Autograph letter signed : Florence, to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, [1860] June 16.

Writing that a representative from her publisher, Chapman, is in Florence, looking after the affairs of another author on the list, Charles Lever, and she is sending this letter back to England with him; mentioning that she has heard from Arabella that "the 'Dogs' of Law have been too much for your health lately & that you have given them all up & gone into seclusion"; writing that she hopes he finds himself a situation offering him "both comparative repose & moderate occupation", and inviting him in the meantime to come visit them in Italy: "...only perhaps during these troubled times it may seem a selfish entreaty--Like inviting a friend to take a cool place on the volcano beside one!"; telling him that it seems likely that there will be war, but that they are hopeful for the future and are currently "living & dreaming Garibaldi"; mentioning that "Chapman junior" says that she has not hurt her reputation with the book Poems Before Congress and that it is going into a second edition; enclosing a photograph of Pen and another of herself (these items are no longer with the letter); writing that she has been reading works by Trollope and Eliot: "Read Mill on the Floss. Its better I think than Adam Bede. Read Anthony Trollope's books. They are admirable. I hear of the spirits in London doing wonders--Shall I complete my popularity by writing a work on them?"