Believe me,
Your affectionate brother,
Angus M'Donald.
From a Gentleman in India to a Relation in England.
Camp, Booltan, Feb. 1st, 187—
My dear ——,
Many thanks for your last letter, which arrived some three weeks ago. We never received the letter to which you allude, containing the photographs; and I am very sorry it went astray, for we should have liked so much to have them. I hope, if you have other copies, that you will kindly send them to us when you next write.
We both desire to thank you for your kind and cordial reception of dear Richard. He wrote and told us how warmly you received him, and how pleased and gratified he was to see you. I trust he will come to see you again on his return from Devon, where he was when we last heard from him. We miss him terribly, and look forward anxiously to meeting him out here again next year, if, please God, we are all spared. James, his wife, and children are living down at Cheltenham. I wonder if there is any chance of your meeting? Sarah Maria is in Cornwall, but they took a house for a term of years near Watford, and will be back there, certainly before Christmas; she had no idea you were in London, and I must tell her of it when I next write to her. We are now in camp, marching about the district; of course I do my office as usual in tents every day—a happy, gipsy kind of life—and dearest Sophie and the little ones always enjoy it. Give my kindest love to Emma and Blanche. I have been intending to write to Emma, and I will really write soon; but in the hot weather one feels terribly indisposed for letter-writing, and I have quite quill-work enough to do every day. Our kindest love to yourself and Horace, and to Jane and Sophia; and many kisses from our little darling.
Always your very affectionate cousin,