Your letter was a relief to me, – for I was afraid illness had been the cause of your silence, – & it brought news of your amendment. – These hasty lines accompany a few more stanzas

– When next you write, speak of the poem on a slip of paper by itself, & let your letter have no allusion to it. I expect much amusement from keeping the secret, & some advantage from it. What I write generally receives a good deal of amendment before it passes thro the press, – wherever you can mend a passage, do so. I shall soon finish the canto. – Do you describe how the infant <boy> like a pet lamb that had lost its mother – was fondled & spoilt.

What I said about two ounces

was only a caution, – the purse was far within the mark, & came safely.