[Undated but obviously added to a letter from Anne. Unless one of these is missing, the most likely candidate is the letter of 16 February 1869. At that time Anne had clearly recently had a letter from Alexander in which he said that he was thinking of visiting England, and that eliminates most of her letters. Philip was in the same house, which eliminates a number of the others. I also think it is after the letter of May 1865 in which Anne mentions Walter's belief that the English poor were all destitute and couldn't afford to get married, as Philip seems to be addressing that point too. It certainly isn't the letter of 29 July 1863, as it doesn't even touch on the death of Alexander's baby, which was Anne's main reason for writing. SH]

My dear Brother

I embrace this opportunity of addg a few lines to my dear wife's letter. 1st I am very pleased to see there is hope we may have the pleasure of seeing you & your dear wife in the old country, we shall be very glad to see you both, also your Brother & his wife & family if they can manage to get away.

I think your Brother would find things very different to his expectations here, particularly in the rural districts or rather I should have said the manufacturing towns & villages. The people earn good wages & if they are careful can live very comfortably as clothing is cheap & provisions except meat are also reasonable. Many of my power loom girls can get 16/- pr week and some 18/.

I saw in one of the newspapers you sent us some time since, that the olive tree thrives well with you - Now, if you could get a large tract of land, say 1000 or more acres, which you could enclose at little cost, for instance if you have a windg river running thro' or near your town & you could get a sort of horseshoe piece which could be fenced easily by putg a fence thus [the diagram shows a winding river with two bends fenced off across the neck, one on each side] & get it planted with olives in the early years the paper said the fruit would pay the expense for salad oil - but my ideas are far beyond that. I should cater for a large consumption & a certain sale - The usual price we pay is about 45/- per cwt but we paid last year 66/6. Now it is 52/- or 52£ sterling pr ton of 20 cwts. I should say after 10 years, every acre would produce a Ton. In 15 years 2 Tons after 2 years or so [?] The cost would be but little. The expense of mashg the olives, & pressg out the oil, would be but little.

I am glad to hear things are better with you, allow me to say if riches increase set not yr heart upon them, they take wings & fly away. Not so with the true riches. With kind love to you & yours also to your Brother his Wife & family I am

Yours faithfully

P C Evans

P. S. The Holts are investigating the family matter. They will ferret out if there is any thing in it, but in England you can't stir a step in such matters without money, & I dont think it worth spending it on such an uncertainty so I leave it to the Holts.

Olive oil is always in good demand. There is a large consumption in England & Europe generally for Manufacturing. We use about 20 tons pr year. In Russia[?] the people eat it very much