341 From a letter to Marjorie Incledon 

17 September 1972

I feel the truth (now very much) of what you say about the desire, indeed necessity, of escaping from 'community life', at intervals. The college has treated me with the greatest kindness and generosity: they have provided me with a beautiful flat with 2 large rooms & a bathroom in one of their houses in Merton Street, which has a caretaker (and his wife) who look after my domestic needs. They have made me a residential Emeritus Fellow with all the privileges of a Fellow (such as free lunch & dinner at the common table) but no duties. I am as far as they are concerned purely 'ornamental'. The Fellow and members of Common Room are now 3 times as many, and their standard has risen v. greatly since I was an active Fellow (1945-59) : they cover almost all branches of learning & science, and are nearly all (in various degrees) very good companions, though mostly very hard-working and busy. Nonetheless -1 often feel very lonely, and long for a change! After term (sc. when the undergraduates depart) I am all alone in a large house with only the caretaker & his wife far below in a basement, and since I am (especially on my return to Oxford) a marked man, and troubled with many intruders and some nefarious persons, I live behind locked doors.

I have managed to get away occasionally. And I am, of course, 'legally' able to go and come as I wish. But I do have some obligations of courtesy as a Fellow (and of gratitude for my rescue from the despair of my situation in Jan. & Feb) : and one of the chief of these occasions is the meeting of all the Fellows on the Wednesday before Full Term in October (this year October 11th before Oct. 15th). I had already assured the Warden of my presence on Oct. 11, before I received your letter. If I seem to have prolonged the uncertainty too long, do forgive me! I am very fortunate¹³², but I am not in fact yet 'happily settled': I am still in considerable confusion.