[Undated Letter of Francis William Newman to Mrs. Kingsley.*]

Bournemouth

    My dear Friend,

        Your letter of July 12th from Margate has reached me here, to which place I came because my wife five years ago gained such health here, and all the year and past autumn she has never felt sure of health at home. I cannot think she manages herself rightly, yet she believes, with no small reason, that I am not a safe traveller without her; yet of the two I seem the stronger. She is better here, perhaps, because she is more in the outer air. I must add, I too have recovered from my fall, and am fairly well, though I do not pretnd to be strong, yet (as the French would say), Que voulez vous? when I am past 88. . . . I am glad to learn about your children. I have good hope concerning the coming future, though the foes of progress call us faddists because we think national morality paramount to vicious routine. May but the Good prevail!

        . . . I now argue for Fish-food as not to be forbidden or frowned on, but do not lessen my esteem of our Manchester V. E. M. Society, nor lessen my contribution to it, though they can only receive me as an outsider.

        I turn a vegetarian argument against them on the Fish question, but I have no time now for it.

        I am bringing out another volume on Paul of Tarsus, which, when complete, I hope to send you.

With warm wishes, I am yours,        
Francis Wm. Newman    

        My wife desires her kind thought to be named.

    *Sieveking, inexplicably, places this undated letter between 11-91 and 11-92; however, the internal evidences—that (1) Newman says that he is "past 88" and (2) working on "another volume on Paul"—clearly date it after 27 June 1893, while the forwarding of Mrs. Kingsley's "letter of July 12th" suggests the more specific dating of late July. In a letter of 9 June 1893, Newman wrote to Robert Braithwaite, "I have twice corrected the proofs of 'Paul': I hope it will not exceed 50 or 60 pages at most. Short enough for the busy public. But my wife now wishes not to delay our outing. I would rather not be encumbered by proof sheets. Yet I expect we go next Monday or Tuesday" (Letters of Francis William Newman, Chiefly on Religion: The Braithwaite Correspondence, 1868-1897, pp. 239-40).—T. E. Jones.