Private and confidential                                      Paris Oct. 2, 1868

My dear John,

Being in Paris for a few weeks in some uncertainty as to our Winter plans (owing to our having been obliged to give up the East), I am tempted to write you a note, and ask your kind attention for a few minutes to a subject of much importance to our welfare and happiness.

We came abroad in June for a year, hoping – in change of scene – to recover from the sad impression of the calamity which overwhelmed us in February last and destroyed our cherished Home. Having refreshed ourselves by change of scene and plucked up some spirit and heart, we hope to return on the spring to rebuild on a smaller scale, our desolated “foyer”. Had we gone to the East our housebuilding project would have been deferred, but now the case being altered in hope to commence and have the exterior up and covered in before the Winter of ’69 so that the work need not be interrupted. But in order to (do) this I must settle upon a plan, and return with it “ready cut and dried”. An English plan at once occurred to me and then that you / if you still run in the architectural groove / were better fitted by your knowledge of our climate, materials and workmen to give us what we want than a English architect who is necessarily ignorant of the condition of things with us.

Will you turn the matter over in your mind and write me what you think of it. If favorably, I would then go into matters fully. I want a House of moderate costs and dimensions.  “Parva Domus – Magna Quies” to be its motto – expressive of our wishes and our purse. Where are you to reside this coming winter? Mrs. Perkins desires to be remembered and sends her love to your wife. Please give her my kind regards. Hoping that you are all well and happy….

Very truly yours,

Edward N. Perkins

How did you like Hastings as a Residence? Do you know of any place more suitable for …décor to winter in England than the Isle of Wight!