are about Chivalry, or of Chivalrous provenance, produces the following list:

1.  Antioch. La Conquête de Jérusalem: faisant suite à la chanson d’Antioche composée par le pèlerin Richard et ren. par Graindor de Douai au XIII siècle pub. par C. Hippeau. Paris, A. Aubry, 1868, 8in. Half calf. ‘T.E.L.’
La chanson d’Antioche, composée au commencement du XII siècle par le pèlerin Richard. 2 vols. [Both vols uncut].

2.  Arrian. History of the expedition of Alexander the Great, and conquest of Persia, trans. by Mr. Rooke, corrected and enlarged. London, J. Davis, 1812.

3.  Aucassin et Nicolete. Edited and revised by F.W. Bourdillon. Frontispiece by L. Pissarro. [Last book printed in Vale type by E. and L. Pissarro at the Eragny Press, 1903]. ‘T.E.L.’

4.  Baerlein, H. On the Forgotten Road: a chronicle of the crusade of children, 1212. London, J. Murray, 1909.

5.  Bayard. The Right Joyous and Pleasant History of the Chevalier Bayard, by the Loyal Servant. Trans. S. Coleridge [Newnes’ Pocket Classics]. London. ‘T.E.L. Beyrout. 1911’.

6.  Caesar. Commentarii cum supplementis Auli Hirtii et aliorum [Oxford Pocket Classics]. Oxonii, J. Parker 1880. ‘T.E.S.’
Gai Iuli Caesaris commentarii rerum in Gallia gestarum VII accedit Auli Hirti commentarius ex rec. T. Rice Holmes. London, Medici Soc., 1914. Limp vellum ‘T.E.L. 1919’.

7.  Castiglione, B. The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio very necessary and profitable for younge gentilmen done into Englyshe by Thomas Hoby, ed. by J.E. Ashbee: Essex House Press [lim. ed. no. 65]. London, E. Arnold, 1900. Vellum. ‘T.E.L. Pole Hill, Chingford, E.4.’

8.  Cervantes. El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. Paris, Garnier Hermanos, 1886.

9.  Clausewitz, C. von. On War, trans. by Col. J.J. Graham. New and revised ed. with intro. by F.N. Maude. 3 vols. London, Kegan Paul, 1911. ‘T.E.L.’

10. Comines, P. De. The History of Comines, Englished by T. Danett; intro. by C. Whibley. 2 vols. [Tudor Translations, ed. by W.E. Henley, vols. 17 and 18]. London, D. Nutt, 1897. ‘T.E.L.’

11. Digby, K.H. The Broadstone of Honour, or the true sense and practice of chivalry. Godefridus. London, E. Lumley, 1844. [Bookplate of William Hopetown, Earl of Northesk, inside front cover]. 6 vols. On flyleaf ‘T.E.S.’ (Therefore after 1923).

12. Edward the Confessor. La Estoire de Seint Aedward le rei. Reproduced in facsimile from the unique MS. Intro. by M.R. James [Roxburghe Club). Oxford, O.U.P., 1920.

13. Elmer, R.P. and Smart, C.A. The Book of the Longbow, ed. by Robert P . Elmer and Charles Allen Smart, with illus. by Will Crawford [lim. ed., no. 135]. New York, Doubleday Doran, 1929. Uncut.

14. Fabliaux. Recueil de Fabliaux. Paris, J. Gillequin. Half-calf, red, tooled back. ‘T.E.L. Caen 1910.’

15. Ffoulkes, C. Armour and Weapons. Pref. by Viscount Dillon. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909. ‘With kind regards from the author, Charles ffoulkes. Nov. 1909’.

16. Fitz-Warine, F. The History of Fulk Fitz-Warine, trans. A. Kemp-Welch [King’s Classics]. London, A. Moring Ltd, 1904. ‘T.E.L.’

17. Froissart. Chronicle, trans. by Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Intro. by William Paton Ker. 6 vols. [Tudor Translations]. London, D. Nutt, 1901-3.

18. Gaya, L. De. Gaya’s Traité des Armes, 1678, ed. by C. ffoulkes [Tudor and Stuart Library]. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1911.

19. Godefrey of Boloyne. The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and of the conquest of Jherusalem [from Caxton’s ed.]. Hammersmith, Kelmscott Press, 1893. ‘T.E.L.’

20. Homer. Ilias, ed. Walter Leaf [Parnassus Library]. London, Macmillan, 1895.
Suède.
– Ilias, the first twelve staves, trans. by Maurice Hewlett. London, Cresset Press, 1928. Pages uncut.
– Introduction by James M. Paton, 2 vols. [Chiswick ed.] [lim. ed. no. 11] London, Pickering and Chatto, n.d. Vellum. ‘T.E.L. Oxford 1911’.

21. – The Odyssey of Homer, done into English verse by W. Morris. London, Longmans, Green, 1897.
– Odyssey, trans. by T.E. Lawrence. [lim. ed.] London, Emery Walker, 1932. Black calf.
– The Odyssey of Homer, newly trans. into English prose by T.E. Lawrence [lim. ed. copy extra seriem]. New York, Oxford University Press, 1932. ‘T.E.S.’
– text of 1896 ed. By D.B. Monro: designed by R. Proctor [lim. ed.]. Oxford, University Press, 1909. Pages uncut. ‘To T.E. Lawrence from Sydney C. Cockerell Mar. 27, 1922’.

22. La Sale, A. de. Le petit Jehan de Saintré. Paris, J. Gillequin et Cie, n.d. ‘T.E.L. Beauvais 1910’.

23. Machiavelli, N. vol I. The Art of War, trans. by P. Whitethorne, 1560; The Prince, trans. by E. Dacres, 1640. Vol II. The Florentine History, trans. by T. Bedingfeld, 1595 [Tudor Translations, ed. by W.E. Henley, vol. v 39 and 40]. London, D. Nutt, 1905.

24. Malory, Sir T. Le Morte d’Arthur, 2 vols. [Everyman’s Library]. London, Dent, 1908.

25. Marie De France. Poésies, publiées par B. de Roquefort, 2 vols. Paris, Chasserian, 1820. Half calf.

26. Morris. W. The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, with two pictures designed by E. Burne-Jones and engraved by W.H. Hooper. Hammersmith, Kelmscott Press, 1898. Limp Vellum. ‘T.E.L.’

27. Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans, Englished by Sir Thomas North anno 1579, with an introduction by George Wyndham, 6 vols. [Tudor Translations, ed. by W.E. Henley, nos. 7-12]. London, D. Nutt, 1895-6. ‘T.E.L.’

28. Roland. La Chanson de Roland [Bibl. Romanica]. No imprint. Vellum. ‘T.E.L. Oxford 1909’.

29. Romance of the Rose, by W. Lorris and J. Clopinel, Englished by F.S. Ellis, vols I and III [Temple Classics]. London, Dent, n.d. ‘T.E.L.’

30. Sturlason, S. Heimskringla: the Olaf Sagas, trans. S. Laing [Everyman’s Library]. London, Dent, n.d.

31. Tristan. Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut, ed. J. Bedier [Lim. ed., no. 280]. Paris, H. Piazza, 1918. ‘T.E.L.’
– The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, re-told by J. Bédier, trans. by H. Belloc. London, G. Allen, 1913.

32. Troy, The recuyell of the historyes of Troye. 2 vols. Hammersmith, Kelmscott Press, 1892. Limp Vellum. Uncut. ‘T.E.L.’

33. Usamah. An Arab-Syrian gentleman and warrior in the period of the crusades: memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh, trans. by Philip K. Hitti [Records of Civilisation]. New York, Columbia University Press, 1929.

(Author Note: Lawrence tended to mark his books ‘T.E.L.’ until 1923 when he adopted ‘T.E.S.’ Details in J.M. Wilson, Authorised Biography of T.E. Lawrence.)

There are, naturally, marginal cases where categorisation is awkward, for example Caesar’s Gallic War, Churchill’s Life of Marlborough, and various Scandinavian sagas, such as the Olaf Sagas, Lagerlof, and Gosta Berling’s saga. Also books which A.W. Lawrence mentions, for example The Kalevela, and Huon of Bordeaux, which are no longer present. Nevertheless, an initial survey of the rest of the Clouds Hill library (over 1000 volumes), shows that there are about 40 titles on war and military subjects, over thirty of which are broadly ‘Chivalrous’. There are approximately seventeen titles on Christianity and adjacent spiritual subjects, such as those by Blake and Dante, as well as the Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakeland (whom Richard I had visited), and Sir Thomas Brown’s Religio Medici.

The adoption of a further group of categories, for the purposes of broad classification, besides ‘Warfare’, ‘Chivalry’ and ‘Christianity’, such as ‘Novels’, ‘Poetry’, ‘Plays’, ‘Non-fiction’, and ‘Philosophy’, yields the following, approximate, totals of titles per category:

Novels 348
Poetry 334
Plays 61
Non-fiction (including history) 166
Philosophy 10

Even allowing for argument about classification and category ascription, it is obvious that there is about three times more imaginative literature than non-fiction. Furthermore, the quantity of overt philosophy is strikingly small: Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius, Montesquieu. Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schiller, Swedenborg, Voltaire, and Spinoza are present, but virtually no modern, post-Cartesians.

Another story emerges, however, if the library is examined for classical, canonical texts. Apart from the extensive set of Loeb classics presented by Lord Riddell,⁶ single classics are dotted throughout the library in English, Latin, and Classical Greek, e.g.

1.  Aeschylus. Tragoediae and Oresteia, both marked ‘T.E.L.’

2.  Anacreon. The Odes with the fragments of Sappho and Alcaeus, trans. T. Orger. London, R. Hunter, 1825. [Inside front cover: Bookplate of John Morgan. Flyleaf: Bookplate of Maurice Baring. ‘Maurice Baring: 1914’. ‘T. Shaw from Maurice Baring, 1929. A gift from Maurice Baring in 1929.]

3.  What appears to be a Greek Anthology with a Latin commentary, viz: Anthologia Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros distinctum. Venetiis, apud Aldifilios, 1550. Leather. ‘T.E.L. Aleppo 1912’.

4.  Anthology. 1 vol. [Selections from vols. I and II of Firmin-Didot, with Latin translation, Anthologia Platina]. ‘Arab Bureau Cairo’ in rubber stamp. ‘T.E.L. 1914’.

5.  Apuleius. The Golden Asse of Apuleius, done into English. See also ‘Asse’ [sic]. by William Adlington, with an introduction by Thomas Seccombe [lim. ed.]. London, Grant Richards, 1913. ‘T.E.L.’
– The Golden Ass, trans. out of Latin by William Adlington, anno 1566, intro. by Charles Whibley, [Tudor Translations IV]. London, D. Nutt, 1893.

6.  Aristophanes, Comoediae accedunt perditarum fabularum fragmenta ex rec. G. Dindorfii, vol I. Oxonii, Typ. Academ, 1835. MS. list of contents on flyleaf. ‘T.E.L. Oxford 1914. This copy went with me through the Arab war. T.E.L.’

7.  Arrian. History of the expedition of Alexander the Great, and conquest of Persia, trans. by Mr. Rooke, corrected and enlarged. London, J. Davis, 1812. (Listed with Chivalry texts.)

8.  Caesar’s Commentaries: previously listed with Chivalrous texts.

9.  Epictetus. The Book of Epictetus, being the Enchiridion together with chapters from the Discourses and Selections from the Fragments of Epictetus. Trans. E. Carter [Harrap Library]. London, Harrap, n.d. ‘T.E.L., Paris’.

10. Epicurus, Epicurus’s Morals: collected, and faithfully Englished, by W. Charlton. With an introductory Essay by F. Manning [lim. ed.]. London, P. Davies, 1926. ‘To T.E. Shaw for the purpose of comparison, from Frederic Manning. 3.iii.1930’.

11. Herodotus, Historiarum libri IX. Textus Wesselingianus passim refictus opera Frid. Volg. Reizii. 2 vols. Oxon, J. Cooke & J. Parker, 1808. Vellum.
– The Famous Hystory of Herodotus trans. By B.R. 1584, intro. By Leonard Whibley [Tudor Trans. 2nd series]. London, Constable, 1924.

12. Homer. Seven Homer texts, as listed under Chivalry, in English, Latin, and Greek.

13. Horace, Horati carminum libri IV, [lim. ed.). Londini. Peter Davies, 1926. Uncut.
– Quintus Horatius Flaccus. Londini, G. Pickering, 1824. Leather. [‘T.E.L. Shaw from Ronald Storrs’].
– Opera, ed. F.W. Cornish. London, Kegan Paul, Trench et Soc. 1888. ‘T.E.L.’
– Quinti Horati Flacci carmina Sapphica. Chelsea, in aed. St. J. Hornby, Ashendene Press, 1903. On Japanese vellum.
– Carminum librum quintum a R. Kipling et C. Graves Anglice redditum ed. A.D. Godley. Oxonii, B. Blackwell, 1920.

14. Lucian. Lucian’s True History, trans. by F. Hickes, illus. by W. Strang, J.B. Clark and A. Beardsley, [lim. ed.]. A.H. Bullen, 1902. Suède.

15. Lucretius, T. Lucreti Cari de rerum natura libri sex. Chelsea, in aed. St. J. Hornby, 1913. ‘T.E.L.’
– De rerum natura libri sex recogn. C. Bailey. ed. altera, [Scrip. class. bibl. Oxon). Oxonii, Typ. Clarend., 1921.

16. Thucydides. Eight bookes of the Peloponnesian warre written by Thucydides the sonne of Olorus. Interpreted with faith and diligence immediately out of the Greeke by Thomas Hobbes, the author of the book De Cive, Secretary to the late Earle of Devonshire. London, Charles Harper, 1676. Leather. Rebacked.

17. Xenophon. Complete Works, trans. by Ashley, Spelman Smith, Fielding [new ed.]. London, W.P. Nimmo, 1877.

Before considering these Greek and Latin texts, it is worth recalling Arnold Lawrence’s remark about T.E.’s ‘quick reading… and almost faultless memory [that] had set him mentally at home in Biblical Palestine, in Medieval France and Ancient Greece, and to a lesser extent in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, before his submergence in Arab nationality.’⁷

Whereas Lawrence’s Biblical knowledge shows clearly in his letters to his mother from Palestine, and in the letters written around the time of the Wilderness of Zin, his inhabitance of the culture of Medieval France has been sufficiently demonstrated in the matter of his Chivalry and Crusader and military architecture interests. The ‘submergence’ or ‘mental at-homeness’ within ancient Greek culture is a more subtle affair. Lawrence seems to have preferred Greek to Latin. Whilst still at school, he had taken papers on Xenophon’s Anabasis, and Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, although his marks were not particularly high. However, he does not appear to have been put off, because when he had some leisure time in 1927, he wrote to Charlotte Shaw to say that he had returned to Xenophon, although he expected that reading him would take him many weeks. He proposed to go on to Herodotus after that, and then the Odyssey: ‘Greek literature is so good that it is almost the best second language for a reader.’⁸ This is a view that Lawrence seems to have maintained, because in 1934 he wrote to C. Day-Lewis, ‘My Latin wasn’t ever much good, so that I never enjoyed Catullus. I suppose that means that I have never justified the time I spent trying to learn the beastly language? There seem to me to be ten good Greek books to every Latin one.’⁹

Ronald Storrs records his friendship with Lawrence during the First World War having met him in the winter of 1914: ‘I would come upon him in my flat, reading always Latin or Greek, with corresponding gaps in my shelves… We had no literary differences, except that he preferred Homer to Dante and disliked my placing Theocritus before Aristophanes.’

Lawrence was fluent enough to write a fragment of a Greek Epigram to Storrs, as a postscript to his letter announcing the end of his RAF career, in which he expressed both his mastery of the language and his unhappiness in three allusive words.

The complete epigram is as follows:

‘Here Lie I of Tarsus
Never having married, and would that my father had not.’¹⁰

Lawrence’s p.s. reads:

‘I leave here tomorrow a.m. … and the R.A.F. that same moment.’

Apart from the Aristophanes that he carried with him in Arabia, and his later translation of Homer, Lawrence showed an enduring interest in three Classical Greek authors: Xenophon, Lucian, and Philostratus (the source for the Life of Apollonius of Tyana). These I will examine in more detail in the following chapters.

Endnotes

¹   Letters to Biographers, p. 64.

²   Letters, Garnett Edn., p. 661.

³   Reprinted in the T.E. Lawrence Society Journal, Vol I, No.2.

⁴   Journal, Vol III, No.2, p. 36.

⁵   See T.E. Lawrence By His Friends, Books at Clouds Hill, pp. 476-510 and Appendix 1.

⁶   Friends, Books at Clouds Hill, p. 496.

⁷   Friends, p. 591.

⁸   Quoted in Wilson, p. 1137.

⁹   Letters, Ed. Garnett, p. 839.

¹⁰  See Ronald Storrs, Orientations, p. 468. Quotation from Mackail. Selected Epigrams, p. 172, 1911.