Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Hammerton') to 'My Dear Shorter' [Clement King Shorter (1857-1926)].

12mo, 2 pp, and 8vo, 1 p. A little grubby and creased, but with text clear and entire. He is sorry that Shorter was not able to visit the Chateaux of the Loire, but hopes that 'the sea air of Dieppe' has done him good. The year before Shorter's death, Hammerton writes: 'But you must really cease this brink-of-the-grave touch! Ten years hence, from an inglenook at Knockmoroon [where Shorter would die], you will wonder why you were anticipating the "closing down" of C.K.S. when everything was still "calling".' Discusses an 82-year-old friend for whom, 25 years before, 'all his thoughts & his physical equipment seemed "graveward hurrying". He is now quite lively: "the will to live" was the reason he gave me for his happy continuance after a long period of ill-health. Don't give in (even by contemplation) to the feeling that teh sands are running low in Old Time's glass.' Quotes eight lines from a poem by Thomas Hardy, 'written before 1898': 'Think of it, nigh on thirty years ago & he is still to the fore with another life-time of achievement to his credit.' He is 'going to print this out in a book' he is 'writing in a hurry'. He will be golfing with 'Sutton at Margate' the following week, so cannot meet Shorter.