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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Misc. c. 107. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Since last you heard of us we have performed the great effort of a journey to Durham, – the two Edithsby <upon> what strange contingencies the main events of life depend. I went to Durham at this time for the sake of
seeing the Long Main,& xxxxx his xxxxx xx xxx xxxxxxx in short next Wednesday he is to
be married, – & by the end of the week I expect him & his wife at Keswick. Quick work,
– but there is nothing like dispatch xxxxx in war, making love & taking physick.
In answer to the fifty questions which you are ready to ask first I must tell you that as to money matters I do not
suppose either of them would venture upon marriage unless there was something on her side – but it cannot possibly be much. Her
fathernot have
<little if> any thing else – Tom <however> is to tell me his plans when
we meet, – & I have sufficient confidence in his good sense to hope with some reason, that they are not so imprudent as they
appear. – She is a very interesting woman – about 30 – or verging toward it, – what little I saw of her pleased me very much
indeed.
You cannot expect more news than this in a single letter, & I suppose you know that another unborn is on the way,
& expected to appear next month. If a boy the name is to be Danvers, – if a girl I am unprovided with one to my liking – Ellen or
Elinor seem to please me best.
Kehamasaid written for this Register, which will displease all parties, &
mortally offend many persons, – but which will do your heart good to see. Mine is the easier for having had vent. Certes
there is no wholesomer habit than that of plain speaking. Pray you remember when you read that the author is one of his Majestys
pensioners.
How are you? this is a question which I want you to answer oftener than I can find leisure to ask it. Summer is the
less welcome here, because you do not come with it, as you were used to do. Here is Herbert grown out of your knowledge & Edith our of your
remembrance, – & Bertha Bruin whom you have never seen. She is fancied so
like you that Tom always calls her the Senhorita. What a fine foundation for some
of your precious Uncles
Pray present my respects to Sir E. I do not often think
of these things, & therefore they are worth mean something when I do think of them.