Since my return I have been trying to find time to write & give you a little information that may perhaps be of use to you My leisure moments are not plentiful & this is my first opportunity. I spoke to Fr Stevenson about the manuscript at Cambridge and he told me that any onep2who would be capable of making a correct transcipt of it would scarcely care about doing so as the remuneration is so small - he thought it might possibly be lent if the application was formally made by the authorities at Louvain to the heads of St. Johns College, they would of course name their owns conditions with regards to the means of conveyance, perhaps asking that some one should be sent to fetch it & return it to them - the Baron Kyrvyn Van Lettenhove is well known at the Record Office - he may bep3of use to you if you know him - The Dublin Review[1] gives a capital notice of a book you were asking about An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. By the Rev. Walter W. Skeat - Oxford-Clarendon Press. 1882. It appears that he is the most able Editor we have of “English Dialect” & Early English besides the Dictionary proper there are most valuable appendices of prefixes, suffixes list of Aryan roots, lists of examples of sound, shifting &c. &c Canons of Etymology, List of books consulted & a useful key to the plan - it is a volume of 800 pages - I fear beyond the means of many students.p4it must cost about £ 2.00 for in an old catalogue I see it advertized to appear in 4 parts at 10/6 each, however I will make more enquiries about it if you care about it, a cheaper edition may appear as philology is such a favourite study just now, the abridged edition for junior students would be of utile use to - You mentioned some other book I think - when it occurs to you will you give the particulars to Mme. Vercruysse she is often writing to me.

The Manuscript & the dictionary have made me forget to thank you for your little book[2] with my dictionary I hope to make it out & become reconciled to my mother's tongue[3]