Letter from Edward Thomas to his wife, Helen Thomas. Archival reference: 424/1/1/1/1/71
1.IX.98 17 Woodville Streer

My dearest friend,
I think I shall write only a
word or two just now, for since Sunday I have
done nothing at all to speak of, but one, my only
joys have been the reading of your three letters, - such
joy, sweet heart! The fact is I have an annoying
cow that awakens me a lot, and until a succession of
sunny days come I shall not much improve;
for I can't stay in all day in a lonely house, where
hardly anyone would come to keep me company,
at least no-one very desirable, - no girl, for
example. And now I am going to make my letter
interesting [Illegible] pleasant Helen? I had a
very joyful evening on Sunday with Gwili's eldest sister Elizabeth. She was walking to her home at
LLanelly soon after 5, and Gwili rather unchivalrously
refused to accompany her, so I went. I suppose
we were both very content with one another &
we loitered very much. By the time we reached
a cousin's house 4 1/2 miles away where my
cousin TTT and his daughters were awaiting me to
return, [Elizab - struck out] Miss Jenkins and I were laughing

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not even so pardonable as "a heat in the blood".
I have a prudish upturning of the nose at thought
of such things. - You used to admire
Ruskin; & what would he say? You
Cannot doubt. I have a feeling that I
might loathe and hate what I had once
loved, if I saw it could abase itself so. A
kind of falling off in reverence follows even
the legal embraces of the marriage bed I
daresay; much more so, in most cases,
in any promiscuous fooling. - But I
am flippant and perhaps I do not really know,
what to think. - Don't talk of serving the
"state"; nobody consciously does in this way, and you certainly never need. The
reason why we don't marry is not our
immaturity but impecuniousness, the
artificial impediment, the coarse nature in the
union of two bodies is something to be [Illegible] but no more;
it would certainly be necessary for us whether
married or unmarried, assuming my body to
be strong enough to be dangerous; but if the method

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away very childishly and happily. You can
not think how like she is to you, in
meekness, in guilteness, in prettiness,
though she is more delicate by far. We parted
jestingly, - I giving her some honeysuckle
"to put in her favourite hymns" in her
hymnbook! I would have seen her
yesterday, but only Reggie did; for I
was too weak to go in the rain nearly 7 miles;
I believe she regretted it. - I think she
is engaged; so what wicked people we
are! No! we are not; for if joys
like this are why I shall always
be either very unhappy or losing[?],
since it is this childish intercourse with an
amiable and lively woman which gives
me completest satisfaction. She is the only one
of the family (of 8 or 9) who does not write
verses, & is consequently the most
truly poetic in nature of them all.
I return your beloved letters.
I don't know which I laughed at most, but

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I'll say I laughed most at Mrs. Noble because it
is kinder. She is very comic, & so vain
& superior. See how she inserts "old" in
the page I have emphatically marked;
- "old" to show she is interested in
the "old masters" - pooh! not the new.
As for Harry, I can't make up my
mind. I have got a picture of his existence in
my mind, & it is such an ugly one that
I can't like him entirely. His picture is awkward,
irregular, unbeautiful. He and Janet are
always grotesque uncongenial figures in
my mind. How they are uglier now! I
hope to goodness he won't make any confessions
to me. - I should want to spit or
blow my nose. ugh! Dirty things!
I don't know why I mentioned
the stark morality and my relations to
you, but it was not to help myself. It
is all loathsome to me, and I pray it
always will be. In one case out of a
thousand the causes of such aberrations are

I was quite ignorant, and I daresay you also are, are you not ?
Your small mallow is correctly the "dwarf mallow", though I have never found it.
I had a long interesting letter from (illegible), astonishingly like my own former letters in its morbid self examination and confession. I am hoping she poses a little and is mistaken about the extent of her difference from the rest of men and women.
I also heard from Arthur. Maude is coming to stay at his house next month. He did not send the Speaker: but I got a copy, on application, from the office. You shall see it when I get back. Alright to send payment for the paper or let them take it out of the cheque?
I am going now. Goodbye. This dry bald letter is the card I will
address to Holmwood. It has been been a perfectly happy holiday for you, and I am glad. In life I am your ever fondest truest Edwy and you ever my own sweet little one Helen fach, anemone maiden. Sweetheart, Goodbye. Adieu