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June 41
My dear Smyly,
Many thanks for your kind
invitation. There is nothing I should
like better than prolonging my stay
in your hospitable city2, but my visit
must be very brief this year and Hunt
does not propose to come^.(he wants to go to his people)3 We both
look forward to coming next year
and staying some little4 time, bringing
some papyri with us. But amid
the appalling distractions of the summer
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term we are not too well on with
our Fayûm5 volume for the Fund6, and
in your interest as well as ours it is
very important we should finish it as soon
as possible, so as to get on to the
Amherst papyri7, the publication of
which blocks the way to the
examination of our new finds8. So
I only think of coming on June 25 or
26th (arriving Dublin on the morning of^ the 26th or
the 27th) and leaving on Sat. the 30th
or at latest on the following Monday.
As to where I shall stay, you and
Mahaffy settle it as is most
convenient.
Schubart9 seems a great improvement
on P. Meyer10: though we look
forward to blowing them both up!
You remember the χαλκωρυχια11 in
P.P.12? Well, I have discovered
whenre13 they are. But dont say anything
about it. We hope to dig there next
winter. The discovery may be of interest
in more ways than one.
My love to J.P.M. But I
cant bring any papyri. It will be more
use if I try and help you., though I shant
be much use, after wallowing for 4 years
in Roman.
1. Presumably 1900.
2. Grenfell was coming to Dublin to receive an honorary D.Litt. degree.
3. He wants to go to his family home in Romford, Essex.
4. Presumably "little," but the 2nd t is not well formed.
5. Presumably a reference to P.Fay., which was published autumn 1900.
6. Presumably a reference to the Egypt Exploration Fund.
7. Presumably P.Amh. I, which appeared in mid-September of 1900. Vol. II appeared in 1901.
8. Presumably a reference to the papyri from Tebtunis.
9. Wilhelm Schubart: He had recently taken over the position of Fritz Krebs at the Berlin Museum. Krebs had died (young) earlier that year.
12. Presumably a reference to Petrie Papyri; see P.Petr. II 9 (2).