Ramsgate, 11 August 1876 
11 Camden Square 

Dear Pauli, 

On Friday” I duly proceeded to Cologne as planned and would 
have gone on overnight to London via Ostend had not the 
confounded midge bite on my left hand swollen to truly colossal 
proportions. So I went to an hotel in Cologne and held my hand 
in iced water for about an hour, which relieved the worst of the 
inflammation; on Saturday to England via Flushing. At Chatham I 
found a train going to Ramsgate and came straight here.’” When 
I arrived in London on Tuesday I found Schorlemmer at the 
Marxes preparing to leave for Darmstadt on Wednesday, where he 
will doubtless arrive today. 

It’s still very fine here, moderately hot summer temperatures 
and a cool wind off the sea, on top of which the bottled beer is 
excellent and salt water bathing ‘a proper treat,” as Nadler’s 
seamstress would say.'*' His stuff has made me laugh a lot; the 
small town patriot of ’48 is particularly well portrayed. 

The crossing from Flushing was once again as smooth as glass; 
I'm heartily sick of it by now; a bit of tossing about is all part of 

" See this volume, p. 116. - b 4 August - © Engels has ‘e wohres Laubsal’ (dialect). 

11+ 

the game, otherwise one has no idea of having been at sea. But 
that’s something I can have whenever I want here aboard the 
pleasure boats which sail every afternoon. 

We are staying here until Monday fortnight and in London 
shall, I trust, retire from the very idle life we’ve been a-leadin’ of. 

The trip and the sea-bathing have done my wife a great deal of 
good, so I have reason to hope that I shall also be able to get her 
through the winter in passable health. Both she and I send our 
kindest regards to you, your wife and the children, and in the 
hope that Rheinau’s gnat population will shortly diminish I shall 
close because of incipient table-laying. 

Yours ever, 

F. Engels