T. E. Lawrence to Sir Philip Sassoon

Mount Batten
Plymouth

21.3.33.

Dear Sir Philip

Plymouth is 200 miles too far away - otherwise I would have seen you somehow and talked over my affairs, which puzzle me. Do you get into places, sometimes, and doubt what road out to choose? I've been like that since October last, and finally decided to cut the knot. There's an instinct to hide at the far end of the burrow, when one is sick or troubled, and I have been both, this winter.

Last Saturday I saw Sir Geoffrey Salmond and told him how I stood. He becomes C.A.S. just before I am due to go, and perhaps I ought not to have bothered him - but it is done, anyway.

Hendon wouldn't have done [3 lines omitted]

I wish I could have seen you, before I went; but Sunday seems to pass so quickly in winter. My bike eats the miles, but in darkness it has to slow up. However, soon I will have all leisure: and then I should manage Lympne again in summer. Lympne, I feel, is probably your masterpiece.

Yours ever

T.E. Shaw