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My dear Mrs. Marsh

Your kind letter concerning the manuscript of the Inferno reached me three days ago. I hope the sending of it home will be the last trouble you will have with it. I wish that it might be sent in the way that will give you the least trouble,--either by post or by private hand, direct to America, or to Mr. Lowell -------------------------------- Page -------------------------------- in London. In either case it may be addressed to me.

I hope I may infer from your letter that your own health has been tolerably good during the winter; that his friends should regard Mr. Marsh as in better condition than he was two years ago is a piece of information that gives me great pleasure. I fully sympathize with him in the trial that comes to him from inability to write freely. It must be a -------------------------------- Page -------------------------------- great deprivation.

I am sorry that I must continue to send you but a poor account of Mr. Longfellow's health. He does not seem alarmingly ill, but he has little strength. I hope that the advance of spring will be of service to him.

I send to Mr. Marsh a copy of a striking pamphlet by Mr. Olmsted,--to whom the country owes so much for his services as the chief executive officer -------------------------------- Page -------------------------------- of the Sanitary Commission during the war, and to whom New York owes so much for the creation of the Central Park. There has been no such exposure of the pervading corruption in municipal affairs as is contained in the narrative portion of this pamphlet. It is an impressive story, and will have a good effect in strengthening the hands of the Civil Service Reformers.

I beg you to give my best respects and remembrances to Mr. Marsh, and to believe me [the following is written vertically on the page beginning "Cambridge, Massachusetts."] with sincerest respect and regard,

Very truly Yours

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