Alfred Russel Wallace 



the house is a muddle of muck and mire, and still there is so 

 much to do that we look forward to some far distant futurity, 

 when all that we are now suffering will be over, and we may 

 look back upon it as upon some strange yet not altogether 

 uninteresting nightmare! 



Briefly to report progress. The new pipe-man has finished 

 the bathroom and nearly done the bells, and we have had gas 

 alight the last three days. The balcony is finished, the bath 

 and lavatory are closed up and waiting for the varnishers. 

 Charles has finished the roof, and the scaffolding is removed. 

 But though two plumbers have tried all their skill, the ball- 

 cock in the cistern won't work, and when the water has been 

 turned on an hour it overflows. The gutters and pipes to roof 

 are not up, and the night before last a heavy flood of rain 

 washed a quantity of muddy water into the back entrance, 

 which flowed right across the kitchen into the back passage 

 and larder, leaving a deposit of alluvial mud that would have 

 charmed a geologist. However, we have stopped that for the 

 future by a drain under the doorstep. The new breakfast - 

 room is being papered and will look tidy soon. A man has 

 been to measure for the stairs. The front porch door is 

 promised for to-morrow, and the stairs, I suppose, in another 

 week. A lot of fresh pointing is to be done, and all the rain- 

 water pipes and the rain-water cistern with its overflow pipes, 

 and then the greenhouse, and then all the outside painting — 

 after which we shall rest for a month and then do the inside 

 papering ; but whether that can be done before Easter seems 

 very doubtful. . . . 



Our alterations still go on. The stairs just up — Friday 

 night we had to go outside to get to bed, and Saturday and 

 Sunday we could get up, but over a chasm, and with alarm- 

 ing creaks. Now it is all firm, but no handrail yet. Painters 

 still at work, and whitewashers. Porch door up, with two 

 birds in stained glass — looks fine — ^proposed new name, 



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