Letter from Anna Mary Howitt, London, to Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, 1863 November 23 : autograph manuscript signed.

Sharing that she has heard from Bessie, who sent a few lines describing Barbara as hard at work in her African home, and Nanny as safe in Rome; hoping to write her a chatty letter about small manners in the future, because now she is sharing a great occurrence; relaying that Alfred sent her a letter to say that Charlton (Howitt) died, and when she received the letter and saw the Australian postmark, she felt the letter was an ill-omen; describing how Charlton drowned with two of his men in crossing a lake; sharing how her father came across the news in the New Zealand newspaper; expressing sympathy for Charlton's mother Meg; sharing that she and Alfred have gathered at West Hill Lodge so they can be with the family in their solitude and distress; enclosing a letter received by her father from one of the men who recommended that Charlton was sent out on this fatal expedition; describing the countenance of the survivor, Hammett; describing how Hammett found Charlton's letters from home and other belongings washed up on shore; sharing how in some ways she expected this fate for her "dear wanderers"; describing how Charlton's last letter was long and received eleven days before his death; relaying that this letter reveals how intensely Charlton loved life, though it was full of danger; writing that "God has completed His poem of our poor darling's earthly life by a strangely tragic, but nevertheless strangely beautiful and appropriate ending". Postscript at top of first page describing how her father thinks that the boat must have met with a sunken tree in the lake, causing the fatal accident.