'22nd September 1928 (Saturday). I have started to read Kipling?s ?Letters of travel? again. I am very fond of this book although the slabs of jaunty, impatient, imperialism become rather monotonous. Still, the splendid descriptive power that the book betokens, make it excellent reading. The ?sentiments? are too well known, and too familiar to jar now to any appreciable degree. It is a curious contrast that in a book very slight in itself, with little thread or cohesion, the phrasing should be so powerful. I suppose Kipling?s long experience in ballad-mongering stands him in good stead.'