1875 December 5, Church Lane, to Dear sister, Mentone

              Church Lane 12.5.75

My beloved sister, 
Jonathan has written such a lengthy epistle to brother A. that I expect there is little news left for me to communicate, but I thought as weeks have passed since I last wrote to thee & as it is uncertain whether the epistle ever reached thee or not, that I must send thee a few words of loving greeting and let thee know that if I don't write frequently I love thee just as much as ever I did, and that it is only my worldly cares that prevent me from sending thee lots of letters. I was ever so nice to hear of your arrival at Mentone through thy last epistle, which by the by let me tell thee was an unusually interesting letter, being much more descriptive than your epistles generally are & consequently proportionally interesting. "Now don't go way mad" at my saying this, and act upon it in future & let thy letters now be full of descriptions of what you do & what you see and oblige thy loving sister Rachel. However I think this little lecture belongs more to Alfred than to dear Betsy, for most of his nonsense might as well be written from Snow Shoe as from Italy. Please tell him so with my love, but tell him at the same time that I am always delighted to see his letters be they full of sense or nonsense, and