| Description | <2, Holland Park Road,
Kensington, W.>
Dear Stewart
I write to throw myself on your mercy - I have no excuse - a promise is a promise & you can keep me to it if you desire - I can by dropping everything else do your frieze this summer - it is designed & begun on canvass - but I had (excuse blot) forgotten that if I do nothing to my statue this summer I cant have it cast in bronze (4 months work about) for next R A - and all my other work must be done in the winter months - entirely - which is not good for it; & I am thrown back by having to repaint my design for St Paul's with which I am dissatisfied after seeing it up, and I must do something to my fresco S. Kensington or the Dept can't ask Govt for the money - and - and - really all this I ought to have reckoned with - but you are longsuffering & kind & I promised in an impulse - and I should like to exhibit this other frieze also - and in brief I am, you will say, a sort of W.B.K. - I cannot complain if you nail me down - and am anyhow in much haste.
Yours always
Fred Leighton |