Bakkehussamlingen

21 Upper Bedford Place
London W. C [indsat stempel med Donaldsons mærke] 10 March • 79

My dear Friend
      On looking over your last letter, I see that you ask me for M^c Cracken’s address it is 38 Cannon S^t. Queen S^t I.C. You mention that we may have the pleasure of seeing you in April. When you come, you must drive direct to this house for a few days, so as to enable you to find apartment a M^m. Jerichau // suitable to you, instead of going to an Hotel in the first instance. We have your pictures here all safe; but the agent retains the frames as They are too large for us to stav away. For the present I have temporarily hung up the small picture of Sardes, of y^r. dear son, in the dining Room, & thus it is constantly // under our eyes reminding us of you dear Friend.
      We have had a sad loss lately in the death of a sweet musician cousin Hannah Binfield, which took place after a short illness – and another trial has been, that my dear Daughter in Law the wife of my son James, has been obliged to suffer the amputation of her leg! // necessitated by a disease in her Knee, arising from an accident very many years ago of falling on the step of a marble staircase at Hamburg, and from which she has been a constant sufferer, until to save her precious life it was necessary to take off the limb at the thigh 3 weeks ago! She bore it most heroically under chloroform, & is now thank God most favorably progressing to recovery!
With my sisters’ & my own kindest regards.
Believe me, dear M. Jerichau.
      Y^r. ever faithful Friend
      Tho. L: Donaldson