Autograph letter signed ("AC Swinburne"), to his sister Alice ("My dearest Ally"), giving vent to his well-known adoration of babies, in this case that of their cousin Maria ("...It's nothing to say that my mouth waters (though it does) – my whole soul & body yearn to kiss its feet. They don't mind that..."); telling her that the "whole custom of mourning in black paper or clothes seems to me absurd & vulgar & ostentatious"; grumbling about the summer ("...I am glad you are out of town, anyhow, tho' flies would make me cut my throat. The one thing that has tempered this exceptionally infernal summer to me has been their unusual absence at this time of year..."); and recommending where to stay ("...If you want a real old inn you should go to Newhaven & see the rooms in which Louis-Philippe & family slept the night after they fled from the Tuileries. Rather a change, & rather small & fusty, but lovely in shape & furniture..."), 4 pages, on mourning paper, 8vo, The Pines, 14 August 1899