My dear Fanny;

　　If it were but six o’clock in the morning I would set off to see you today: if I should do so now I could not stop long enough for a how d’ye do—it is so long s walk through Hornsey and Tottenham.

　　Mr. and Mrs. Dilke are coming to dine with us today—they will enjoy the country after Westminster—O there is nothing like fine weather, and health, and books and a fine country, and a contented mind, and Diligent-habit of reading and thinking, and an amulet against the ennui—and, please heaven, a little claret-wine cool out of a cellar a mile deep—with a few or a good many ratafia cakes—a rocky basin to bathe in, a strawberry bed to say your prayers to Flora in.