14 Denmark St
Gateshead on Tyne
Dec'r 12^th 1877

My dear friend,

The last month of this year 1874, is fast advancing, & Xmas will soon be here again: a time that I know you like to spend by your own fireside—where I wish this friendly greeting to await you—It seems so long since we heard from one another dear Frederick, so long! Yet you are not forgotten, I can assure you—Twenty years this Xmas,
(viz: that of 1854) is the last I spent on "the Hill"—that dear, old hill I was so fond of—How I see it all

you & I driving up—up—past that Dutch settlement, and then dear little Annie runnng to meet us, and then she being jumped into the carriage—then M^rs Douglass' excellent tea & those nice "Maryland biscuits",—all so acceptable after the cold drive—

What a wonderful power memory is!—& how clearly it develops every thing. "Like the lingering light in the cirrus of west when sunbeams have passed away"—Well! dear friend this is a matter o' fact [would choose?], here & there with a little true poetry—& with all its trials, & disabilities, I shall ever look upon my American life as one of the brightest epochs

children has Rose?—How many has Lewis? Is Fred married—How many children has my old friend Charlie? I should like to see them all once again.—I never can picture you settled down in Washington city—When I read about the disturbance in New Orleans I seemed to wish you safely back on the old "hill" side—Have you let or sold the ground where that house stood? Does Rose live close by?

Prithee tell me "all about it"! & soon—My aunt still lives—is confined to her room

most of the winter—but for her age - (86) is a most wonderful woman!

Every year I live seems busier & shorter than the last!—we have a large day school—(only 2 or 3 boarders) and are now preparing for our annual school concert, which, (D.V.) is to be on Tuesday next—Mine has been a strangely varied life—but I trust I am thankful for being able to get thro' the amount of mental work necessarily devolving on me—8 of my girls are getting up several.

3—Now they are in Manchester—& Dr. C. writes—"all Manchester is moved"—Do you know them? or anything about their Chicago life. By the way, do you know anything of our ci devant friend Fogg who moved to Chicago?—

Now my dear old friend, ere I close this epistle I must express the hope that you & your's may enjoy a happy Christmas together. How many of your sons live in Washington? Give my kindest regards to M^rs. Douglass Rose & all the sons. Tell M^rs. D. that if Washington were not so far away, I w^d send her a New Year's

present for "Auld Lang Syne"—God bless & preserve you ! my very dear old friend—Tell me when you write where you have been & what you have been lecturing upon——& everything that you know must & will interest me.

Think of me as your unchangeable & faithful friend Julia G. Crofts

scenes in "the Merchant of Venice"—for the concert night—& I have a famous Shylock among them—Then, in French, my French governess is preparing 3 girls for a scene in Racine's "Athalie"——& I, even now, old as I am, feel young in spirit, and enter into it all!—Yet the years advance & soon the place that knows me will know me no more—Friends fall on all sides, like forest leaves in Autumn & our time must come. May you & I my dear old friend, be found "ready" to meet our call when it comes! Dear Mr. Moody

& his friend M^r. Sankey, are doing (or rather God is doing through their instrumentality) a most wonderful work in this United Kingdom—in Edinburgh—all classes, from the most cultivated of the Professors & students, to the poorest people in the Grass Market have been reached—& thousands converted—no noise about any of it—not even when M^r. Moody addressed 1400 from below Arthur's Seat Then at Glasgow—it has been marvellous—then at Belfast & as to Dublin the work has been most astounding—they have held meetings at all places—all hours & every where the throngs, Romanists as well as 'Protestants,' have exceeded credence—in my existence—After this lapse of time—I can forgive so much of what I then thought unkind in some of the American friends, tho' I shall never feel much affection for "Susan B. & Co."—By the way I saw her name in one of our journals in reference to the Beecher case——what a wretch Tilton is; & what a weak, silly woman M^rs. T. must be! Do tell me, when you write, what your opinion is of the whole matter? I should weigh your opinion against a thousand others.—I cannot believe anything against our dear old friend, the noble minded Henry Ward B——The best of our countrymen believe in him still most entirely—D^r. Crofts inclusive,

We are all so grieved that he should have to pass through such an ordeal, at his time of life, more especially—Do, dear friend let me hear from you soon—& send me a long budget—address it here. I am to spend Xmas in Lancashire; but my letters are all forwarded—D^r. Crofts moved from Manchester to Bolton, (10 miles from M) last conference—Lizzie still keeps his house—& Mattie stays with me—our daughter Jane (M^rs. Joe Hanson) has a very nice little baby boy three weeks old—so, now, I am grand parent as well as you! How many