BOOK HUNTING IS A FINE SPORT BOTTOMLEY (Gordon, 1874-1948, Poet)

Fine Long Autograph Letter Signed to Dr James Fairweather Milne (GP in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire) apologising for his "paralysingly" late reply to his letter, "Half a year must have gone since our good, unselfish Bailie Bell said he had told you of my intention to write to you ... But your profession leads you not to expect too much from fellow mortals, does it not? and certainly to understand their shortcomings and make gentle allowances for them! When Galt's volumes arrived I was warsling with a duodenal ulcer; they helped to make tiresome days better than bearable, but I could never manage the energy to keep up with the correspondence which is almost a country-dweller's first duty ..." he continues that his wife then got shingles and they had to move out of their house and he is "still toiling after my Christmas correspondence ... It was beyond description kind and friendly of you to remember a stranger's bygone wish to read a scarce book. I gather that you and I would agree in considering book-hunting a finer sport than any kind of animal-killing; but the pleasure of such a find as the one in question is surely enhanced by the consciousness that one might turn a pretty penny by it! and that you most nobly forwent to gratify me. And Bailie Bell as nobly did as much, when you put it in his power - though I am sure neither you now I would have blamed him if he had felt inclined to profit by it, for he must have suffered by his long illness and his forced abandonment of his very personal business. But he has long interested himself in my doings, and has tried to forward them whenever he could, so I felt I should be a greedy fellow to profit materially as well ... I was keen to read 'The Spae Wife' because it is known to have been the foundation of Rossetti's 'King's Tragedy' and when I did read it I had a good deal of enjoyment from it for its own sake, but I reflected that, at nearly 70, I might not have time to read it again, and that someone after my day might heedlessly make money ... in the end I said to the Bailie that if we deposited it in the Mitchell Library of Glasgow - where he had first sought it ... both of us would feel an especial contentment in thinking that the next fellow who wanted to read it would find it there. He agreed cordially ... you are still my unpayable creditor. I do think you have treated me handsomely in this matter ...", 4 sides 8vo., The Sheiling, Silverdale, Carnforth headed paper, 9th April

Bottomley is known particularly for his verse dramas. He was partly disabled by tubercular illness. His main influences were the later Victorian Romantic poets, the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris.
John GALT (1779-1839, Scottish novelist, Entrepreneur, and Political and Social Commentator) He has been called the first political novelist in the English language, as he was the first t to deal with issues of the Industrial Revolution. He wrote the Spae Wife in 1823.

Item Date:  1942

Stock No:  40093