Page:Life of Octavia Hill as told in her letters.djvu/378

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352
LIFE OF OCTAVIA HILL
CHAP.

No date. Probably 1877.

To Mary Harris.

I cannot tell you what important work we have in hand. We are restoring and re-establishing a provident dispensary here. It implies an immense deal of thought, judgment, money. Mr. Crowder is quite the leader in it all. I am quite proud of him. . . . Then we were laying deep foundations for Mr. Hughes' future success.[1] This week we have our blind concert at which 660 tenants also will be present. I went over the new buildings in B. Court on Wednesday. They really are beautiful. It does one's heart good to see them. I think Lord Ducie must be delighted.


August 22nd.

To Mrs. Shaen.

Everyone falls in with my plan for the little orphans,[2] and I am trying to place them in the village where Miss Harris lives. Boarding out is most success- fully carried on there. Dear Janey came and stayed there and saw the houses. My former pupils would watch the children for me, and, if I go there, I should see them myself. ·········


Not dated.

Mrs. Hill to Mrs. Edmund Maurice.

Octa arrived safely yesterday in perfect en- thusiasm about her visit and certainly better for it. She dined in the evening at Lord Monteagle's, and

  1. This refers to a petition circulated among the electors of Marylebone asking Mr. Hughes to come forward again at the next election.
  2. She boarded out one of these orphans in memory of Mrs. N. Senior.