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A collection of 21 letters donated to the RBGE Archives in 2017, written by Reginald Farrer and sent to Lady Celia Brunel Noble.

Fond banter between R. Farrer and E. Gye and saying he will seek his company when he returns from the dripping Aquarium, Burma in 1921. Likes the colours of the landscape but not much else here. Using mules to transport and has had a successful season of collecting. Has been injured by the scrub and bamboo and these injuries have taken a long time to heal. Describes how a red panda, a tiny bear with a banded ginger & orange bottle-brush tail has joined their camp and has become tame. He is going down to Myitkyina in a fortnight, by cargo boat slowly to Bhamo, Mandalay and Rangoon where he and Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] will spend Christmas. Will say farewell to Jumps then and welcome the Beautiful Boy [Milner]. Sends his and Jump's love to Ernest and other friends. Signed the Master. ‘I've cut or scratched myself (as one is forever doing in the scrub & the bamboos) my sumptuous flesh, instead of promptly healing as its habit is, has developed large & perpetually pussiferous sores till now, I'm a perfect Lazarus, with my lovely legs like a professional beggar's.’ (this letter, 3 pages long in foolscap polypockets)

States he has lost Ernest's last letter and is in low spirits, refers again to his age, 40 years & lack of being anchored by marriage. Discusses merits of English literature - unsettled by the Times' review of his book, ‘The English Rock Garden’. Describes his relationship with Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox], 25 years, as not intimate just cordially pleasant. When Jumps has left, he is going to rest in Mandalay until February. Speaks of a possible conflagration between the Chinese & aborigines which would close the frontier to further expeditions. ‘In low spirits these days, what with windings up & endings with a crushing sense of my own worthlessness & inadequacy. His book, The Rock Garden, 6 years old, wears its vast erudition (2nd hand) with an affectation of jocosity or preciousness that nowadays would make me feel quite sick. Of Jumps [Euan M. Cox], especially when 40 & 25 have not quite a common ground of breeding, training & traditions.’

Box 6: 1920-1984; Farrer's death and post-death, including poem written by Farrer one week before his death 'found in the pencil copy of the Empty House' [Farrer's last unpublished novel]; telegram sent to Farrer after his death; correspondence relating to Farrer's death - correspondents include E.A. Bowles, Hugh Faulkener; F. Vivian Clerk, Bidder, Sir Francis Younghusband, Sepoy Jange Bhaju, E.H.M. Cox, J.T.O. Barnard, S.M. Frank, A.W. Porter, W.T. Stearn and Charles Graham and telegrams reporting death and letters about location and upkeep of the grave; photographs relating to Farrer's grave; undated correspondence - letter from William Purdom to Farrer; Rev. Henry Jardine Bidder to Farrer, and 4 undated letters from Farrer to his parents [mention of autocars in London]; postcard showing Edith Sitwell from Edith to Farrer's mother, March 1922, and photograph of Edith as a child [Sitwells are related to the Farrers] and collection of book reviews collected by Farrer, 1901-1920.

Has sent seeds of Nomocharis pardanthina to Ernest which the cat [the red panda?] has defecated on, which they are both are certain will affect its germination & describes at length its beauty. Reports Jumps [Euan H.M. Cox] has left and the Beautiful Boy [Milner] has slain his sister and is not coming to join him. Rented a bungalow in Maymyo to have a place of his own. Proposes to visit pagodas, but unrest with a new Burma movement may affect this. Intends to visit the Buddha's relics the Arakan Pagoda. Had some firework celebrations & received books from Bain. Describes the beauties of Nomocharis pardanthina, as ‘quite singular, being those of a little pink Lily that has had an affair with a naughty spotted Odontoglossum, & produced a child that bears several shamefaced flat pendant flowers of softest pink, which have an eye of deep chocolate, surrounded by a ring of yellow in three crested fringes, while three of the segments are very broadly oval, fringed & spotted with deep purple.’

Describes being somewhere very remote, like Eden. It takes 9 days to reach an outpost where letters can arrive. Hopes this Arcadian state will continue and glad he is alone, writes negatively about Jumps's [Euan H.M. Cox's] presence when he was in camp with him previously. Doing some painting of flowers and landscape, using the Chinese and Japanese convention as there are trailing rolls of white cloud around. A minute fly a nuisance. He notes there is the possible vendetta locally but he will await events and he has raised the Union Jack, which he thinks people find vastly reassuring. ‘I am gone down to the bedrock existence unadorned, & there, never thinking of the lovely fluffs & frills of life, achieve a bare and barbarous glory of contentment.’