| Description | His dream has come, a letter allowing him two years' leave at home, with twenty days for preparation. He can go any day after 17 June and cannot manage the 9 June steamer as he has an account to settle with the government which will take a fortnight to push through audit. 22 June will be his last day in India for two years. He intends to stop at Malta and call for letters as his father wishes, and he will see Lascelles [William Lassell?]. He asks if his father can give an outline of what he is to speak about, and if Alick [Alexander Stewart Herschel] could join him there. He will go via Marseilles but will take passage only as far as Malta. William discusses his wellbeing and the letters he has received which had been straying all over the North West and Punjab. Johnny [John Herschel] is well, and when William last wrote he has some anxiety about his brother. Although he needed some comfort, William could not supply it, instead receiving some from John. In a postscript William says he will have acted as a judge before his ten years' furlough. |