2110-3-6-40

THE BRITISH WEEKLY. ST PAUL'S HOUSE, WARWICK SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.4.

Bay Tree Lodge, 63, Frognal, Hampstead, N.W.3.

November 21st, 1919

My dear Colonel Buchan,

I do not know how to thank you enough for my onefortieth of your edition. It is a very singal [sic] honour, and I assure you it is fully appreciated. The book will take its rank in my great ark which holds my few treasures.

It is a beautiful book and there are some passages which you have never surpassed. I wish you would reconsider the question of publication, but on that matter every one must judge for himself. I like the account of Raymond Asquith best. It is a most masterly piece of work - quite a Raeburn. I was also much interested in Thomas Nelson. I did not know him, but in my days at Kelso I knew his father pretty well and have dined at the house several times. I used to think that if I had been a painter I would have painted him and called it "Misery". It was not mere melancholy. I[t] was much worse than that. I have never seen the same expression on any human face - not even on the Thames Embankment.

I am taking leave to send you a copy of my little book on my father. I know you will feel some little movement of sympathy towards the gallant old scholar.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

W. R. Nicoll [ST - William Robertson Nicoll]