Eastbourne, 22 August 1889 
4 Cavendish Place 

Dear Hermann, 

The statement of account received with thanks; no doubt it will be 
correct. 

Would you be so kind as to forward the enclosed note to young or 
now, I suppose, old Caspar*—I don’t know whether he lives in Krefeld 
or Barmen. As I learn from R. Blank, whom I ran into here a week ago, 
things aren’t going too well with those chaps; if so, I am sorry. 

I have been here a fortnight but am, alas, having more rain than I can 
do with. Ever since the English have begun holding their naval manoeu- 
vres in August, the weather during that month has been truly atrocious 
and yesterday the words of the old song came true here: 

On 21 August, just gone by, 
In storm and rain there came a spy, 
Who tidings to the prince did give, etc.4” 

In consequence of which three big warships sailed past this morning, but 

we still await the famous naval battle which is to take place in the 
Channel, before our very eyes. 

@ Caspar Engels 

I shall probably be staying here another fortnight or three weeks, if 

the rain isn’t too bad, for 
‘Back to my home I cannot go’, 

the place being full of whitewashers, paperers, painters and other work- 
men, who make three-quarters of the rooms uninhabitable and, once 
they’re in the house, you never know when you'll be rid of them again. 
This is because in England large-scale industry has ruined the crafts but 
has not been able to find anything else to put in their place. For a long 
time now the Germans have not had the sole prerogative of providing 
shoddy wares in return for good money; the Londoners have a positively 
stunning aptitude for this. In America, however, it’s altogether different. 
So far as ordinary, everyday business dealings are concerned, in which no 
speculation is involved, America is, I believe, the most reliable country in 
the world—the only one in which you will still find ‘good workmanship’. 

I trust you are all well. Much love to Emma* and to the children and 
grandchildren, as well as to the rest of the Engels-kirchen, from 

Your old 
Friedrich