Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. No address, [1909]. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/128
1909

My dear Gordon,

I am only just back from 10 days in
Wales with Mervyn. I am perplexed
in the extreme by work & letters, so I
only have time to look through your proof
& to say that I like the poem to
Edward Thomas very much in both
ways, as a poem & as an expression
of friendship. The play itself I had to
read in the train but I got the impression
that it was an admirable entity with
many good things in it & none superfluous.
I feel no doubt that it justifies itself &
I felt the thing all over again & not
merely as a [illegible] out of 'Burnt Vial'! But
I must not go on writing: as you can see,
I am thinking about something else. - Helen
likes the poem to me.
As to the proof I found no
mistake but I thought that perhaps the
punctuation at the top of 9 (first 2 lines)
was wrong & there you speak of Gunnar
as 'tender of Ireland', faine . . .
Now I must go to other things -
post this hoping it is not too long
delayed already.
Thank you for your letter
I am ever yours
Edward Thomas