Gertrude Bell (71 page)

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Authors: Georgina Howell

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11
“succeed in almost excluding”
: R. Russell,
London Fogs

12
“What a privilege to be born in Paris”
: Florence Bell, shortly before she died, in Wang, “Deeds and Words”

12
“Lady Olliffe . . . I have brought your daughter home”
: Lady Richmond reporting a conversation with her mother, Florence Bell, ibid.

13
“If you would like to finish your conversation”
: Mrs. Susanna Richmond, in conversation

15
“The girl was ill at ease”
: From Florence Bell,
The Story of Ursula

16
“The abiding influence”
: Florence Bell,
The Letters of Gertrude Bell
, introduction

18
“My poney behaved like a brute”
: GLB letter, 1881, from Gertrude to her cousin Horace Marshall

20
“I remember as if it were yesterday”
: Letter to her daughter Molly, Lady Trevelyan, in Wang, “Deeds and Words”

20
“We now have out some yellow crocus”
: GLB's first diary, 1878

22
“I cannot remember her speak in a harsh way”
: Molly Trevelyan in Wang, “Deeds and Words”

23
“However valuable the intellectual wares”
: Florence Bell, in her essay, “On the Better Teaching of Manners,” ibid.

25
“My mother's idea of the equipment required”
: Ibid.

25
“It was the Trinity ball”
: Virginia Stephen, in a letter to Emma Vaughan, June 1900, in Stephen,
Flight of the Mind
, vol. 1, p. 34

26
“Gertrude is being rather thorny”
: Molly Bell in Lesley Gordon,
Gertrude Bell 1868–1926
, exhibition booklet, 1994, RL

2. EDUCATION

28
“My darling, dearest Mother”
: Lady Elsa Richmond, ed.,
The Earlier Letters of Gertrude Bell

28
His “deaf and stupid” sister Bessie
: Details of life at 95 Sloane Street as recounted by Lady Richmond, in Wang, “Deeds and Words”

29
Queen's College in Harley Street
: From the sesquicentenary leaflet,
Queen's College, 1848–1998
, 1998

29

I
don't
like Rubens”
: GLB letter, in Anne Tibble,
Gertrude Bell
; Tibble had been in service at Rounton

29
“I wish I could go to the National”
: GLB letter

30
“I waded through [your letter]”
: GLB letter

30
“It's a very disagreeable process”
: GLB letter

31

I don't believe a
word
of it!”
: GLB letter

31
“The fault of my essay”
: GLB letter

31
“Fancy the amount more books”
: GLB letter

32
“I've done Milton most of today”
: GLB letter

32
“I felt rather guilty”
: From Gordon,
Gertrude Bell

32
“I may say to you I suppose”
: GLB letter to her father

35
the Winter Garden
: From William Lillie,
The History of Middlesbrough

36
“I have had enough of these dinners”
: GLB letter

38
“I am going to a teaparty”
: GLB letter

38
Herbert Spencer . . . Dean John Burgon
: Wallach,
Desert Queen
, p. 20

39
“The amount of work is hopeless”
: GLB letter

39

I am sorry, but it is on the
right
bank”
: Josephine Kamm,
Gertrude Bell
, p. 52

39
“I'm afraid I must differ”
: Incident recalled by Mr. Arthur Hassall of Christchurch, Oxford; in Florence Bell,
Letters

40
“There's a reading party”
: GLB letter

40
“She was, I think, the most brilliant creature”
: Courtney,
Oxford Portrait Gallery

3. THE CIVILIZED WOMAN

43
“The King was”
: Letter to Horace Marshall, 1889

43
“You can't think how charming”
: GLB letter

44
“You dance nothing through”
: GLB letter

45
“Il me semble, Monsieur”
[It seems to me, Sir, that you do not understand the German mind]: Florence Bell,
Letters
, p. 21

45
“It was perfectly delicious”
: GLB letter

46
“I went into the gardens”
: GLB letter

46
“About the little girls' frocks”
: GLB letter

47
“Do you remember discussing”
: GLB letter

48
“Billy and I sat in the garden”
: GLB letter

48
“I discussed religious beliefs”
: GLB letter

48
“I don't think many of our watchful acquaintances”
: GLB letter

48
“I sat on a bench”
: GLB letter

49
“the
critic”
: GLB letter

50
“Oh the desert around Teheran!”
: GLB to Horace Marshall, 18 June 1892

51
“Are we the same people”
: Ibid.

51
“In this country”
: Ibid.

52
“tall and red and very thin”
: GLB letter

52
“It certainly is unexpected”
: GLB letter

53
“Mr. Cadogan and I”
: GLB letter

53
“Before we had gone far”
: Gertrude Bell,
Persian Pictures
, “The Tower of Silence”

53
“Here they come to throw off”
: Ibid.

53
“Life seized us and inspired us”
: Ibid.

54
Gertrude had been an interested eavesdropper
: GLB diary, 30 Oct. 1889

55
“Our position is very difficult”
: GLB letter

56
“Took a carriage”
: GLB letter

57
“She had not yet reached the stage”
: Florence Bell,
Letters
, p. 34

58
“My Pundit”
: GLB letter

59
“The spirit of poetry”
: Florence Bell,
Letters
, p. 36

4. BECOMING A PERSON

62
“It was the most gorgeous show”
: GLB diary, 29 Dec. 1902

63
“I suppose you don't approve of this plan”
: Bishop of St. Albans to GLB, in Florence Bell,
Letters

64
“Please send first hemistich”
: Recounted by E. Denison Ross in the preface to Gertrude Lowthian Bell, trans.,
The Teachings of Hafiz

64
“We went on a switch-back”
: GLB letter, 1903

66
“I pitched my camp”
: GLB letter

66
“When we reached the level
”: GLB letter

66
“meadows full”
: GLB letter

67
“I walked over the tiny alp”
: GLB letter

67
“My Japanese trees”
: GLB to Chirol, 25 Dec. 1900

67
“I am sending you a little packet”
: GLB letter

68
“Reginald Farrer, the Colliers, and Mr. Herbert”
: GLB letter, 28 May 1903. Details on Reginald Farrer from Nicola Schulman,
A Rage for Rock Gardening

69
“I have spent most of the afternoons”
: GLB to Chirol, 22 Apr. 1910

69
“If you look with the eye of faith”
: GLB to Chirol, 21 Nov. 1912

71
“Last night I went to a delightful party”
: GLB letter, 28 Oct. 1908

72
“We have Lady Jersey as chairman”
: GLB letter, Oct. 1908

72
“Life was nearly wrecked for a month”
: GLB to Chirol, 21 Nov. 1912

5. MOUNTAINEERING

Descriptions of Gertrude's climbs were aided by photographs and information from the following websites:
www.summitpost.org
,
www.clasohm.com
,
www.peakware.com
,
www.panoramas.dk
,
www.ski-zermatt.com
,
www.caingram.info
,
www.women climbing.com
,
www.en.wikipedia.org
.

74
“It was awful”
: GLB letter

76
“Elsa and Papa stayed on”
: GLB diary, 7 Aug. 1897

77
“I gave my skirt to Marius”
: Gordon,
Gertrude Bell
, “Gertrude Bell as a Mountaineer”

77
“We had about two hours”
: GLB letter

78
“There were two little lumps to hold on to”
: GLB letter

79
“I was now in rags”
: Elizabeth Burgoyne,
Gertrude Bell from Her Personal Papers, 1889–1914
, p. 68

80
“I am a Person!”
: GLB letter

80
“Ulrich is as pleased as Punch”
: Gordon,
Gertrude Bell
, “Gertrude Bell as a Mountaineer”

81
“I was beginning to think”
: GLB letter

82
“We decided on a place”
: GLB letter

83
“The lower third”
: GLB letter

84
“He called out”
: GLB letter

84
“The fact was”
: GLB letter

85
“This proved quite easy”
: GLB letter

85
“It was an enchanting house”
: GLB letter

85
“What do you think”
: GLB letter

86
“There is another climbing woman here”
: GLB letter

87
“This morning I started out”
: GLB letter

87
“The great points”
: GLB letter

87
“I got back on my feet”
: GLB letter

88
“I shall remember every inch”
: GLB letter

88
“We were standing”
: GLB letter

89
“The golden rule”
: GLB letter

89
“As there was no further precaution”
: GLB letter

89
“When things are as bad as ever”
: GLB letter

89
“We managed badly”
: GLB letter

90
“It was a near thing”
: GLB letter

90
“That was the only moment”
: GLB letter

92
“Every night, do you understand”
: Edward Whymper,
Scrambles Among the Alps in the Years 1860–69

92
“I look back to it”
: GLB letter

92
“. . .
more like sliding down”
: GLB letter

6. DESERT TRAVEL

94
“Miss Gertrude Bell knows more”
: Letter from Lord Cromer to Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, 1915

96
“My apartment consists”
: GLB letter, Hotel Jerusalem, 13 Dec. 1899

96
“I spent the morning unpacking”
: Ibid.

97
“I may say in passing”
: GLB letter

97
“a charming little horse”
: GLB letter

98
“The chief comfort of this journey”
: GLB letter

99
“Rode out in very bad spirits”
: GLB diary, 23 Jan. 1900

99
“sheets and sheets
”: GLB letter

99
“The women are unveiled”
: GLB letter

100
“Don't think I have ever spent”
: GLB letter

101
“What the people in Wady Musa live on”
: GLB letter

101
“. . .
the charming façade”
: GLB letter

101
“a surprising lot of long black”
: GLB letter

101
“. . .
the fire of dry thorns flickered up”
: GLB letter

103
“ ‘Where was I going?' ”
: GLB letter

104
“The women were filling their”
: GLB letter

104
“The sense of comfort”
: GLB letter

104
“He is the most perfect type”
: GLB letter

105
“They were a group of the most beautiful”
: GLB letter

105
“We bought a lamb”
: GLB letter

105
“I'm very proud of this contrivance”
: GLB letter

106
“It's the greatest relief”
: GLB letter

106
“It is at times a very odd sensation”
: GLB letter

107
“I wish I could manage to travel”
: GLB letter

108
“Their sheikh, Muhammad”
: GLB letter

108
“He sang to it”
: GLB letter

108
“Back I went”
: GLB letter

109
“Sheikh Muhammad had only twenty”
: GLB letter

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