182 Mcynell's Goodness to Thompson \. l 9®7 



of originality and had a wealth of illustration and quotation quite unlike 

 the essays I generally received. Also the verses were so good that I 

 showed them to Alice (his wife) who said that, unless they were, as 

 sometimes happens, accidental successes, I had discovered a new poet. 

 I at once published one of these and the essay. They were signed 

 "Francis Thompson " v with the address "Charing Cross P.O.," but 

 when I addressed him there I found that he no longer called for his 

 letters and so I could not pay him for the MS. 



" ' I had, however, published them with his name and I trusted that 

 someone who knew him would call his attention to their having ap- 

 peared. This is precisely what happened. Some few days later I 

 received a letter from him complaining that I had been wanting in 

 courtesy in not sending him a cheque for the writings published. This 

 time the address was at a house in Drury Lane. As I was now con- 

 vinced that I had found a true poet, I consequently went at once to the 

 address given and found it to be that of a chemist who told me that 

 the writer did not live there, his only connection with the house being 

 that he occasionally bought drugs there, and was actually owing 4s. 6d. 

 for laudanum which the chemist invited me, as a supposed relation, to 

 pay. Thus informed I wrote to Thompson and invited him to come and 

 visit me, which he presently did. His appearance then was terrible in 

 its destitution. When he came into the room he half opened the door 

 and then retreated and did so twice before he got courage to come 

 inside. He was in rags, his feet, without stockings, showing through 

 his boots, his coat torn, and no shirt. He seemed in the last stage of 

 physical collapse. I asked him how, being in such a condition, he had 

 been able to consult the books out of which he had gathered the quota- 

 tions for his essay. He answered, " Books I have none, but Blake and 

 the Bible." All the quotations had been made from memory. I gave 

 him a cheque for his work and told him to come and see me again, 

 any evening I would see him. 



" ' A few days later he came again and I gave him dinner, and he 

 stopped talking with me till about ten, when he became uneasy and said 

 he must be going. I asked him what obliged him and he explained that 

 he was obliged to earn tenpence every day to live. This he did by 

 waiting at the doors of theatres and calling cabs, and by selling matches 

 in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross. Soon after I took him to 

 a doctor who pronounced his case hopeless; it was one of laudanum 

 slow poisoning. He said all that could be done was to help him to die 

 easily. If he left off drugs it would kill him at once. I have always 

 disbelieved, however, in doctors, and I got him into a hospital from 

 which six weeks later he was discharged practically cured. I had 

 already before this given him a bath and a suit of clothes, and I now 

 took him into my house for awhile, and then arranged for him to live 



