Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Rogate, Worple Rd, Wimbledon, London. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/110
Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments
in Wales and Monmouthshire
36, GREAT GEORGE STREET
WESTMINSTER, S. W.

Rosegate
Worple Ro
Wimbledon S. W. 16. ix 08

My dear Gordon,

Thanks for Proof II, & before I forget
it - I don't know about Chesterton. I did
hear the rumors & it would not surprise many if
true. On the other hand I have not heard it from
or spoke of by, any who know him. That
Daily News article was good. A. G. Gardner the editor
is a delightful man quite unspoilt by London
journalism, like Nevinson & very few others.
What is Trevelyn like? I lent his Polyphemus
to W H Hudson who liked 'The Bat' very much.
It was for that I sent it - a friend of his - now
Mrs. C. F. G. Masterman (a Lyttleton) - wanted
a bat poem for an anthology! I have
adopted all or nearly all your suggestions in the
proofs. Sometimes it is curious how you have
made the very suggestion which I - looking at my
copy of the proof - have also made! I misunderstood
2 of your first corrections when you said
'Delete, after thatched' I thought you meant
cut all the adjective or pendant note book
stuff that followed 'thatch'!
'Sarsen' is said to be the same as
;Saracen': it means a foreign stone, i.e. one
brought by glacial movement to a county
where, lying on the surface, (e.g. sandstone
on the chalk downs) it is obviously strange.
There are myriads on the Downs by
Avebury & elsewhere, & in groups they are
often called 'grey wethers'. The largest have
pften been used in marking cromlechs etc.
Avebury temple is made of sarsens
which happen to resemble (ever so simply)
pillars or bits of wall. A winterbourne
is a river running only in the winter.
They are common in the Walk. All the
summer you cal walk over their gravel beds &
under their bridges, as a rule. They give
part of the place names of many villages in
Dorset & Wiltshire.
I should like to see Trevelyan's early book
someday, but Lord how busy I am. I work
from 10 a.m. to 12 midnight or later every day.
The town work is poor because of the air. The
evening work is poor because I am half done. Still,
I shall slide at it if possible for the sake of the years of
Welsh walking or driving. I don't know yet
how to travel. Walking will not always be
possible as I might carry a ½ plate camera &
a measuring rod & tape. Cycling I hate & it is no quieter on mountains. I don't know how the
Treasury will like paying £1 a day for pony &
trap.
Goodbye Yours ever
Edward Thomas