Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Berryfield Cottage, Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/74
11.xi.06
My dear Gordon,
This house & the country
about it make the most beautiful
place we ever lived in. We
are now become people of whom
passers by stop to think:
How fortunate are they within
those walls. I know it. I have
thought the same as I came to
the house & forgot it was my
own.
But I am oppressed again by over much reviewing for
Chronicle World Bookman &
Morning Post & cannot find
an hour to sink into myself or to
write to you and Emily. You alone
know how I felt at your words
of praise & happiness after getting
my book. All other copies ought to
have been destroyed, for World
& Standard have been saying
what a cheery knowing companion
I am for a day in the country &
the Academy that I am affected
& that in 'the heart of England'
people do not speak so. I ought
never to do [illegible] books again.
People can't believe there is anything in
BERRYFIELD COTTAGE
ASHFORD
PETERSFIELD

them at all.
Before I forget, 'New
College Gardens' is to be
found in 'Songs of love & Empire?
I didn't copy it out because I
was very busy & I did not
feel sure that you wanted it. Don't
trouble about 'Goatfoot' now,
I have copied it. A quarter
of my anthology has gone to
printers. The songs are glorious-
you should hear Campion's
'White loep, blithe Helen & the rest',
more religious than anything I
know, & then 'Greensleeves',
& 'Rio Grande' & Louis XIII's
'Amaryllis' & 'Oriculis
Partitus adventavit asinus'
(la fet des fons). It will
be the best short collection in
the world. I wish I thought as
well of the poems.
How well you paint
Bournemouth for me & the
two windows & the cough.
To the Cymric enthusiast
I only said that there was no

Welsh original for 'Eluned' &
that therefore he wd be disappointed
because anyone can make a
pseudo translation that suggests
a noble original.
-------
Goodby, Emily & Gordon.
Helen sends her love with mine.
I am yours ever
Edward thomas