Kitty Bawn is perfect of its
kind--and No. 1 and No. 2.

It is a most graceful collection. Will it be published soon? My
husband says this copy is only a proof.

I am unjustifiably curious to know if Mr. Graves has given much labour
and polishing to these fresh impetuous things. It is against all my
experiences if he has _not_!--but then it would be an addition to my
experiences to find they were "tossed off"!

They have been a pleasant interlude amid the sordid cares of driving
the workmen along! I am getting terribly tired of it!

Yours very sincerely,
JULIANA HORATIA EWING.

TO MRS. GOING.

_Villa Ponente, Taunton._ July 11, 1883.

DEAR MADAM,

Your letter was forwarded to me last month, when I was (and to some
extent am still) very very busy in the details of setting up a new
home--of the temporary nature of military homes!--as Major Ewing has
been posted to Taunton.

As yet there are many things on which I cannot "lay my hand," and a
copy of the Tug of War Hymn is among them!

When I can find it--I will lend it to you. Should I omit to do
so--please be good enough to jog my memory!

It is a rather "ranting" tune-but has tender associations for my
ears.

The soldiers of the Iron Church, South Camp, Aldershot, used to "bolt"
with it in the manner described, and some dear little sons of an R.E.
officer always called it the "Tug of War Hymn."

With many thanks for your kind sayings, I am, dear Madam,

Yours very truly,
JULIANA HORATIA EWING.

TO THE REV. J. GOING.

October 11, 1883.

DEAR MR. GOING,

I append a rough plan of my small garden. We do not stand dead E. and
W., but perhaps a little more so than the arrows show. We are very
high and the winds are often high too! The walls are brick--and that
south bed is very warm. I mean to put bush roses down what is marked
the Potato Patch--it is the original soil with one year's potato crop
where I am mixing vegetables and flowers. The borders are given up to
flowers--mixed herbaceous ones. And on my south wall I have already
planted a Wistaria, a blue Passion-flower--and a Rose of Sharon! I am
keeping a warm corner for "Fortune's Yellow"--and now looking forward
with more delight and gratitude than I can express to "Cloth of Gold"!

I have sent to order the "well-rotted"--and the Gardener for Saturday
morning!

Now will you present my grateful acknowledgments to Mrs. Going, and
say that with some decent qualms at my own greediness--