21 St Mary Abbots Terrace, W.

April 24, 1912

Dear Mr Mackenzie Bell,

I herewith return your Shields letters, with many thanks.

The selection from such a mass of material as that left by Mr Shields - who had practically preserved everything written to him, - and in many cases copies of his own letters - for over sixty years, is no light task! I begin to see the end, but I shall certainly be obliged to omit much that I should be glad to include or the one bulky volume would not contain it - and I do not think the publishers look with favour upon the idea of more than 150,000 words - with of course illustrations.

Did you ever form any idea of the reason of the extreme animosity of the St Georges' vicar? Or was it largely mere indifference on his part?

I think the life is likely to be of extreme interest - I showed some of the first few pages to Mr Watts Dunton who was very kind and encouraging - but most of it is very sad work for me, and I feel that it will all be a powerful tract - only I fear not the kind of tract that Mr Shields would have made had he written it himself. However I make him tell his own story wherever possible.

It is curious if it not, that another vicar - at Birchington - behaved so unreasonably to him over the first design for the Rossetti window - his letters are so poor!

With kind regards and thanks again, believe me,