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  Dear Whitman,

I received your note of 30 Novr, & have been intending to write for some little while past.

You & I have both suffered a loss in the death of that admirable woman Mrs Gilchrist—a strong warm nature, full of strong sympathetic sense & frank cordiality. I look round the circle of my acquaintance for her equal. Much might be said on such a topic: but often a little is as good as much.

The subscription has continued   going on, in much the same course as previously, as you will see from the enclosed list. In the Athenaeum (& I believe Academy) of 2 Jany a paragraph was put in, to serve as a reminder to any well-wishers: perhaps it may be expected that a few will respond, & that we may then regard our little movement as wound up. I shall always esteem it a privilege to have borne my small share in testifying the respect & gratitude to you wh.​ are due to you (I might say) from all open-minded men & women in the world—& from the shut-minded too, for the matter of that.

My wife & children are   away at Ventnor (Isle of Wight), as the London winter threatened to be too much for my wife's delicate chest. I expect to join them within the next few days, staying away some 3 weeks or so. As I may be a little hurried the last remaining days, it is possible that I may not just now pay in the £33.16.6. shown in the enclosed list—assuming as I do that this point wd​ not be regarded as material. However, the utmost likely delay wd​ not be long.

Yours always truly, W. M. Rossetti

I have seen 3 or 4 times Mr. Chas​ Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa: he told   us of his interview with you shortly before he crossed the Atlantic. We liked him, & wd​ gladly have seen more of him: but this apparently will not be, for he must now be just about to sail back from Liverpool to New York.

  first instalment from W M Rossetti free will offering see notes Sept 7 & 9–1888