THE LIFE OF LITERATURE
trees stretched across England, from Oxfordshire as far as the castles
of Wales and Gloucestershire. The whole West was below us.
After this, Auden came to stay with me during the summer
vacation in London. There he was amusing, extravagant, tyrannical,
happy or complaining. I felt much more at ease with
him,
but some–
how the lack of confidence which undermined all my relationships
until I was thirty years old, returned. After he had left London,
Auden got very ill. Applying his own theories very ruthlessly to this
illness, he ignored it and went for a long bicycle ride at a time when
he should have been in hospital. He nearly killed himself, and had
to have a serious operation. After this, he left Oxford and went to
Germany, while I returned to the University for my last year.
(To be continued in the next issue)
1211
