| Description | Dear Signor
Your very kind and affectionate letter reached me a day or two before I left Italy but I have not, till now, had leisure to write to thank you for it, as I do sincerely. I read with great concern that the writing of that letter was interrupted by serious suffering. I find consolation only in this that your joy in work remains unabated, and with it that faith in it without which the lives of artists who like you & me are feeling the touch of inexorable years would be blank & sad indeed. For myself I have been wandering about Italy moving rapidly from place to place and as my health between my attacks is good I have had much & keen enjoyment; for the love of what is beautiful & noble in Nature and Art does not become blunter with years but rather grows & gathers warmth & glow. As for my condition I have nothing satisfactory to report except that, as I am told, my ailment is one which goes (after a year or two!) with some abruptness, of its own accord; it is an unwelcome visitor and has so far not diminished its visitations, but not affecting me organically, it does not, fortunately, incapacitate me for work - as you saw - at all events not as regards quantity.
Give my best love to your dear Mary & believe me as ever
Affec'ly yours
Fred Leighton |