Præraphaelite diaries and letters

Dante Alighieri · en
I am sorry my letter miscarried, as it prevented your coming
  and meeting Hunt, whom I asked after writing to you. His day of
  departure was then fixed for the next day, and now it is to be
  to-morrow, but one does not know whether it will be so after all.
  Till he is fairly off I will not fix an evening for coming to
  Hampstead, as it might possibly interfere with some opportunity
  of meeting _him_. My water-colour is still, to MacCrac, “vague
  as the watery moon.” I have no news. Lizzy sits by me at work on
  her design, which is now coming really admirable. She has also
  finished the _Lady of Shalott_ sketch, and made quite another
  thing of it. She has followed your suggestion about her portrait,
  and done several things which improve it greatly. Hannay is going
  to start a penny weekly mag., to be called _The Pen_, and wants
  to have my poem about Nineveh for it. I suppose I shall give it
  him. I some time back gave _Sister Helen_ to Mrs. Howitt for some
  English edition of a German something or other, which will be
  coming out now. No more news.

                                                         Good-bye.
                                                       Your D. G. R.


                              LETTER XXV.

                       TO MADOX BROWN, FINCHLEY.

“Emma” was the second Mrs. Madox Brown. The Dr. Wilkinson here
mentioned was Garth Wilkinson, an eminent Homœopathist, Editor of
Blake’s _Songs of Innocence and Experience_, etc.

The picture by Miss Anna Mary Howitt at the Portland Gallery was
_Gretchen at the Fountain_. My brother, in saying that Miss Howitt
had been “kicking up quite a great row” with this picture, only meant
that the work had been much noticed and admired. The statement that
Miller (John Miller of Liverpool) had bought Deverell’s _As You Like
It_ is only one of several references to Walter Howell Deverell, and
his then recent death, occurring in these letters to Madox Brown. The
other references, being more appropriate in another connexion, are
omitted here. The _As You Like It_ was a picture from Shakespeare’s
play--the mock marriage of Orlando and Rosalind.

                                        [Chatham Place, London.
                                                     30 March 1854.]

  My dear Brown,

  What has become of you? You were not well when I last saw you,
  nor I believe was Emma. I have been meditating Finchley for a
  long while, but have never been able to get there. So would you
  write me a word to say that you are both better, and to make,
  if possible, some kind of arrangement for us to meet. Lizzy and
  I would be very glad if you could both fix an evening to come
  here,--_only_ I fear a bed upstairs would not be possible, as
  those rooms are taken.