From W. W. Reade   12 September [1872]¹

My dear Sir

I have no doubt entire change of work will be a relief to you; it must be the greatest of blessings to be able to work without being obliged to read or write books—a blessing literary men may not enjoy— I am quite done up for the time being, having dyspepsia & all its attendant woes & start to day on a short pedestrian trip— On my return to London I shall take lodgings near the British Museum & try to finish off my travels.² Very many thanks for your kind inquiries respecting my book. It is a failure but not a discouraging one.³ I use certain parts relating to Africa in my forthcoming work. When I come back to London I will send you my new address—   with some little hesitation for I really do not deserve the rather lavish enconiums therein contained I send you a critique from a Yorkshire paper— It may however interest you as showing what the ladies of the present age are capable of in the way of free thinking. The writer is the wife of a [commoner] so I am told.— & likes the book because she is such an enthusiast for the Cause.⁴

I remain yours very truly | Winwood Reade