WCP7

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Dec^r 14th. 1890

My dear Willie¹

I suppose you are enjoying the frost which is killing all my rare plants, freezing the meter, and stopping all outdoor work.

This week, just past, two plasterers & two labourers have been at work till 10 o’clock at night & have finished all the plastering. The windows are all in; — but not the doors, & some of the skirting and a bit of the floor is still unfinished. Yesterday Charles finished paving the down stairs passage & larder ^{with tiles}. Tomorrow we are promised to have the [2] new kitchen door, & the hot-water man to remove the kitchen range put in the new hot-water boiler & cistern, & fit it in the new kitchen. That will take at least two days and as they never yet have done anything the day promised it will probably be Wednesday or perhaps Thursday before it is finished, and even then the old kitchen may not be fit to use for a dining room. Nothing is done to the balcony yet but the roof & floor, and ^as that does not affect the inside of the house it will [3] probably be left till the last.

Even the roof over the new drawing room is not finished tiling, a good bit being closed up with sacks. It has been delayed for the new barge boarding & the carpenters have all been at work getting the doors & windows ready for the other rooms. There will therefore be plenty for you to see done when you come home.

I hope you will come on Friday, with Violet,² as she has a bad cough & you must see that she keeps warm and comfortable.

[4] There is no such man as "Morgeley". It is "Maudesley." Nasmyth³ asked to be taken as an "improver", & sent some models made by himself and they were so first-rate that they took him as a first class workman & afterwards as a foreman or superintendent. He was never partner, but left them to set up for himself. That is in his "life" which I have read. You never told us about the "row" with the Primrose Dame. That will be a good ‘Xmas story for you to tell us. Don’t drown yourself under the ice before you come home. Ma⁴ is a little better, but not yet first rate.

Your affectionate Papa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]