T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 353

To Sir Evelyn Wrench, The Duke's House, Lawrence Street, UPLEIES, S.W.X. From camp Clouds Hill Novertor. Dorset. Dear E.W. 1 April 1935 Yes, Mrs. Hardy knew my H.Q. and here your note waited till I came. I have been owing you a letter for so long over since I read Upritely, which had a poignant directness of impact that I found somehow very gracious. Need I be in the new one ? Often I wish I had known at the beginning ... the weary lag that any sudden reputation brings. I should have refrained from going alone and able to live as I chose. To have ... to have value is to have a ... ..s tied to one's tail. However what you say will not be vulgar; and therefore it may serve to correct (at least in my own esteem) some of what others have said. I cannot say about London: my income is a "country" one and therefore my town visits will not be frequent. I was there a fortnight ago, to see Edmond Harnsworth and outline his aid with the Drama to leave me alone. Now I am hoping to stay here quite a while, finishing off my cottage after my own liking. There is pleasure (and encroachment) in arranging and fixing one's surroundings. I find I spend nearly the whole day, beginning job after job and leaving them aside, part-done. The sense of infinite time, all my own, is so new. I've thought out the enclosed card idea, to ease the labour of answering letters. Good, don't you think? Will it do if I come up in the summer ? Or do you ever travel (not that I can put anybody up! I camp out amidst the ruins!) or can we do it on paper? I would like to be useful to you, any way I can ..... Yours T. E. SHAW