WCP1671

[1]¹

ARW to WGW.) Parkstone, Dorset. March 2nd. 1901.

My dear Will

This week's progress has been fairly good although the wet after the frost has caused two falls in the cellar excavations, & we have had to put drain pipes to carry water out, though not much accumulated. The concrete footings are now nearly finished of all the outer walls while the cellar walls 14 in[ch]. thick have been carried up about 3 ft., there being three bricklayers & 6 labourers now at work. I am having drain pipes laid along all the footings of the outer walls to carry off any water that may soak in, and these outer walls are all having a coating of cement outside as far up as the ground line, so that I think they must become and remain quite dry. &². During the week some horses in the field have not only ea-ten³ off the tops of the Privet hedge but have torn up some dozens of the plants by the roots.⁴ by putting their heads over the 4 foot wire fence. I am therefore obliged in self-defence to raise the post 1 foot higher & put barbed wire along the top of it. Some cows also got in our ground one day & ate off the tops of thenewly⁵ planted laurels which am⁶ told they are very fond of, so I have got a chain & padlock for our gate. Yesterday for the first time we had a fine sunny day quite like spring & the first day of the kind since 'Xmas. The air was so fine, the views so pleasant, and the look of the incipient shrubs & trees so nice that I quite long to spend my days there. I have now just turned again to try & finish my new Ed[ition]. of Wond[erful]. Cent[ury].⁷ and have just completed my most difficult bit, the last two cjapters [chapters] of Astronomy. Now I have only to correct the other chapters of Science & Sociology which do not want much do-ing⁸ to. Then the correcting proofs will be done without interfering with my spending every fine day at "Old Orchard"⁹.....