Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Berryfield Cottage, Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/129
Ashford 16.vii.09
My dear Gordon, Thank you for your letter. I ought to have said it before and would have done had I known I was to glide into such a languid desperate condition as I am in now. Yet I might to have known for by referring to diaries I have at last found out what I suspected before that I get periods of depression particularly once a month for a week or so. But this is enough if the natural history of ET for the present.
I have seen the Book and it looks very well and fitting. The printing is not 1st class and the house at Lithend has came out rather badly, but the pictures are very good - I like the horse's head at the beginning. It is good of you to promise me a Pullman edition, and I quite understand how that may be delayed. Mr Guthrie seems worse than ever and was to undergo an operation this or next week if no better. I won't see them for months, perhaps not this year, though Helen has. I don't like going into the house there there is so much disease and pain, especially as the house seemed to suffer too.
If only you were here now you would see de la Mare. He is staying fairly near and we see him and his family often. You would like his singularly (sometimes comically) restless and curious and
innocent mind. But other neighbours we scarce ever see. They frequent Petersfield and other pubs enlivening the countryside with song. We like the 'painted lady' less and call her the Unicorn because she had a small ivory horn in the midst of her forehead. We feel very bourgeois beside them but deferentially expect 'Bohemia in Froxfield'.
What do you think of Arthur Wor now after his review on the DC? Do you think he is not altogether fool. Still you won't care, after Sturge Moore's opinion which I am glad to hear.
We have seen Garnett's play acted. The middle was slow and was full of the smell of old skins which the family was beating whilst awaiting the warrior's return. But the beginning was good and the cast act very fine and he had a lovely dark girl as Helga. Here I send it. 'Deidre' is an exquisite whole on the stage. But I want to know how Yeats came to the phrase 'Libyan heel'. It is not Yeats at all, is it? But the Playboy. Have you read and seen it? I daresay it is the greatest play of modern times. Of course I don't know. But I felt it to be awfully new and altogether fine. Goodbye now. In a hurry and I hope you are well again now. Write, tell me. I am Emily's and yours ever Edward Thomas.