Letter from Walter de la Mare, South End House, to Siegfried Sassoon, 1952 February 13 : typescript signed with initials.

Commenting on a letter Sassoon shared with him from Tommy [David Cuthbert Thomas]; mourning the loss of George VI and relating his visit to Buckingham Palace when he met the King; saying how glad he was "...to have the chance of seeing Tommy's letter, which is exactly what one knows is Tommy. For judgment, fidelity and understanding I put him with E.B. and if T.H. were still alive I'd make a trio of them. Can one imagine what these last months must have meant to the King in suffering and misery, and to the Queen and Elizabeth. I'm not sure if I have ever referred to one of my redest of red letter hours when in connection with my C.H. I went to Buckingham Palace. Of course I was the prey of an attack of what's called 'Palace fever'; but even before I was presented I realized how utterly different the symptoms would have been if on the other side of the door waiting their poor subject had been Queen Victoria, Edward 7 or George 5. It was absolutely impossible not to talk to him - without being talked to first! - and even if he had been some one I'd met and talked to for a few minutes in a railway carriage, I couldn't have forgotten him. There was a very rare simplicity and, - well, what one can't explain or describe. I doubt if we have ever had a King so precious to his country in one of its extremities, or so completely and blessedly a human being. There was a charming sense of humour too - how could it be otherwise. How appropriate indeed was Tommy's quotation from one of my best loved Hardy's. There were plenty of 'bad men' about in my young days, but one could say then without either affectation or the charge that one was being pi, that so-and-so was a good man. It was the best praise one could bring. What kind of tribute is that held to be now. But it was true of this King. Here is your most treasurable letter and I'll answer yours as soon as ever I can; " adding, in a postscript, Do you see the 'Daily Telegraph'? If so, look at the account on page 1 of the Lying in State in Westminster Hall. 'Telegraphese' has been notorious since I was 10, but I cannot recall so fine a specimen."