Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Berryfield Cottage, Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/88
21.vi.07

My dear Gordon & Emily, I did think
of you on Wednesday night in London.
I thought of you as the friends who had
just given me a perfectly happy & calm
holiday that weaned me from my
usual fidgets & discomforts in the
most surprising way. Helen wanted
tell you now that in spite of the
intervening day in London I am much
nicer & cheerfuller than I was, &
when I was able to enjoy finding
the children awake last night as I
arrived & roses in the garden & the
hay in swathes in the fields
around, it was because of you &
your house. Can I thank you
in a better way? How I wish
BERRYFIELD COTTAGE
ASHFORD
PETERSFIELD

could have come to see the South as
it is now, with all the roses &
peonies & lupins & irises & the
clematis over the hedge lofts & the
plums growing big. But the wind
is restless & I don't think we have done
with the rain.
The children were delighted with
Miss Gordon's mugs & the picture of
the Pied Piper. Wouldn't you like
to hear a score of their school chorus
sing 'The Hoim Bank Hunting Sogn'?
They are learning it now.
Mrs Jefferies has put me off &
I am not to see her till next week.
Bernard Shaw has written an
amazing preface, says Davies, for his
Autobiography, calling him the 'Supertramp'
And now Davie's is to dictate his terms: it
should be a proud brief moment for him.
He asked to be 'remembered' to you, Gordon.
Goodbye, now with Helen's love
& mine.
Yours ever
Edward Thomas