e much larger than we want, but I look to future value, and
rather than build it smaller, to be enlarged afterwards, I would prefer
to leave the drawing-room and bedroom adjoining with bare walls inside
till they can be properly finished. The house-keeper's room would be a
nice dining-room, and the hall a parlour and drawing-room combined. But
the outside must be finished, on account of the garden, creepers, etc.
The S.E. side (really about S.S.E.) has the fine views. If you can
arrange to come at Christmas we will have a picnic on the ground the
first sunny day. I was all last week surveying--a very difficult job, to
mark out exactly three acres so as to take in exactly as much of each
kind of ground as I wanted, and with no uninterrupted view over any one
of the boundary lines! I found the sextant, and it was very useful
setting out the two right angles of the northern boundary. I have not
got possession yet, but hope to do so by next week. The house, we
reckon, can be built for L1,000 at the outside....

* * * * *

TO MRS. FISHER

_Parkstone, Dorset. February 4, 1902._

Dear Mrs. Fisher,-- ... You will be surprised to hear that I have been
so rash as to buy land and to (propose to) build a house! Every other
effort to get a pleasant country cottage with a little land having
failed, we discovered, accidentally, a charming spot only four miles
from this house and half a mile from Broadstone Station, and have
succeeded in buying three acres, _chosen by myself_, from Lord Wimborne
at what is really a reasonable price. In its contour, views, wood, and
general aspect of wild nature it is almost perfection; and Annie,
Violet, and Will are all pleased and satisfied with it. It is on the
slope of the Broadstone middle plateau, looking south over Poole Harbour
with the Purbeck Hills beyond, and a little eastward out to the sea....
The ground is good loam in the orchard, with some sand and clay in the
field, but this is so open to the sun and air that we are not afraid of
it, as the _house-site_ will be entirely concreted over, and I have
arranged for a heating stove in a cellar, which will warm and dry the
whole basement. In a week or two we hope to begin building, so you may
fancy how busy I am, especially as we are building it without a
contractor, with the help of a friend.... I go over two or three times a
week, as I have two gardeners at work. In the summer (should I be still
in the l