Autograph letter signed with initials : Heytesbury House, to Basil Dowling, 1954 Feb. 18.

Discussing his seclusion and his writing; thanking him for his "friendly inquiries about how things go with me. The answer is that I am part of the landscape of this part of Wiltshire & am seldom seen elsewhere! However it seems to suit me - this seclusion - and I have the abiding interest of watching my 17 yr old son growing up - really very promising, & likely to have a distinguished career in science. I continue to work intermittently at the craft of verse; but am unwilling to publish another volume until I feel satisfied with the results, which takes a bit of doing. I was never a willing producer of prose & for the past 5 years have been unable to get myself going on another volume, the effort involved being so great, at my age. I have never wanted to be anything except a poet, & it is my natural mode of expression, I believe. (Though the modern 'literary world' is fond - when aware of my existence at all - of reminding me that I have done nothing significant in verse since 1919!) Does anyone read Walter Pater now? I have resorted to him again lately and find him as delectable as ever. Do you know Pearsall Smith's 'Reperusals & Recollections, (pub'd in 1936)? He wrote perfectly, 'On Re-reading Pater'. It is a most nourishing book. I saw a good poem by you in the T.L.S. some time ago, & thought it fine - a great relief after some of the artificial & affected stuff they print. Why do these modern poets insist on writing so indirectly? Their 'oblique approach', ingenious though it be, makes no appeal to me. If they have anything to say, let them 'speak out loud & bold!" .