MY DEAR PAPA,--Many thanks for your letter, which reached me safely a few days ago. I do indeed contemplate building my house so as to be enlarged at a future day. I find, however, that I shall probably be obliged to build at once rather more than I absolutely require for practical building reasons, but I need not therefore furnish more than I require. About the well I am now entirely in the dark. It would never have occurred to me to ask myself the question, Are there not _pipes_ or something? With regard to the Will, if the perusal of it only cost a guinea, it might have been worth while to look at it, though Palmer and Nettleship thought it superfluous; but then P. and N. tell me it would cost £20! to have it gone over, and as my expenses with Browne (Lady H.'s agent) are already very great--he makes a preposterous charge, _which I can't dispute_, for the agreement--I don't think I shall care to add to them. My architect is Aitchison, an old friend. I wrote to the Academicians (Poole, Grant, and Jones) almost immediately on hearing from them, and expressed a hope, vague but polite, that we might meet on my return. _Poole_ I should like to know; he is a man of poetic mind. I need scarcely tell you that the idea of my being elected President (!!!) for many years to come is simply _ludicrous_, even if there is a chance of my ever having the offer of that dignity. I am quite aware that people do talk of it _laughingly_, but I don't think it goes beyond "chaff" yet. No doubt many other young artists are chaffed in the same way with imaginary dignities. I am delighted that Mamma is better; I should have said this before but that I have answered your letter systematically. I trust the improvement will be lasting. I congratulate you on Colenso's visit, and shall be very anxious to hear from you how it went off. As for myself, I am very snugly ensconced in a little mezzanino on the Grand Canal, with a sort of passage which I use as a studio and a bath-room, inasmuch as it opens straight on the water, and enables me to take a very jolly swim every day. I am not attempting a picture, but am making a sketch for one which I shall probably paint on the spot next autumn, staying here a couple of months or so. Meanwhile I have got several heads in hand--_studies_, _not_ for _sale_, for use--and a few sketches in Saint Mark's, which I think promise well. _Et voilà._ I stay here a fortnight longer, so that a letter written on receipt of this would still catch me; after that _Rome_ is the safest address. I shall be there from the 20th to the 28th of October. Best love to Mamma, and believe me, your affectionate son, FRED.