32 St James’ Place
Saturday evening. Septemr 23rd
My dear Father –
I am just now in want of money. I have 20 £ & no more in the Melksham Bank <1> but I cant get at it. I want about 30 £. Can you advance me some. I cant draw that 20 £ out of the Meksham [sic] Bank without sending the cheque to Melksham. If I could get it I should do with 10 more. I went to the Crystal Palace today which is certainly a very pretty place. In the Alhambra court the patterns on some of the pavement tiles are entirely disappearing owing being worn off by the number of people that walk on them. The gardens at the Crystal Palace too are very pretty. I have discovered the way of getting dinner. Soup, Fish, entrée, joint, pudding, cheese fingerglass & toothpicks all for 3 shillings, attendance &c 3d, beer 9d in all, 4s.
Your affect. son
Charles.
P.S. I liked the plaster models of in the architectural courts at the Crystal Palace better this time than I did before. The Renaissance court is rather fascinating. I don’t believe the Assyrians <2> painted there [sic] buildings so gaudily as they are there represented. There was singing going on in the great orchestra. They have a very fine organ. What is excessively pretty is all the plant creeping plants which grow on the iron work of the building and also those that hang down from baskets &c. Some arts are to be seen going on in the building for instance ivory turning. They have a very convenient system now by which I took a ticket at Victoria to the Crystal Palace including admission and the right to return either to Victoria, London Bridge or Kensington. Several people were unable to get seats in the train I came away by and were left behind on the platforms. In the machinery department several of the machines were marked registered in such a year. what does that mean? I did not know that there was any registration apart from patenting.
Notes:
1. Melksham, Wiltshire: market town near Lacock, 2 miles S.
2. A reference to The Assyrian Court, also exhibited at the Crystal Palace.
