Letter from Emelia Gurney, Aylestone Hill, to Mrs John W. Field, 1886 July 2 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking her for her letter and commenting on Mrs. Field's care of her husband; saying "...as you wind onwards & upwards, notwithstanding increased steepness of path - & stoniness too - but you are able to hear the birds sing & to gather the flowers along your way - & more than this to reach out to others to receive their love messages & to fill your hand & to give out to them more than they know how to gather for you...I hope soon to receive a photo of the Ashfield Home & to hear of all the mistakes there are sure to be in it as well as the triumphs. What a masterful woman you are to be able to carry on such a work from a distance! Do not I see our dear friend John Field with his Carnations in his buttonhole & his admiring friends clustering round - & his dear Earthy & heavenly Providence hovering ever near - Only think how forgetful & ignorant I am - I do not know where Ashfield is - What is its nearest town - it can hardly be Albany?;" adding news of her cousin's child; saying "During the last week we have been very anxious about a tiny beautiful precious little only boy, of 2 & a half - born to his parents after 17 years of married life - unspeakably longed for & welcomed - the Father is my cousin, a Dr. (of Science) Venn of Cambridge now staying here with his wife & this little treasure - it has been piteous to see them during the last few days while the child had gastritis - but today the little fellow trots about with his toys, hungry & picking up little crumbs of his rusk & crying for more - they only dare feed him every 3 hours - & the delay they enforce is torture to their poor hearts - So Life begins to deny & to teach early even thro' the very tenderest channels of Love - Yes surely Love must deny as well as grant - & be stern as well as compliant - Happy are we when we can see the yes & the No in unity & Peace which passeth understanding & harmony - both Love - Dearest ones - in haste."