Autograph letter signed : [Orpington], to John Thomas Hobbs, 1890 April 20-August 21.

Reporting on Ruskin's mental health, the struggle to get to him to sign over power of attorney, financial matters, and an exchange with Mrs. Severn; discussing the opening of his London office at 8 Bell Yard, Temple Bar ("I have a highly respectable looking shop fitted up in Mahogany") and the new authors he is publishing; writing of the success of the cheaper edition of "Seven Lamps", as well as the preparation of a complete collection of Ruskin's poems, edited by W.G. Collingwood; discussing the activities of Alexander Wedderburn, including the indexes he is compiling for Ruskin's books, the fact that he has been named as Ruskin's literary executor, and Allen's accidental discovery that Wedderburn had a large cache of letters from Ruskin to his father that he was having copied and bound; writing that he has not had heard directly from Ruskin since the latter sent angry and abusive letters to him in 1889, "it is simply dreadful to me to think of his dying and leaving his last letters addressed to me in such language--one kind line would be enough"; sending news of his wife, children, and other family members; writing of his biking, the differences between Australia and England, and the good prospects for Australian wine, "I don't see why Australia should not grow as good grapes as France."