LETTERHEAD, TOP LEFT OF PAGE RUSSELL HOUSE, BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.

LETTER

Oct. 25/97

My dear Mr Frick: - I have long been sorry that the cause of our correspondence was wiped off the slate and have, I assure you, many times intended to send you a word, just "to show there was no ill feeling" next to keep my word about describing that picture, or rather the origin of it. But for months I have had so little taste for the pen that I find myself now buried with unanswered letters and in that agony which alone a good stenographer and an expert typewriter can quell. Long months ago I began to work on my decoration for the Bank of Pittsburg having been delayed in my turn by the delays of architects of the TWOMBLY ?? house and in this way kept from fulfilling any promise not only for Pittsburg but for several other places of less importance.

Well, when I began to work on the large canvas I was using models and made from them all the studies I required. But as the work progressed I began to have offers of heads & hands &c from my friends. Such tempting offers could not be refused and I threw

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