Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Berryfield Cottage, Ashford, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/126
BERRYFIELD COTTAGE
ASHFORD
PETERSFIELD

4. vi 09

My dear Gordon,

Are you better now? I am sure I did not some to see you
on that Thursday when I was in London. I could have done so but -
well I can't explain easily; also I was not sure if you would like
me to come when you were ill & perhaps not able to talk. Please thank Emily
for writing, though as she says her handwriting is now ominous. Well,
I did get to Cornwell & had eight days there walking & sailing,
taking notes & reading the Apocrypha, arriving at the hotel usually
too sleepy to write, & I was Hynes' guest & he is a persistent
(& a good) talker. So I could not write. And now there is the mad
stack of work in arrear, & I am artless enough to try to lure you
into another letter by sending you a copy of the last 'English Review' of
which I have 2 copies because the Editor send one to each contributor I have no news. The Maeterlinck job is still uncertain. The complete lectures
I was to have edited seems likely to fall through. Nor is there anything
much to tell even of the Electrician. Perhaps you caught the smell of
burning in the stalled air - for I hear he was at Coniston - We
see little of one another, as the Two rise for breakfast (when they do
rise) between 1 & 5 p.m. While we are burgeouis in such matters.
Although he is a lightning author & transformationist there are not yet
any small Electricians that I know of. - it is now a strange
twilight, very cold, very misty & full of dropping water though it is not
raining, & the thrushes are singing with the blackbirds among
the tossing trees. I wish you would play & shut out these things
or rather let them pour as pure spirits into my brain. When shall I
hear you play again? In the evenings at Looe i had the same
wish & the same question. Goodbye. I am ever yours Edward Thomas