Ever affectionately yours.
P.S.—Our kindest loves to Mrs. Lemon.
Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.
Tavistock House, Sunday, May 20th, 1855.
My Dear Stanny,
I have a little lark in contemplation, if you will help it to fly.
Collins has done a melodrama (a regular old-style melodrama), in which there is a very good notion. I am going to act it, as an experiment, in the children's theatre here—I, Mark, Collins, Egg, and my daughter Mary, the whole dram. pers.; our families and yours the whole audience; for I want to make the stage large and shouldn't have room for above five-and-twenty spectators. Now there is only one scene in the piece, and that, my tarry lad, is the inside of a lighthouse. Will you come and paint it for us one night, and we'll all turn to and help? It is a mere wall, of course, but Mark and I have sworn that you must do it. If you will say yes, I should like to have the tiny flats made, after you have looked at the place, and not before. On Wednesday in this week I am good for a steak and the play, if you will make your own appointment here; or any day next week except Thursday. Write me a line in reply. We mean to burst on an astonished world with the melodrama, without any note of preparation. So don't say a syllable to Forster if you should happen to see him.
Ever affectionately yours.
Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.
Tavistock House, Tuesday Afternoon, Six o'clock, May 22nd, 1855.