My dear Katie / I want to know if / the Donkey is quite well: / because he is a relation / of mine - a sort of half / brother but by different / parents and as I / was the humble means of / introducing him at Portland / place I should like to / know about him, and whether / Parkes and he get on - / or if Parkes only gets on / I want to be at / Walton / it is much prettier than / London - the roses are bigger / and the river is cleaner - / and you have Madamosels / that we haven't - and many / advantages, such as Parkes / - and a Mama not to be / compared with the trifling mamas we have - / bur you haven't a rocking horse I know - / one must come to London / for that. / Dear Katie - I have / given up drawing - I cannot / learn - it is much too / hard and my Madamosel / has gone away leaving / me this to copy / I am certain I shall never / copy it if I live 1000 years / and she is to come back in / seven years to see what I have done. / Give my love to Parkes / and Gertie and your mama / and papa and Georgie and / Theresa and Alice if she has to come back and the donkey / and the waggonette and everybody / and everything and / I am / Your affectionate / mr. beak
General note re the album: almost all letters signed variously "Mr. beak", "Beak", "B", or with a sketch of a bird or bird's head with a large beak, or with the artist's initials or name; one drawing signed inscribed (88); a few drawings inscribed, including two of the Rubens parodies: "P.P. Rubens pinxit" (49), and "Peter Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Bartolozzi sculpsit" (51); a few drawings numbered (60, 62 to 65) This first letter in the album is inscribed: "Dear Mrs. Lewis/ I must tell you before I forget a/ precious story of Morris -/ it happened yesterday morning - as he came/here: in pelting rain - he stopped at some/little spikes at Ottos house to tie his boot/string, planting his foot firmly on the spike/ & so far all was well - But essaying/ [verso] to remove his foot, lo! the spike/had caught him, even as he had/ many a time caught gudgeon & the/like/ and the next minute he landed/ (softly I am glad to say) on his/ back - still hooked fast, and to/the shrieking delight of two muffin/ boys - who looked on in a way you/may imagine. - Oh dear I've put/the wrong foot up which is a /judgement on me - but I must stick/ to it now./ then having his powerful mind/free, he thought, and remembering/ the way you disengage a cat/whose claws are fixed in you/ [rectoo] by pushing & not pulling, he/ liberated himself & proceeded / sadly to the Grange - but/ Busch should do it - Busch/ should have seen it - don't/ tell though - for I like my/ Morris a little statuesque - / [?] I must tell you - [?] I. Goodbye. people are/ come & I must end,/ Always Yours EBJ/ now find this a proof then/ I'm better? indeed the last two days home done/more than the three weeks/ before:" Inscription content: General note re the album: almost all letters signed variously "Mr. beak", "Beak", "B", or with a sketch of a bird or bird's head with a large beak, or with the artist's initials or name; one drawing signed inscribed (88); a few drawings inscribed, including two of the Rubens parodies: "P.P. Rubens pinxit" (49), and "Peter Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Bartolozzi sculpsit" (51); a few drawings numbered (60, 62 to 65) This first letter in the album is inscribed: "Dear Mrs. Lewis/ I must tell you before I forget a/ precious story of Morris -/ it happened yesterday morning - as he came/here: in pelting rain - he stopped at some/little spikes at Ottos house to tie his boot/string, planting his foot firmly on the spike/ & so far all was well - But essaying/ [verso] to remove his foot, lo! the spike/had caught him, even as he had/ many a time caught gudgeon & the/like/ and the next minute he landed/ (softly I am glad to say) on his/ back - still hooked fast, and to/the shrieking delight of two muffin/ boys - who looked on in a way you/may imagine. - Oh dear I've put/the wrong foot up which is a /judgement on me - but I must stick/ to it now./ then having his powerful mind/free, he thought, and remembering/ the way you disengage a cat/whose claws are fixed in you/ [rectoo] by pushing & not pulling, he/ liberated himself & proceeded / sadly to the Grange - but/ Busch should do it - Busch/ should have seen it - don't/ tell though - for I like my/ Morris a little statuesque - / [?] I must tell you - [?] I. Goodbye. people are/ come & I must end,/ Always Yours EBJ/ now find this a proof then/ I'm better? indeed the last two days home done/more than the three weeks/ before:" Literature: First published as a book 'Letters to Katie' by W. Graham Robertson in 1925; an abridged facsimile edition, 'Letters to Katie from Edward Burne-Jones', was published in 1988, with an introduction by John Christian who records that some of the drawings (such as the 'fat ladies' and the Rubens parodies) were probably made for George and Elizabeth Lewis rather than for Katie. See also The Arts Council of Great Britain exhibition catalogue, 'Burne-Jones The paintings, graphic and decorative work of Edward Burne-Jones 1833-98', 1975, p.96, no.356. See also the Christie's sale catalogue for 24.11.1998 (no.169) for a description of a similar album of 80 drawings by Burne-Jones including caricatures and humorous drawings and Peter Nahum, 'Pre-Raphaeite, Symbolist, Visionary' at Leicester Galleries, London, 2001, no. 17 (with illustrations), for 'Margaret's Book', 36 pp, made by EBJ for his daughter Margaret and illustrated for his grand-daughter Angela. This album is most recently discussed by John Christian, 'Edward Burne-Jones: the Hidden Humorist', London, 2011, pp. 42-4, figs. 2.12 (Morris falling over)