Dec: 26 '71 My dear Murray. I got your note last / night forwarded by your sister, just in time / for this letter which I had fixed to write / this morning - I wish I could write often / and cheer you by news, & I will try, but / you know how hard I find it - not to find / the time of which there is plenty, but / disposition which is everything in a letter / - Stanhope told me about you, & I am / afraid from his account you have had / rather a bad time of it - I don't see / how it could be helped - you will have / to look upon Pisa as a kind of distant / Hastings where you have gone to winter / with Campo Sante thrown in - but I do / wish your first sight of Italy could have / been happier. I was very glad of Stanhope / he came back roaring with laughter and / has done nothing else ever since, & i have found it a little contagious - / Else I have been very dull - the days / dark & thick, and little work done / and a friend ill enough to frighten me / dreadfully for about a week - / yesterday we got over that ordeal / Xmas day. to the entire satisfaction / of the babes for whom alone the day / exists - the photographs came safely / & delighted me. I want you to / answer this by return if you can - / a man has offered to buy the four / figures of Fortune Fame etc that / belongs to you - & if when he has / one work he will want more because / he will grow desperate in his folly / don't you think I had better let him / have them - I am quite hard up / and it might many a day before / you can pay for them - privately / speaking they are my four favourites / and it pleased me for a friend / to have them, but I have nothing / else so nearly finished by many / days or weeks of work, and am / quite empty in pockets now - I suppose it won't be the last / picture of mine you will like & / may be you can better afford it / yourself another year - I / don't like this proposal much / but all my affairs are in their / accustomed muddle. if I sell / them I shall put on another / £50- will you write and say / quickly, for I have said I / can do nothing till I hear / from you. / Keep up your heart - easy words / to say, but I am afraid you / are very lonely, unless you can / make friends more easily than / I do / as for here there is no change - the children still / cough. - today they are naturally cross and sick - / the sky is ceaselessly horrible & dark - the painting / hours are seldom more than 2 often- one - / Everyouraffect / E.B-J.