_October_ 8_th_, 1891.
MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—All right, you shall have the _Tales of my
Grandfather_ soon, but I guess we’ll try and finish off _The Wrecker_
first. _À propos_ of whom, please send some advanced sheets to
Cassell’s—away ahead of you—so that they may get a dummy out.
Do you wish to illustrate _My Grandfather_? He mentions as excellent a
portrait of Scott by Basil Hall’s brother. I don’t think I ever saw this
engraved; would it not, if you could get track of it, prove a taking
embellishment? I suggest this for your consideration and inquiry. A new
portrait of Scott strikes me as good. There is a hard, tough,
constipated old portrait of my grandfather hanging in my aunt’s house,
Mrs. Alan Stevenson, 16 St. Leonard’s Terrace, Chelsea, which has never
been engraved—the better portrait, Joseph’s bust has been reproduced, I
believe, twice—and which, I am sure, my aunt would let you have a copy
of. The plate could be of use for the book when we get so far, and thus
to place it in the _Magazine_ might be an actual saving.
I am swallowed up in politics for the first, I hope for the last, time in
my sublunary career. It is a painful, thankless trade; but one thing
that came up I could not pass in silence. Much drafting, addressing,
deputationising has eaten up all my time, and again (to my contrition) I
leave you Wreckerless. As soon as the mail leaves I tackle it
straight.—Yours very sincerely,