The Grange Northend 2 2 / 74 dear little Murray at last here a letter - the / fog is so thick that no work is / possible & I have had to devise / a piece of work & luckily I thought / of you. I won't be so brutal / as to wish that you were sitting / instead in a London fog to me in / Rome. / The copy of the small Siena / picture you made for Madam Zambaco / was in every way delightful & / satisfactory & it is now in a big / gold frame, so wide that / it is astonishing - she added £5 more which I gave to / Mr. Webb some 2 months back / but we did not then know / your address - I must tell / you that the picture itself / only reached me about the / middle of December so I / lost no time through neglect, but / no one knew your Pisa address / - the other day the magnum / opus came. upon which I / entirely congratulate you - I / never saw such a copy in my / life for fidelity & I think / Ruskin will be very content / - I thought the general / tone of the pics had been / missed because the lights & / darks were strong - but that / is nothing - the perfection of every / face & detail was so / admirable that nothing could / be better - and that is the / important thing - I don't / believe you could have got / the other without injuring / what is much more important / the faces are a miracle of good / work - I want to add personal / thanks too because I felt / a bit responsible to Ruskin (though / I need not have done) and now / I feel as if I had done him / a good turn - I wrote at once to him about it for he / at Oxford - he tells me to / keep it till he comes back / will be in a week or two / I suppose - and I shall / get a frame for it - I feel / quite happy about it; and / as if there was something to look / forward to when you begin the / Botticelli. / We are all well - there is a / chance that I may go to Italy / in the Autumn but it is / no more than a chance - for / the fever Mrs. Zambaco caught / in Italy still clings to her / and I have to spend many / anxious days on her account still. / - I get old with worry my dear / if I drop from my perch some day / I shall look - that is my ghost / will look to you not to let / people say too much evil of / me. / Write to me when you can - letters / from you are very welcome - I / am sorry to send you some / photographs of what I have done / lately when I have had them taken / now good bye - there's a bit of news will interest you. - / Boxall has resigned at the / Nat. Gallery & Burton has / the place - / Ever your affect / E.B.J.