"I am just now obliged to decline invitations to go and be merry with friends at a distance, because I am now living in this quiet, out-of-the-way village in order to make some studies of animals—to wit, horses, dogs, and other human beings—which I wish to use for the works that I shall be busy with during the coming winter.
"I have a mare—dark chestnut—who goes very well in harness, and is very pleasant to ride; and a little puppy—a comical young dachshund. My man calls the mare 'Peri,' so I call the puppy Lalla Rookh."
In a letter to his friend Mr. Locker-Lampson, written about this time, in 1880, he expresses surprise at not hearing from America respecting certain drawings by Miss Kate Greenaway and himself, which had been sent across the Atlantic to be engraved on wood. "I wonder why?" he says—[The [rest] is reproduced opposite].
Caldecott was soon found out in his country home, his wide reputation as an illustrator bringing him ever-increasing work, some "not very profitable."
At this time he was taxing his energies to the utmost, working a long morning always indoors, and afterwards making studies in the garden or in the country; the evening occupied by reading and correspondence.