"COUNTRY LIFE"
you permit me, belatedly, for my Spectator has been follow- ing me through Austria and Italy, to add my gratitude to that expressed by Mr. J. B. Atkins in his farewell to Sir William Beach Thomas. I can hardly believe that I shall not again find his familiar column. I can hardly believe that he is in his eighty-fourth year, so young is his prose and keen his zest. And for yet another reason I cannot credit all those years. Long, long ago, it must be, I was briefly his young colleague when I entered the British War Correspondents' chateau in the First World War. I recall that he was tall and, like Cassius, had a lean and hungry look, but I was not too young to relish the wise and informative things that emerged in his casual talk. In the last ten years I have been a wanderer out of England, but, wherever I was, his articles have meant England for me in all its allure. Wordsworth observed that "nature never did betray the heart that loved her." As a lover Sir William never betrayed or lessened the miracle of nature.—Yours sincerely, CECIL Romurrs. Pian dei Giullari 50, Florence, Italy.
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