Commissions, however, when they came, were rejected in silence, or accepted and neglected—
"Dear Sir,—I shall be greatly obliged if you can send me the articles you kindly agreed to write for the Catholic Encyclopædia in the letters B and C"
is a note I find among his papers, and others came, were ignored and lost. "Having done an article for the Chronicle," he writes, "I have still seventeen volumes of poetry undone for it." When Mr. Hind left the Academy the poet was in some flurry and distress; having called on the new editor, Mr. Teignmouth Shore, he writes:—
"The interview last Friday landed me on a doubtfully hospitable Shore. All articles to be cut down to a column. Immediate result, fifteen shillings for this week. . . . Therefore am waiting most anxiously for your return, when I may explain all the complexities of the situation. At present most perplexed and anxious. Do not cut short your holiday; yet I do need to see you."
He continued fitfully on the Academy, but gradually transferred his allegiance to the Athenæum. In the meantime my father arranged that a publishing house whose literary adviser he was should supply him with work that could be done at any time and be paid for at any moment. The Life of St. Ignatius was commissioned. He delivered every few pages as he finished them—three were passport to a pound—and, so final was his method of composition, he neither desired nor needed to see a single page of the manuscript again. The reviewing my father obtained for him on the Athenæum he did with success till within a month or two of his death. Letters from Mr. Vernon Rendall illustrate the courtesy of his editors:—
"Athenæum Office, December 20, 1905.
"Dear Mr. Thompson,—I am very sorry to hear of your illness, which may have been aggravated I fear by our clerks. I will try to make them send things correctly in future. Do not hurry now about anything you have. You are sure to be in need of rest and recreation—which, indeed, is supposed to be the fair perquisite of all at this season.—Yours very truly,
Vernon Rendall."
And again:—
"Athenæum Office, March 14, 1906.
"Dear Mr. Thompson,—I was very glad to hear of your recovery, and hope you will now enjoy established health. We were clearly as much at fault as you in the delay of the notices you mention. I quite agree with you about Morris. Generally, I try to send you books worth reading, and, tho' we never have too much space to spare, I am sure that you know as well as anybody the value of a book, and I hope you will not restrict your notice of what you think really good.—Yours very truly,
V. Rendall."
And, later, from another office:—
"The Nation, April 9, 1907.
"Dear Mr. Thompson,—Mrs. Meynell will have sent you a letter of mine about the beautiful poem ["The Fair Inconstant">[ which you wrote for us last week, and about the more elaborate work, which, in continuance of old Daily Chronicle days, you might be willing to do for us. I have always retained the utmost admiration for your poetic genius, and regard with much warmth its association with a paper like the Nation.—Yours very truly,
H. W. Massingham."