To Henry Acland, M.D.

Cheltenham, 24th May [1851].

I was very glad to have your letter, for though I believed that you had not written for such reasons as both you and I well know the weight of, such as you give in your letter, I was a little afraid that you had been so much shocked by the pamphlet as to be unable to write at all, except in terms which you would not willingly have used to an old friend. I assure you, I am heartily glad it is no worse.

I was very sorry to miss you the other day in town, but surely you are coming to see our Show?—if not, come and see me. I won't take you to the Ex-position (for so indeed it is, for the most part) unless you like it. For we have at last a bed in Park St. Effie's Father and Mother are to be with us for about ten days from the date hereof, and after that time I believe our Front Dining-room, which we have made a Dormitory, will be vacant. I need not say how happy we shall be to see you and Sarah; whom pray thank for getting through, or over, the Stones.

And then we will talk over practicabilities. I did not mean to suggest anything as at present practicable—surely I said so, somewhere— but as seemingly fit and right; and to direct men's thoughts, as far as I could, to the discovery of the reasons why what is right should be Impracticable.