Autograph Letter, signed.

The Sheiling, Silverdale, nr. Carnforth, [N.d].. No Binding. Very Good. Gordon Bottomley, 1874-1948, English poet and dramatist, author of numerous verse dramas with themes inspired by Celtic and northern legend. President of the Scottish Community Drama Association and Vice President of the British Drama League. 7" x 5.25" leaf, written both sides, just shy of 300 words. To [William] Aiken, director of the Tate Gallery [from 1917-30], "You have made the Tate a treasure-house to me in many ways; but my thoughts return to it particularly often just now on account of your 60's exhibition, for all the passions of my youth are focused there, and even in memory the spectacle is incomparable. I feel that those years are, so far, the golden time English art - such a time as the years just four hundred years before in Florence - and that that unique efforescence can never be too much prized. Your instinct for marshalling its manifestations must come out of an inspiration not unlike the one that created it; you make me feel that I have sympathies like yours, and for that reason the pleasure of meeting you was greater than I can say, while to go round the rooms with you was a delight as well as a priviledge to both my wife and myself. We hope you will let us remind you of that priviledge the next time we are at the Tate: in the meantime I should be happy if you cared to keep the accompanying book [not offered here] as a token and a sign. I always hope it came out of the same spirit of English art as those pictures; and in the first dedication I have tried to say what Rossetti (as well as two nearer friends) has meant to me. Let it tell you how much two strangers appreciated your great kindness and the generous gift of your time to us; and also how much we should like to renew the contact - perhaps, if you will, some day here on our Northern hill-top. In the meantime, with my wife's kind regards and my own, believe me yours most truly, Gordon Bottomley". Slight creasing, else very good condition.