Chipping Norton
Sept 1st 1877
My Darling Eugénie,
I suppose you received the few hurried lines I posted to you last night and now I will sit down and write a little more to forward by the day mail hoping you will receive it this evening.
Our flower show & concert went off very well and I was much pleased at carrying off both first prizes for amateur’s roses, in the stand of twelve I put up a very pretty bloom of your rose which was much admired, and one or two of my friends smiled when they read the name, this same bloom I now send in a little box as you may like to have it and also two or three little buds for you to wear on Sunday.
I just managed to get six spikes of gladioli they were the first in bloom but easily won first prize, I also showed a stand of annuals and they received a first prize but then there was no competition and I like to beat somebody if possible and not come in as it were on sufferance, on the other hand the contest in the rose classes was very severe and the quality of all the stands far superior to what it usually is this time of year.
How often I wished during the day that my darling had been with me, and at the concert there was a vacant chair by me and, oh, how I longed that it had been filled by my own Eugénie! do you know I think if you had been there I might have looked just a little bit spooney!
I hope you enjoyed your day or two in London, I must write again to-morrow evening to let you know about my coming up on Wednesday, how we are to meet &c, for I have no timetable handy and not much time to consult one if I had it.
It is kind of Fred to give us a choice of a wedding present, when we are together again we must talk it over.
I heard from Charlotte yesterday she was going to write to you very shortly, she seems to have enjoyed the sea air together with my Mother, they return on Wednesday next.
I hear poor old Ovenden was taken ill in the street the other day, the old man has failed considerably lately.
My friends W Bliss and his wife start to-day for a trip to the Isle of Wight.
I am afraid the letter I wrote last Monday was a very stupid one but I was feeling tired and hardly up to the mark, however, darling, you need not fear that it is not always a pleasure for me to write to you.
I managed to get a cold in travelling but have fortunately got rid of it again quickly.
I am glad to hear that Joe still expects to get over and I shall look forward with pleasure to seeing him, and as he will come from you it will be doubly nice.
And so August has gone! as I began this I thought, only three months now to our wedding month, ah, how I want to have my dearest Eugénie with me always!
And now good-bye for the present, God bless you darling, I will try and fulfil my promise to you to-morrow, for I feel that it must be well to do so, and besides it will make you happy
Ever believe me
Your own affectionate
Julius Sladden
