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[HM Government stamp]

28 July 24

My dear John - my eyes have been rather overdrawn
lately so that I haven't yet read the whole of your
book: but it has given me great pleasure, & of
a new kind. The Introd. is to me an education -
it is much of it a surprise, & makes me feel that
I have hitherto failed to realise what an immense
past Scots poetry has, & how little future. I wonder if
you are certain of that: to me it seems almost
incredible that a nation which has produced the
stuff you have drawn upon here, should ever cease
to sing of its own life, in its own way. The language may
be dying, as you think: but the expression of Scots
feeling can never be anything but Scots - one way or
another it will effectively differentiate itself from
English expression?

Your 200 poems are a delightful choice. Burns &
Dunbar stand out like Empires among little Principalities
or single beauty spots: but R.L.S. & Violet Jacob are
fine descendants of the Great, & the latter especially