CLOUD CASTLE AND OTHER PAPERS BY EDWARD THOMAS LIGHT AND TWILIGHT REST AND UNREST ROSE ACRE PAPERS In The Roadmender Series Fcap. 8vo., 35. 6d. net each BY W. H. HUDSON THE PURPLE LAND GREEN MANSIONS A CRYSTAL AGE EL OMBU In The Readers Library Crown 8vo. t 55. net each BIRDS AND MAN In The Crown Library Demy 8vo., 75. 6d. net A LITTLE BOY LOST Square crown 8vo., 53. net Demy to., 2is. net t. CLOUD CASTLE AND OTHER PAPERS BY EDWARD THOMAS With a Foreword byW. LONDON DUCKWORTH H. HUDSON 1 1 CO. 3, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1922 A II rights reserved PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. FOREWORD A few days before his sudden death, Mr. W. H. Hudson undertook to write an Introduction for this collection of essays by the late Edward Thomas. This fragment was found among his papers after his death, and is now printed as being of interest to the admirers of authors. both these THE writings of Edward Thomas are sufficiently well known to readers of recent literature, and much has been said in appreciation of his work, both prose and verse, by several of the leading critics of the time. As an admirer, I am pleased to find myself in such good company but as a practically unlettered person this is all I can say on the subject. For me it is only to speak in this Foreword of Edward Thomas, the man, as I knew him, who wasmy friend and one of themost lovable beings I have ever known. It may be that our friendship was somewhat unusual, as there was a considerable difference in our respective ages, and we were poles apart in the circumstances of our lives. He, an Oxford graduate, and a literary man by profession I, unschooled and unclassed, born and bred in a semi-barbarous district amongthe horsemen of the pampas. But there were two or perhaps three things that drew us together first, our feeling for nature, and, secondly, for poetry and as his knowledge of poetic literature was so much profounder than mine, and his judgment so much more mature, I was glad to accept him as my guide in that extensive wilderness. I was not always a perfectly docile pupil, as he was intolerant of inferior verse, while I took a keen interest in the forgotten minor poets of the last century. This was often the subject of our conversation, and I had no objection to it. I think, too, or, rather, I should say I know it, that the chief reason of the bond uniting us was that we were both mystics in some degree. He was shy of exhibiting it, and either disguised it or attributed it to someone he meets and con- verses with in his rambles, as in Cloud Castle the first sketch in this collection of papers which he himself arranged for publication before leaving England. It is more manifest in his poetry, that being the medium through which a man can best reveal his soul. And I take it that all true poets are in some degree mystic, that what we call inspiration in the poet, with- out which his work can scarcely be poetic, is mysticism. CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD, BY W. H. HUDSON - V I. CLOUD CASTLE - I II. AUNT ANNS COTTAGE - II III. THE SHIP OF SWALLOWS IV. MORGAN - V. HELEN - . - VI. ISOUD - - VII. A MAN OF THE WOODS - - VIII. SEVEN TRAMPS - - IOI IX. DEATH BY MISADVENTURE - - III X. A COLLOQUY IN A LIBRARY XI. FELIX - 8y - - -, - . XII. BRONWEN - - XIII. MIKE - - - XIV. SAVED TIME XV. THE MOON - - . 33 43 63 79 91 117 137 155 167 The papers entitled Aunt Anns Cottage and Morgan originally appeared aspart of the authors story The Happy-go-Lucky Morgans. They were subsequently revised by him and marked for inclusion in the present volume. vii CLOUD CASTLE I CLOUD CASTLE ALL the life of the summer day became silent after sundown the earth was dark and very still as with a great thought the sky was as a pale window through which men and angels looked at one another without a word. The two friends were now silently walking together towards a house in the west, whose walls and lights they now began to expect at any moment in the distance...