"I repair the omission now," or, a pleasant coincidence

{Photo of Thomas Hardy's boyhood home by rocketlass.}

I learned today from Paul Collins's blog, Weekend Stubble, that the Times of London has begun a new blog that draws from their archives--and, in a coincidence that allows for a pleasant follow-up to yesterday's post about Thomas Hardy and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), one of their first posts features a letter of thanks that Hardy sent the paper following a strongly positive review of Tess:

Max Gate
Dorchester
13.1.92

My dear Sir,

I cannot let your notice of my novel in to-day’s Times pass by without sending you a line to express my thanks and also my sense of the generous insight which recognizes the spirit and aim of a writer when his achievement is only too faulty.

Yours very faithfully
Thomas Hardy

It's well worth clicking through to the post itself, for it also features a second letter, this one thanking the Times for a review of Life's Little Ironies (1894), as well as images of the letters themselves, now held in the paper's archive.

Yet another blog to add to my Google reader . . .