Letter from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas. Archival reference: 424/1/1/1/1/119
vast tender column of the neck, the passionate mouth, the
sweet pensive expression and the glorious waves
of her drapery from shoulder and curved elbow. Do you
know the picture?

Give my love to Father and Mother and remember me to
Ernest and Dorie.

I am Ever and wholly yours, my own sweet little one
Edwy
Goodbye, dearest Helen.

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31.2.99.
My dearest friend,
I hope you are not immediately hard up for money. You see, I
have to keep back enough for fares, books, other expenses,
and a birthday present for Father, and I am not sure whether
I shall be able to send you £3 or £4 or £5 or more. But of
course I know you have not spent and will not spend
anything that is unnecessary. As for my Expenditure it has
been very slight and consists mainly of the cost of lunches in
the country when I have spent the day with Morgan.
I was quite satisfied with what Literature sent me: The papers
were not worth [illegible]. However, I wish they and the
Speaker would let me know the fate of my papers on An
Unpublished Author and St. Melancholy. Of late I have been
less than ever able to write, and Edwards keeps me hard
working at history. Besides which I have been rather unwell,
nervous and depressed, and just now I have a bad cough and
a distressing cold in the head. I shall be glad to return to you
and your bed, and to work calmly at my own
discretion again. Still, I occasionally resolve in
my head plans for a new paper, not critical, but in my

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true view; and I shall probably choose a Welsh
myth and elaborate it. When I am once started on it I shall
have plenty to say, for I have taken quite a lot of notes lately, from books, from Nature,
and from human nature. Oxford and the neighbourhood is
wonderfully beautiful, and when I saw it yesterday, under a
calm and even sunlight it seemed to demand a life somewhat
different to my present life, in the midst of it. The elms are
most noticeable, being of a uniform glowing gold.

I have been bold enough to buy a photo of Rossetti's
"Proserpina” and am enamoured of the