Gad's Hill, Sunday, 29th October, 1865.
My dear Mrs. Procter,
The beautiful table-cover was a most cheering surprise to me when I came home last night, and I lost not a moment in finding a table for it, where it stands in a beautiful light and a perfect situation. Accept my heartiest thanks for a present on which I shall set a peculiar and particular value.
Enclosed is the MS. of the introduction.[76] The printers have cut it across and mended it again, because I always expect them to be quick, and so they distribute my "copy" among several hands, and apparently not very clean ones in this instance.
Odd as the poor butcher's feeling appears, I think I can understand it. Much as he would not have liked his boy's grave to be without a tombstone, had he died ashore and had a grave, so he can't bear him to drift to the depths of the ocean unrecorded.
My love to Procter.
Ever affectionately yours.
Mr. W. B. Rye.[77]
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent,
Friday, 3rd November, 1865.
Dear Sir,