Words and symbols, Murray saw, do not carry their meaning with them like luggage, but come alive in the context of a society, at a place and time. To bring a ‘written sign’ to life one must acknowledge the reality of the past and imagine and relive the culture in which it was spoken. And now here was Mary turning the pages of letters to Gilbert Murray from Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Marie Curie, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
