
I have been back home since 21st of July. I had to come back to look after my farm. The heavy rains came near
washing it away. Wife & Julian are still up in the mountains & are well. I & my man live alone in the
old house, I am chief cook & bottle washer I keep well & busy, & am not having a very bad time
after all. In a couple of weeks my grapes will be all off (only 1/2 crop this year) & I shall take another holiday
Hope to see you in Sept, I trust you keep well as usual. I rec'd a letter from you at Hobart which I sent on to
Buck Bucke
, with one from Eldridge,
I read Williams pamphlet on Donnelley's Reviewers with melancholy enjoyment. It is very brilliant & effective, quite equal to
his best work I think. If he had only left out some of his mud-Epithets, and if
he had only not
claimed Montaignes Essays & Burtons Melancholy for Bacon! How such a claim as that does discredit the whole business.
I suppose the evidence that Montaigne wrote his Essays is as good as that Bacon wrote the Essays that bear his name.
Wm was fated to slop over in just this way, & to steel his reader against him. I have as
yet seen no allusion to his book in the literary journals.
I wish you were here to enjoy this view, & this air, & also my grapes & peaches. Drop me a card.
With love John Burroughs