Ursa Major.—There is no real cure for ringbone. Do not waste your money.
Claude, Emma Vane, N. Parkes, Henry B., Rhoda, Nellie K., and thirty-one others, write to me for—photographs! I am sorry that "for lack of gold" I cannot supply a kindly public with my pictures, and I am not vain enough to state publicly where they may be had.
Nimrod.—Pleader was purchased from me last week by the Earl of Eglinton. It will, therefore, be unnecessary for me to reply to any further inquiries respecting him. I named his price and made no change, nor was I asked to do so.
Cropper.—You were evidently sitting loosely, and thus suffered for your carelessness. You will not be caught napping the next time.
Anxious, Martha, and a host of others have asked me a very familiar question, "How I learned to ride?" I have hitherto avoided answering, rather than introduce a name whose owner did not wish me to do so. But I think I may hope to win his pardon. Most, if not all, my skill in the saddle is mainly due to the kind and untiring patience of my dear old friend and teacher, Mr. Allan McDonogh, who—despite his threescore years and ten—was, up to the time of his lamentable accident, ever ready to act as my pilot and instructor.
Enquirer.—Ride a steady horse, and your nerve will come back again. Mine did, after a much more terrible mischance.
Corsican Brother.—It is not true.
Critic.—You only discovered one mistake, but there are really three in my story, "In Search of a Wonder," which appeared in the Christmas Number of this journal. In place of "hustled me out of a sort of enclosure," read "to a sort of enclosure." Also, "suddenness" requires two n's, and "carrattella" is the correct way to spell a word which signifies a small cart or rough carriage peculiar to the Piedmontese. These are all printer's errors, and should have been corrected by me, but I revised my proof in a crowded coffee-room of a London hotel, with at least a dozen persons talking to me as I did so, and thus, being also pressed for time, a few mistakes escaped my notice.
To you, sir, and to all my friends, best wishes for the New Year, and many grateful thanks for more kindness than I can deem myself worthy of.
Yours obediently,