September 14 + 

There is a ridiculous Cocker spaniel at the house where we are staying. He must have had a love affair and been jilted, or else he’s a sort of village idiot. The landlady says he’s not so silly as he looks⁠—but he looks very silly: he languishes sentimentally, and when we laugh at him he looks “hurt.” Today we took him up on the Down and it seemed to brighten him up. Really, he is sane enough, with plenty of common sense and good manners. But he is kept at home in the garden so much, lolling about all day, that as E⁠⸺ said, having nothing to do, he falls in love. + 

The Saturday Review writes: + 

The effect of the “Brides and the Bath” Case on people with any trace of nice feeling is perhaps not particularly mischievous, though the thing is repulsive and hateful to them.⁠ ⁠… To gloat over the details of repulsive horrors, simply from motives of curiosity⁠—this is bad and degrading. + 

What a lot of repulsive things the nice refined people who read the Saturday Review must find in the world just now. For example the War. “Simply from motives of curiosity.” Why certainly, no other than these, concerning one of the most remarkable murders in the annals of crime. And murders anyhow are damned interesting⁠—which the Saturday Review isn’t. + 

I was surprised to discover the other day that when I talked of Chipples no one understood what I meant! It proves to be a dialect word familiar to all residents in Devonshire and designating spring onions. Anyway you won’t find it in Murray’s Dictionary; yet etymologically it is an extremely interesting word and a thoroughly good word with a splendid pedigree. To wit: + 

Italian: Cipollo. + 

Spanish: Cebolla. + 

French: Ciboule. + 

Latin: Caepulla, dim. of caepa (cf. cive, civot). + 

Now how did this pretty little alien manage to settle down among simple Devon folk? What has been the relation between Italy and⁠—say Appledore, or Plymouth? + 