Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from [Berryfield Cottage], Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire]. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/83
The Weald [crossed through]
22 iv 07

My dear Gordon I shall be very
glad if you do dedicate a book
to me. It is the one things I should
not mind collecting, I think , -
dedications : & I shalld do well to
begin with you and William Davies.
I hope the book will not be very long.
Will you try Alston Rivers ? or is it
too long for that shillling series ?
Davies' '[illegib illegib] has
already appeared in it.

I should not have been so long
before writing to you had I not been
away a good deal - mainly interviews
with a publisher - and then had a
long visit from Freeman (while
Helen & the children were in town) ;
so I got very much behind with my
work : & also I have had two bad
spells of languor and melancholy.
Nor am I likely to be much good just
now . for I am trying to give up
smoking & apparently my work
suffers - as might have been suspeted -
by the sudden drop from 8 pipes a
day to 2. It is like me to have
started this attempt after Ernest Rhys
saying that Swinburne & [illegible] both
gave up tobacco because it lowered
their vitality. Well I know how

,D,
{S}evenoaks (both crossed through_
[this sheet would app thus appear to be the right hand half of the previous page - cut down the middle and used as two separate pages]

little vitality I have to lose : yet I
thought I might regain a little before
it is too late. And I shall want
all my energies & more if I am to
do my next job well. Probably
that will be a life & criticism of
Richard Jefferies. It ought to give
me many opportunities. There have
been two : Besant's excellent advertise=
ment, called a 'Eulogy' and
Salt's vigorous but not
exhaustive pamphlet. In two years
I might do something , knowing
the main native [illegible] & his
books. Should you hear of any of
his early & mostly bad novels -
yellow backs - like 'The Scarlet
Shawl' , I wish you would let me
know where. I must have everything
here at hand especially as the Museum
is closed. It is not quite settled
yet, but Hutchinson's reader,
Roger Ingpen, thinks I can have
£100 in advance of royalties for
not over 80,000 ; & such a book
might become a useful property to
me - just possibly.

One of my saddest jobs lately has
been reviewing John Davidon's
drama : "Triumph of Mammon,"
with an epilogue. I think his
brain must be giving way. There is
a lot of energy, as usual ; but an
unusual incoherence and much
less beauty in detail If [illegible]
couldn't praise it yet I did not like
having to say anything against this
sad serious, very 'clever egoist'

Speaking of reviews, thank you
for Scott on me. frankly, I did not
much like it. I wonder does he
always write so ? or did my
book corrupt him > I seem to be
able to trace his 'womanly flesh
of rivers' - which I think
ridiculous - to my 'crystal flesh'
which was barely pardonable where I
was almost personifying a little
river. I cannot think that he
really cared for the book & tried to
discover what originality it may have :
at least it would be hard to learn
from it what (if anything) made
the book differ from all others or
what effect (if [illegib] it [illegib] upon him
which no other book could produce.
I wonder what you think

No. Marjoram is a young
bank clerk - 22 years old - at
Norwich.

Thanks too for Hudson - a
trifle & yet with something of his
unique personality in it , a personality
most dear to me. Rothenstein has
just painted him - badly - making
him not an eagle in a palace
[illegib] , but an eagle at the Zoo and
contented to be there.

I have made friends with Walter
de la Mare. You would like him -
a subtle honest person - an accountant
but rather willing to leave it if he
saw a way that would not hurt
his wife & 4 children - 34 years
old - handsome like the young
Dickens , but short & his eyes
too small - finally he has the
foible of liking my reviews & (1
fear) preferring them to my
landscapes & people who seem to
him from a different hand from
the Chronicle reviewers , which
annoys me.

About Wright's Pater. I am told
that Jackson is a liar & has
probably stuffed Wright with lies.
If the infatuation is rightly
reported , even so it is not
sufficiently related to the Pater who
emerges to justify Wrights
treatment of it. I confess I should
not be surprised if it were true ,
but I daresay Pater was physically
not equal to his mental preferences.
I got more & more dissatisfied with
The Weal ...
Nr. S.... [crossed through]
[this page has been cut lengthways to make two narrow sheets]

Pater. His work seems fatally
external to him - a very wonderful
tour de force . but on a level with
Greek or Latin verses by a professor.
It is often singularly beautiful but
even Denys falls short . Pater makes
him do things - & how painfully
recalcitrant are those bishops kicking
the ball in the cathedral - surely
genius would not have allowed us to
see the effort (that fails [illegib] all)
to produce these [illegib] effects?
I wonder do you know what I mean
when I say that I do not see the
necessity for his work ? - I
see nothing in it which was beyond
his control , no divine agency in
it at all. But I need not say
that I am suppressing admiration of
a great many details & that I
believe him to have achieved everything
which a purely self=conscious
use of words could achieving(sic) more
than any other Englishman

I haven't time to [illegib] you
the thoroughly in the subject of my
fitness for writing about English poets.
It would take too long to explain how
forced my criticism nearly always
is - how often I think of
things to say - what a struggle it is
to fill a column & how impossible
it seems to write at more length.
Perhaps my intense desire to

.......D,
.........Venoaks
[page has been cut lengthways to make two pages]

say only things that come from
the depths & to get onto
paper somehow the (perhaps few)
passionate moments of my reading life -
perhaps this has given a quality
to the writing which a friend will
not distinguish from perfect sincerity
& independence of view.

I don't know Donne very well,
but I will. Yes Collins would
be better than Gray & of course
it was a slip when I forgot
Blake.

I am glad pof what you say about
Suburban houses. . I must look at
Madox Brown's Work. Is there
anything solid and dull about that
period of architecture.

Yes, do a play about Gunnar.
To give an excuse for hearing these
words & seeing that woman on
the stage would be true benevolence.

[illegib] is in luck & i
Congratulate him.

Helen says we have room for
some of those seedling larkspurs &
[illegible] like them.

Goodbye & my love to Emily
& you. Ever yours
Edward Thomas