nd uncomfortable for his workmen--devised yesterday
the happy thought of going to their Gaffer and telling him that I had
been sketching down below (true) and was coming up their way, and that
I was sure to expect a glint of fire in the shop, which ought to look
its best. According to N. he took the bait completely, piled a roaring
fire, and as the day wore on kept wandering restlessly out and peering
about for me! When they closed for the night he said it was strange I
hadn't been, but he reckoned I was sure to be there next day, and he
could wish I would "tak him wi' his arm uplifted to strike." (He is a
very powerful smith.) I think I _must_ go if the shop is at all
picturesque....

Nov. 25, 1881.

* * * * *

Be happy in a small round. But, none the less, all the more does it
refresh me to get the wave of all your wider experience to flood my
narrow ones--and to enjoy all the _calm_ bits of your language study
and the like. And oh, I am _very_ glad about the Musical Society!
Though I dare say you'll have some _mauvais quarts d'heure_ with the
strings in damp weather!...

I have really got some pretty sketches done the last few days. Not
_finished_ ones, the weather is not fit for long sitting; but H.H. has
given me some "Cox" paper, a rough kind of stuff something like what
_sugar_ is wrapped up in, and with a very soft black pencil I have
been getting in quick outlines--and then tinting them with thin pure
washes of colour. I have been doing one of the Clog-shop. This quaint
yard has doors--old doors--which long since have been painted a most
charming red. Then the old shop is red-tiled, and an old stone-chimney
from which the pale blue smoke of the wood-fire floats softly off
against the tender tints of the wood, on the edge of which lie fallen
logs with yellow ends, ready for the clog-making, and all the bare
brown trees, and the green and yellow sandstone walls, and Jack the
Daw hopping about. The old man at the clog-yard was very polite to me
to-day. He said, "It's a pratty bit of colour," and "It makes a nicet
sketch now you're getting in the _dit_tails." He went some distance
yesterday to get me some india-rubber, and then wanted me to keep it!
He's a perfect "picter card" himself. I must try and get _his_
portrait.

* * * * *

_Ecclesfield._ Dec. 23, 1881.

... I cannot tell you the pleasure it gives me that you say what you
do of