Kent.
November 14th.
The Manager of Cheviot’s,
68, Old Bond Street, W.
Sir,
Upon returning from abroad yesterday after an absence of some months I was dumbfounded to find that the character of the great hall of this residence had been deliberately and ruthlessly destroyed.
I am informed that it was upon your advice that this destruction was carried out. I am informed that you recommended that the superb panelling should be torn down, the Grinling Gibbons mantelpiece replaced by a steel platform, which is, of course, already covered with rust, and the heavily timbered ceiling overlaid with plaster and then so treated as to resemble inferior linoleum. I am further informed that when this and other devilry had been executed, you had the audacity to express yourself satisfied with the result, the impudence to stencil the ceiling with the badge of your firm and the face to accept a cheque for three hundred guineas by way of payment for the abominable outrage which you have committed upon this and two other chambers, the present condition of which I prefer not to describe.
This morning I consulted my solicitors only to learn that, since you were requested to advise and then unaccountably requested to approve your vile handiwork by Mrs. Blatchbourne, your villainous conduct is within the Law, but I find some slight measure of relief in warning you that I shall do my utmost by word and deed to expose what is nothing less than a gang of dangerous charlatans who are inducing a lot of idiots to pay unheard-of prices to have their apartments desecrated and their sense of decency demoralized.
I am, Sir,
Yours, etc.