The Camp, Sunningdale. Oct: 30/[18]90.
My dear young Lion, I am wearying to hear from you. It seems so long since we parted. I was very glad to hear that you nearly got an A-which is I think doing very well indeed. I was so often disappointed at School & College at not getting so high a place as I hoped & tried for, that I can well sympathise with others in this respect. Such disappointments teach us patience & resignation, & should brace us up to never to fall behind the position we have attained, and if with all our industry we do not rise higher, we may be well content with having done our best. After all though school is the foundation of success in after life, great success in A is by no means a guarantee of mature ability. Many a man who only did fairly at school, did brilliantly in after life in subjects which were not taught in school, but for which school teaching prepared him, We are all well here, Gracie goes on with her practising the piano & making drawings for me. She has begun to draw & study Fungi Mama takes her once a week to Lectures at the Holloway College on Greek Art, & on another day to London to get instruction in the way to treat sickness & injuries-to be an intelligent nurse in short. For this she has to learn a good deal of the structure of the human body, & happily I had read with her Huxley's Elements of Physiology so she is prepared beforehand with much that she would otherwise have to learn.

Evans has been re-doing Mama's little garden, & putting a tile edging like that of the kitchen garden round the beds, for the weeds got so into the Thrift; that it had to be taken up & thrown away. Also I am making up the path that goes down towards the garden gate, to the left after you pass the rain guage-& have found a fine lot of peat down at the bottom beyond where your ship is. The horse & Granny's pony are quite well. The Landau is sold, it was far too heavy for one horse (except a very strong one) & I have bought a very nice Brougham instead. Beau is well a; sands his bow-wows he is very clean & nice. Mrs De Lane has left her house you know I suppose that General De Lane is dead. Mrs Alexander has bought the house & will live there. Mrs Nobbs has sent us a fine bag of filberts, some shall be saved for you. Reggie is helping Mr: La Touche with his pupils. Miss Bird & a friend are at the cottage next Miss Brown's. With love from us all & to Hugh Ever my Dear Joe your most affectionate father Old Lion.