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[A.J. Balfour]

4, Carlton Gardens,
Pall Mall,
S.W.1

December 17th, 1926.

Dear John Buchan,

I have scandalously delayed writing
to thank you for your volume of Essays,
which arrived just before I left the calm
of Scotland for the whirlpool of politics
at Westminster. I wanted to read your
book before thanking you for it; and I
have not found it easy to read anything
during the last few weeks more instructive
and interesting than official documents!

This omission I have now remedied,
and have thereby strengthened the conviction
I have long entertained, namely that
collected Essays are among the most pleasure-giving
forms of literature. The reader
not only gets the knowledge which the Essays