To Susan Sturgis de Sastre
M•R TELEGRAPH HOUSE
Chichester, England. August 7th 1909
Your letter of the 3rd has just reached me here, where I came on Wednesday, the 4th. The house has been rebuilt since I was last here and now has a tower with an extensive view, including the Ilse of Wight in the far distance. We are on the crest of high domelike hills, called Downs, and out of sight of all habitations. There isn’t much quiet, however; for there are seven dogs, one cat, and three automobiles, a pumping-engine for water, another for electric light, and a general restlessness in the household. Russell is absorbed in business (he is now president of the Humber Motor-Car Company) and in politics, while his wife is given over to woman-suffrage, dogs, and gardening. I send you her portrait (published for political purposes) which she has just presented me, and I write on her note-paper, so that you will get a good impression of her personality. You may remember she is Irish, and has two other husbands living.
Russell’s other wife, by the way, and her mother Lady Scott, have both died this year.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book One, [1868]-1909. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: Alderman Library, University of Virginia at Charlottesville