Letter from Anna Mary Howitt, Derbyshire, to Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, 1859 July 25 : autograph manuscript signed.

Describes feeling grateful for Barbara's note and expresses her astonishment at Barbara's questioning of her own success as an artist; reassuring her that "I never myself for one moment questioned, or could question the marks and signs of truest genius, -- not merely talent -- in your dear sketches"; discussing her wishes to see Barbara before she leaves for Algiers; describing how her mother had an attack of erysipelas in one ear, a result of over-walking in the heat; remarking that her mother's health has not improved, and she has been advised by her physician to go to a Hydropathic establishment, which she is enjoying very much; describing how she is currently located at a little cottage at the end of Thorpe "commanding a most exquisite view in a little loding of two most queer, airy, quaint little rooms where I am most comfortable in my solitude working away as hard as I can if possible to finish my sketches". Letter continues on Sunday, July 31: Describing how she has been in sort of a scramble since beginning this letter; wondering if the novel called the "Spiritual Quixote" has come her way; describing how the novel is written; planning to join her mother; stating, "I feel as though I had had so much excitement of mind in many ways this year following upon so much in the past years that I only long for rest and sleep -- I am really far from well"; describing how her fiance, Alfred Watts, is searching for a home for them near Barbara in St. John's Wood.