Autograph letter signed : Greeba Castle, Isle of Man, to R.D. Blackmore, 1899 July 4.

Commenting on Lorna Doone saying that when he was last in London he "...heard that Lorna Doone was actually to be done on the stage, & now I hear some talk of Miss Annie Russell in that connection. I trust the story may be true. If the subject were still available I think I should myself propose to you to do it for America. I believe there might be a very great American success for it, & for the subjects' sake & for your sake, & for sake of the large earnings which might perhaps result, I trust it will be done in a way worthy of you & of the book;" expressing his sorrow at hearing ".. how unwell you had been, & the prohibition of friends from seeing you makes me fear that you are not improving. Still your handwriting is as strong as of old, & apparently your mental vigour is as great as ever. May the summer bring you better health & good spirits & the joy of a new kind of success! If it is any happiness to you to think that sooner or later Lorna will be almost as much beloved in the theatre as in the library I am sure you may accept a foretaste of that happiness in the prediction of one who ought to know something of the stage;" remembering the start of their friendship twelve or thirteen years earlier and saying "I have always felt the stimulus of your friendship & been the better & the stronger for it. The other day I bought in Liverpool a copy of the Lorna engraving & under it I pasted one of your briefer letters...well content that it should be a constant reminder to me (& a memory to my children) of our intimacy & correspondence. It is not merely because you have inscribed your name permanently on the record of English literature that I shall always remember with pride & tenderness our too few meetings... & all I wished to say was to assure you (now that I may not see you) that you are securely fixed in my affections, & that, rarely as I see you, I think of you very often, & would value above many things an opportunity of doing you some service."