My dear Sir/

I thank you for the promptitude with which you have complied with my request as well as for the trouble you have taken in correcting the proof slips.² Pardon me if I venture to differ from you in considering your brief notes uninteresting though I could have wished them to be a little longer. The fact of having mentioned to you something entirely new in the region of natural history is no small triumph and your expressions of interest in M^r. Boners books and travels and observations must be gratifying.³

I have given many instances of a similar kind to shew the variety of his studies and researches and his intense interest in all earnest inquiries in science and natural history. I think if you do me the honour to read my book you will find that the career of the good and clever man who honoured me with his friendship was in all its varied detail well worth describing.

Within the last fortnight M^e. Horschelt, M^r. Boner’s daughter, has lost her talented husband the companion of her dear father in his sports & travels & the illustrator of his works—Professor Theodore Horschelt, the distinguished historical Painter whose Circassian battle scenes were so much admired at the Paris Exhibition,—where they won him the gold medal.⁴ M^e. Horschelt is left with two tiny children, in very delicate health and still mourning deeply for her father as well as for her beloved husband.⁵

For her sake I ask you to take an interest in the book I am editing for her & to look leniently on its deficiencies—

Again thanking you for your courteous assistance, | Believe me to remain, | gratefully & sincerely yours, | Rosa Mackenzie Kettle

Heathside near Poole

Tuesday, April the 11^th.