Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Berryfield Cottage, Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/81
7.iii.07

My dear Gordon,

It is very sad, but I
think you will get well and at my
rate you don't have to correct proofs
of natural history articles, measuring
them with a 2-foot rule, and to
discuss a prize competition to advertise
a book you are editing. That is what
makes me so confusedly busy that I feel
as if the back of my head would come
out. Never mind; I am now, being
just 29, insured against death,
accident & disease & I shall get £500
if I lose both eyes or even both
legs (but I am not sure about the legs.)
I don't feel bad about the
"[illegible] breasts". for it ws not a
sin of carelessness. I think I am in-
capable of writing so out of carelessness.
But evidently I miscalculated. That
sentence was meant to be as when one
says a thing with an affected ridiculous
accent or with a grimace or
mock solemnity & it was meant
to convey any not altogether
good-humoured contempt for the
'religious instructor'. Also, I think
the word 'excised' was use in the text.
To me the hard word still seems to
suggest the hard act of taking away
the breasts from the nymphs in the
brake. So I am not to be despised
this time, am I? Not yet
Among my sufferings has
been the necessity today amidst my
BERRYFIELD COTTAGE
ASHFORD
PETERSFIELD

proof of reading to have to write an
introduction suddenly to the big natural
history thing. The fact is I dislike the
book; so I ran dry at once -
had to steal from old articles & patch
them up - & even then could
not cover the space which
finally
I covered
with the help of
a sonnet of De La Mare
and
a long sentence of prose by W H Hudson.
Oh Lord I am vain, because I go cold
at the thought of what people worth
considering will say of this introduction.
I don't think I shall ever write
anything I want to write again, or
even get the feeling of calm necessary
to trying. So 'The Bookman'
article is the melodious tear
dropped upon the prose poet's corpse.
Shall I send you the harticle? [sic]
I have just had the consolation
of finding that in reviewing
De la Mar'e 1st book years ago, I
quoted all of 'Lovelocks'.
Thank God. Goodby with
our love to you all.
Yours ever
Edward Thomas