Præraphaelite diaries and letters

Dante Alighieri · en
I shall have done my fresco to-morrow: I shall then have more
  than a fortnight to finish my cartoon and sketch. I can’t say how
  it looks till dry, but I think it is better than last year. If
  it does not dry well, I shall retouch it a great deal. I lay the
  plaster myself over-night, and work all next day from five in the
  morning till dark, I shall have done it all in fourteen days. I
  have hired an alarum that always wakes me at half-past four. I go
  to bed at eleven....

  God bless you over and over again. How cruel of you never to say
  a word about your health!

                                    Your ever affectionate husband,
                                                      FORD M. BROWN.


                               LETTER V.

The picture mentioned is, I infer, the _Parisina_. The date of the
letter is but obscurely indicated. “Our child,” named at the close of
the letter, was Lucy Brown, born in 1843, who became my wife in 1874.

                                            35 Arlington Street,
                                                    Camden Town.
                                                      ? 18 May 1845.

  My dearest Lizz,

  I promised you yesterday to finish my letter by this post, as I
  had so little time to write you a decent letter yesterday--what
  with Mrs. Lucy’s making me eat of the inside of a sheep, and Mr.
  Howard’s infernal tongue, which went at such a rate that I was
  obliged to leave him and his studio in which we were working (as
  the stove is being mended in ours) and go in the middle of his
  argument into our cold room to be able to finish the letter at
  all; and then I had to run a good way after the bellman, who had
  just left the office. Tell me next letter if you have to pay for
  it--I mean yesterday’s letter. My own dear Lizzy, I am now in
  peace and quiet by mine own fireside, and have time to say all I
  wish to you, my dear wife. I must, as you wish, give you all the
  news, such as it is: but first and foremost make yourself happy
  and quiet. As for myself--but for you, I never was in better
  spirits, particularly since I have seen Mr. Solly, and, but for
  the wish to see you, I should be quite happy.

  Our prospects seem brighter to me than ever. It may be a kind of
  excitement, but I feel sure that in a few years I shall be known,
  and begin to be valued, and in the meantime I shall be increasing
  reputation daily. The artists seem to be pleased with the picture
  now exhibited, as I hear from divers models; and this (as it was
  never painted to suit public taste) is as much as I can wish:
  all the artists seem to notice it. Don’t mention much about my
  artistic affairs to Miss A--, as she is such a friend of the
  Claxtons,[4] who seem queer people....