_Sir Arthur St. Ives to Abimelech Henley_

_London, Grosvenor Street_

I have received your letter, good Abimelech, and own your reasoning has
its force. Much is yet to be done to Wenbourne-Hill. Year after year I
have said--'This shall be the last: we will now bring affairs to a
finish.' But improvement is my delight; walking, talking, sitting,
standing, or lying, waking or sleeping, I can think of nothing else. We
live you know, honest Aby, only to amend: so that, instead of
concluding, I find more things to do at present than ever.

I have the wilderness very much at heart: but the soil is excellent,
and I scarcely know, Aby, how we shall make the land sufficiently
barren. Yet it would have a fine effect! Yes, that it certainly would,
and we will try our utmost. The hermitage too at the far end! The
moss-grown cell, Aby! With a few scattered eglantines and wild roots!
We will plant ivy round the three old oaks, and bring a colony of owls
to breed! Then at the bottom of all a grotto: Oh! it will be delicious!

Shells will be expensive, for we are not within forty miles of the sea.
But no matter: it must and it shall be done, for I have set my heart on
it. Nay, from what you said to me, honest Aby, knowing you to be a
careful thrifty fellow, full of foresight, I was so warm in the cause
that I had determined to take your advice, and renounce or defer the
journey to France; but the blabbing servants got a hint of the matter,
and it came to my daughter's ears. So, for peace and quietness sake, I
think I must e'en indulge her, and take her a short trip to the
continent. But we will go no further than the neighbourhood of Paris.
Beside I wish, for my own part, to see how the country is laid out. I