Katey, and to Charley, and to Harry. Any
number of kisses to the noble Plorn.

Ever affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, _Saturday Evening, Oct. 3rd, 1857._

MY DEAR SIR,

I have had the honour and pleasure of receiving your letter of the 28th
of last month, informing me of the distinction that has been conferred
upon me by the Council of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.

Allow me to assure you with much sincerity, that I am highly gratified
by having been elected one of the first honorary members of that
establishment. Nothing could have enhanced my interest in so important
an undertaking; but the compliment is all the more welcome to me on that
account.

I accept it with a due sense of its worth, with many acknowledgments and
with all good wishes.

I am ever, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Edmund Yates.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday Night, Nov. 16th, 1857._

MY DEAR YATES,

I retain the story with pleasure; and I need not tell you that you are
not mistaken in the last lines of your note.

Excuse me, on that ground, if I say a word or two as to what I think (I
mention it with a view to the future) might be better in the paper. The
opening is excellent. But it passes too completely into the Irishman's
narrative, does not light it up with the life about it, or the
circumstances under which it is delivered, and does not carry through
it, as I think it should with a certain indefinable subtleness, the
thread with which you begin your weaving. I will tell Wills to send me
the proof, and will try to show you what I mean when I shall have gone
over it carefully.

Faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Wednesday, Dec. 13th, 1857._

MY DEAR STONE,

I find on enquiry that the "General Theatrical Fund" has relieved
non-members in one or two instances; but that it is exceedingly
unwilling to do so, and would certainly not do so again, saving on some
very strong and exceptional case. As its trustee, I could not represent
to it that I think it ought to sail into those open waters, for I very
much doubt the justice of such cruising, with a reference to the
interests of the patient people who support it out of their small
earnings.