Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Balham, Balham, London, S.W.. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/71
13 Rusham Road
Balham,
London, S. W.

27.ix.06

My dear Gordon
Only a word to
let you know that we were turned
out completely yesterday, all
but one nail which I could not
wrench from the wall. We stay
here until tomorrow, when
Helen & I go to Wiltshire for
3 days & then to South Wales for
a fortnight or two. Your Annals
of Cartmel I forgot until too late,
I am sorry. Please keep Doughty
III until we get to Petersfield.
Freeman lives near here & has a
copy, & I shall be back here in
a fortnight or so working, until
we finally move. I daresay you
are right about him, but I still
think that his war (I forget if
there is much of it in III) is
far & away the finest that ever
got into poetry, though I will
confess that I compare it (favourably)
rather with the great histories
than the great poems.
Oh, I had a nice
naive letter from Padraic Colun
& I gathered from it that you were
using something of his. Can
you tell me the editor of New
Times. which I ought to see at
the Museum? I seem to
remember a time Drover & he
promises an unpublished poem.
He and Maurice Joy are quite
unimportant in Dublin, I hear.
I have been asked to write
an article in Sonnets for 'The
Saturday Review": but also a
history of English poetry for Fisher
Unwin which - if he will allow me not to pretend to
scholarship, philology, grammar etc -
I may do in a few year's time.
Elkin Mathews is to publish
William Davies' 2nd book of
poems early in November so the
poor bard was not utterly sad
when we left him, especially as
his leg & his rent are fully
paid up. Did I tell you Bernard
Shaw is reading his Autobiography
& will introduce it if he likes it?

I wonder could you do an
article on outdoor poetry in
English for my Natural History?
showing the changing (or permanent)
attitudes towards wild life &
scenery & you could quote a
lot but you would have to get
a lot into not more than 3000
words. Think of it. Freeman
may do Country Songs, but that
will leave you free to touch the
Ballad. It is a subject I should
like, but I am too long & I should be
too poetical.
Oh, will some really good
man praise my p 'Ship,
chariot & plough', my 'Earth
Children', "Metamorphosis' etc.?
I feel that perhaps they are really good
& I am almost sure they are now.
But who knows?
When does the Anthology come?
By the way, 'The Woods of
Arcady are dead' - nine glorious
verses quoted in my 'Marsh' which
you asked about - are in Yeats'
'Poems'!
Yours & Emily's ever
Edward Thomas
I