Evan, Lord Tredegar Selected Letters, Prose and Quotations

               Evan,  Lord Tredegar, Selected Letters, Prose and Quotations

 The Mystic Muse of Evan Frederic Morgan

Introduction by William Cross

 Evan Morgan, one of the unforgettable characters of the twentieth century

Evan, 4th Lord Tredegar, was known for most of his life as Hon. Evan Morgan. He was described as  “one of those bohemian peers’  sons who has taken a line of his own – as a poet …… an upholder of the Roman [Catholic] Church and as a lover…”  [i]

Whilst there are only a handful of Evan’s poems winkling out of this present volume there is scope sometime to issue a title along the lines of “The Selected Verse of Evan Morgan”: something that was once considered but shelved[ii].

 Lectures given by Evan at the Royal Society of Literature       (on the 16^th century poet and priest John Donne[iii] and on mysticism in poetry[iv]) also stand to be reviewed for inclusion in a later anthology.

 This present offering to celebrate Evan’s birthday of 13th July 1893, a mere 122 years on, is the first ever published selection of some of his surviving letters and prose pieces.

Evan’s Selected Letters

The original letters etc. collection held by Evan was contained in mysterious “tins and boxes”[v] at  Honeywood House, Dorking, his last home.  After his death in 1949 the contents of these tins and boxes etc. (willed to his close friends Henry Maxwell,[vi] and Cyril Hartmann[vii] - also Evan’s own choice of biographers[viii]) were almost certainly destroyed or lost. A few letters still survive that were sent out to other people who ignored the jungle drums beating ..…..“Burn everything that you ever received from Evan Morgan”[ix].

The first crop of letters culled here is from two main sources:  Tredegar House Archives viz letters from Evan to his dear friend ‘Kyrlie’ (Cyril Hartmann) and from the British Library Manuscripts Division viz Evan’s letters to some well known public figures These included the Scottish composer Cecil Gray[x] and two famed literary men, George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright and G K Chesterton, author of the ‘Father Brown’ detective stories.

 

The quantity of letters is small but a number of others remain in the Author’s files and more letters have been recently identified.[xi] Therefore, once the ongoing search for any remaining letters is concluded a second selection will be added.  If any reader has a letter or letters relating to Evan Morgan do please contact the author.

 

The letters included here add an extra dimension to my four previous books featuring Evan[xii] and represent an often whimsical, and witty character whilst occasionally showing a warped side to his thoughts, relationships and deeds - for Evan followers it forms a fascinating and interesting insight into Evan’s chronology, adult life and some of his activities, opinions and contacts between 1917 and 1929.

 

Evan’s Prose and Articles

 

Also included here is a selection of Evan Morgan’s prose pieces and articles. The sources include newspapers, journals and magazines.  In a curious way the items reflect   well on key times in Evan’s life, from his student days at Oxford (at the start of the Great War years), when recuperating from illness in the warmer climes of Algiers in 1918, through to his time in Paris during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. More detail emerges on Evan’s time in Rome and London as a Papal Chamberlain and Catholic worthy and later (before becoming Lord Tredegar, from 1934) as the would-be politician in London’s East End at Limehouse (1926-29) and a founder member of the Catholic Poetry Society.[xiii]

 

No need for patronage

 

The  1920s and 1930s  saw the  breakthrough of  modern  poets such as   T S Eliot and  W H Auden and  novelists like  Evelyn Waugh ; their works were quickly published for the masses by Faber & Faber  and Chapman & Hall. 

 

Alongside this successful array of talent were those writers still clamouring over the last vestiges of old world patronage.

 

Several members of London’s literati - especially amongst the older lady peeresses of Mayfair - like Lady Maud Warrender, Lady Colefax and Lady Emerald Cunard   maintained their own literary and artistic salons.  These great dames had a reputation for accommodating old and young writers, minor poets and pseudo intellectuals of Hon. Evan Morgan’s calibre.  They  lapped  up the output of ‘the new Shelley’ (as Evan often presented  himself), showing off  his latest  poetry  books  at  receptions  but with neither the attendees nor Evan ever discouraged by the professional  critics’  views of the true merit of the works. For one thing the wealthy Evan (the heir to the Barony and Viscountcy of Tredegar,[xiv] of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales) did not require patronage! [xv]

 

Evan was an accomplished pubic speaker at home and abroad. He spoke to Ottawa’s Woman’s Canadian Club at a luncheon in October 1929 during a visit to Canada with the Empire Parliamentary Association.[xvi] The praise enjoyed by Evan from the ladies group saved face as his outspoken remarks during the rest of the trip did not go down well with Canadians as a whole. 

 

On this same trip to Canada (during which Evan visited  the Chamber of Commerce at Edmonton and spoke to the Young Men’s Canadian Club in Toronto) he was condemned for his harsh  comments about  “the lack of amenities  of life [and of  art and culture] in Canada”.[xvii]

 

To instil a little humour Evan told his audience about experiencing a further trial during the trip when “he was sitting on an observation car and ‘the fellow’ [meaning the train conductor]  … made him walk through a long, packed train to produce his ticket which he had left in his overcoat.” [xviii] 

Controversies

 

Evan expressed his views on controversial subjects. For example in the late 1920s he was at the centre of exposing   “a conspiracy of silence”[xix] over the mass persecution and secret execution of Roman Catholics in Mexico.  Evan used a letter to the Editor of the Daily Express[xx]  and an article in the Sunday Times (the article is reproduced in this book) to draw attention to a matter that the whole world was ignoring. [xxi]

 

In Parliament (when he became Lord Tredegar) Evan tried to end the barbaric ‘gin-traps’ – used by landowners on estates to control rabbits, foxes etc – by introducing a Private Members’ Bill.[xxii]

 

Evan’s handwriting

 

Evan’s letters were usually typed but an example of his early handwriting survives in the Tredegar Archives, as shown alongside. This is an invitation to take tea with Evan during his time at Oxford University. It was almost certainly meant for Cyril Hartmann who was studying at University College, see the top of the notepaper.

 

Evan Catholic Convert

 

Evan’s conversion to the Roman Catholic faith from 1919 affected the content of his poetry, letters and prose. The commitment to this religion put a strain on the fact that against the Church’s teachings and the laws of the land (at least in Britain) Evan was known as being a “notorious homosexual rake” [xxiii] despite marrying in 1928 and 1939. Some additional elements about his double life are outlined in the background note that follows. The book also contains a selection of quotations on or about Evan Morgan that mark him out as one of the unforgettable characters of the first half of the twentieth century.

 

William Cross, FSA Scot

Newport, South Wales, 13 July 2015