a "verse commentary". Watt expressed his disagreement with the idea at first, but came round to it when it presented the opportunity in shooting additional footage and using previously shot film that was could not be used to complete the sequence. The sequence includes "at least two shots" that Wright had filmed for a test shoot for a film that was never made. Auden and Watt went through many drafts of the verse to exactly match the rhythm of the travelling train. Auden's poem for the sequence, entitled "Night Mail", was written at the film unit's main office in Soho Square. Watt described his work area as "A bare table at the end of a dark, smelly, noisy corridor", a contrast to the more peaceful surroundings that he was used to working in. He paced it to match the rhythm of the train's wheels "with a stopwatch in order to fit it exactly to the shot". Grierson biographer Forsyth Hardy wrote that Auden wrote the verse on a trial and error basis, and was cut to fit the visuals by editor Richard McNaughton in collaboration with Cavalcanti and Wright. Many lines from the original version were discarded and became "crumpled fragments in the wastepaper basket", including one that described the Cheviot Hills by the English–Scottish border as "uplands heaped like slaughtered horses" that Wright considered too strong for the landscape that was shot for it. Wright's original idea was to start the sequence with shots of a train ascending Beattock Summit accompanied by a voice saying "I think I can, I think I can." The sequence begins slowly before picking up speed, so that by the penultimate verse, assistant and narrator Stuart Legg speaks at a breathless pace, which involved several pauses in recording so he could catch his breath. Before recording his parts, Legg took a deep breath and recited the poem until he could no longer breathe, and ended with a "Huh" sound of taking a breath. The "Huh" sound was located and marked down on the audio tape to show where he was to continue. As the train slows toward its destination, the final verse, which is more sedate, is read by Grierson. Hardy added that what was retained made Night Mail "as much a film about loneliness and companionship as about the collection and delivery of letters", which made the film "a work of art". Around