Autograph letter signed : London, to William Allingham, 1855 Jan. 23.

Reporting that he has finished the woodblock (of the illustration for Allingham's poem "The Maids of Elfen Mere") and discussing the publication of Allingham's poems. Mentioning that Moxon asked him to contribute designs (with Millais, Hunt, Landseer, Stanfield, Maclise, Creswick, Mulready and Horsley) for the new edition of Tennyson, and noting that he finds drawing on wood to be "particularly trying to the eyes." Mentioning that he began his class at the Working Men's College the previous evening, noting that it is "quite a separate thing from Ruskin's who teaches foliage." Mentioning that Miss Howitt and Barbara Smith are both ill and alluding to Miss Siddal's health, remarking that she "bears the cold weather ... and of course progresses always as an artist." Mentioning Woolner, Millais, Hunt, Ruskin, and other mutual acquaintances. Remarking on his translation of Italian poetry and copying out his sonnet "A Dark Day" (first line: "The gloom which breathes upon me with these airs")