Autograph letter signed : London, to Mrs. [Samuel Henry] Thompson, 1855 February 28.

Complaining of his poor health over the winter and declining an invitation owing to the necessity of completing "two or three pictures for the Exhibition"; describing the work he has been doing to complete his portrait of her and stating that he should be able to send it to them the following week; marveling at the great number of commissions he has recently received for portraits; lamenting the current political state of the country and England's role in the Crimean War; referring to an outbreak of "scarletina" which evidently affected the Thompson household, noting that it was fortunate that it did not develop into scarlet fever, and mentioning a friend of his who lost five children in ten days to that disease.