Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Wick Green, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/174
at SELSFIELD HOUSE
EAST GRINSTEAD

5 xii 12

My dear Gordon
Are you at the Shiffolds now?
I have thought many times of you
in these 2 months since came
here to live with Vivian Locke Ellis.
And I should have written except that
my letters have been getting worse &
worse. In fact for 3 months I
have been advertising my sorrows &
decimating my friends. Briefly this year
has been a bad one. I have gone down.
I have had less & less work. My habit of
introspection & self contempt has at last broken
my spirit. Intense inability made life
intolerable in a cottage where I could not
suffer without making 4 others suffer
with me. So I left home in October
& came here as a boarder at Ellis's
house for a start, & have worked
moderately well & had cloistered days.
A couple of days at home were enough to
tumble me down again to an abject state
from which I am now getting up. Then
the children came here for Christmas. Tell
me when if at all you can see me,
suffering you are at the Shiffolds. I am not
so bad to meet as I have letters from,
as a rule. The thing is to avoid self discussion.
In any case forgive what there was to
forgive in my last letter & tell me how
you & Emily are & believe that such
of me as remains is ever yours.
E. T.