Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Wick Green, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/149
Wick Green
Detenfield
6 viii 10

My dear Gordon
I was very glad to read your letter -
there was nothing here for it to jar with.
Helen is perfectly well but still double &
expectant [illegible[ she regrets to say. I agree with
you about S Kent. He really thinks it is
only a matter of what Lewis Hind tells
'I-jolly old w-words' , whereas it is a
welter of music & also of construction &c.

Chattertin's whole attitude somehow changed
when he was writing as Rowley - So I
return him at once, especially as I have
hid the loan of the 1777 edition.

I wish I had been at or near
Well Knowe on July 4th ! Thank you
so much for suggesting a date in September,
but I doubt if either Bronwen or I can
accept it. She will be going to school not
very late in that month & I may be
compelled to take whatever holiday I can get

very soon. Mervyn & I are giong down to
Conrad's about the 20th & walking along
the Pilgrims Road on our way for a day or
two before . Then I must get away alone.
After all this muddled & hurried reading &
writing I feel as if I [illegible] to walk day & night
for weeks if I am [illegible] to get rid of the
effects. To have done the book is bad enough ,
but I don't want to be always the man that [illegible]
Women & Poets. Did I tell you Dent says he
wants another book ? But it has got to be
less 'nebulous'. Tell me how this is to be
done. Can I be a sort of an A. G. Bradley
and E.T. at the same time? It is asking a
lot of a poor perplexed journalist, it seems to
me.

I hope you are right in foreseeing
Ransome on the Academic Committee. He is
sparing of his autobiography to me now,
though he threatened to return to these parts.

Goodbye. As usual I am hurried & the hour
is late. If I can come to Well Knowe -
perhaps walking - be sure I will.

With our love to you both & to your
father & mother & Aunt Sarah Yours Ever
Edward Thomas