I am writing to you from Aunt Mary’s lodgings. Your kind Aunt talks a great deal about you. She has given me a seven shilling piece for you, to buy a pair of half boots when you are breeched & she sends also a very pretty broche for Bertha, of garnets & pearls; & two desert spoons for Kate & Bel; & a garnet necklace for E May, which was Madam Lethbridges,

& upon her death was given to my Aunt by Lord Somerville.

She sends her love to you, & will be very glad to see you & your mother & sisters, & Betty,

& Anne,

& every body & every thing about the house when she comes in the early part of the summer.

Here are two pretty birds here in two cages, children of a canary bird & a goldfinch. They sing very sweetly. And here is a very comical small frisking whisking Cupn dog, whose name is Tippoo Saib. That was the name of a terrible Sultan in the East Indies,

who used to throw men to his tygers & xxxxxxxx He was a very cruel tyrant, but at last the English beat him & killed him in battle.

I received the comical verses signed by Rumpel & Hurlyburlybuss,

at Sir Thomas Aclands.

Every body there was much amused by them. I came from thence yesterday morning to this place. Tomorrow I go to visit my old schoolfellow Combe; but my next movements depend upon the chance of the coaches, so that I can say nothing certain about them; only that I hope to be in London again on this day week.

It is not certain that I shall see M^r Poole. There was a foolish report told him that I was not coming till Thursday, & he is at the sessions at Wells.

My dear little boy I was very sorry indeed to hear you had had the toothache. When a tooth aches it should be drawn, because tooth drawing hurts for a minute, & then the pain is over: & it is better to have a short pain than a long one, tho the short one be worse xxx while it lasts. Good boys always bear pain bravely, like men. I told you how your god-brother

behaved when he had that sad fall, which knocked his teeth out. It is a great grief to your Mamma & to me when any thing is the matter with you: but it would be a greater not to have you a good boy. You know we are both very fond of you, tho your Mamma does not tell you quite so often as I do. The greatest pleasure I have while I am away is to think of getting home again, that I may see your dear mother & Bertha & Kate & Bel & you, & have my books about me, & live in my own study, & sleep in my own bed, & see the lake & the mountains, & be very happy, & make a noise sometimes, & be a very nonsensical Pappa, as all good Pappas ought to be.

So many persons called in upon me yesterday that I could not finish this letter. If I were to go to all the houses whither I am invited, I should never get to Keswick; so I say no to every body. There came a letter last night from my old tutor at College, M^r Sweet,

asking me to visit him & his wife & his twelve children, & offering to send his coach for me. But I cannot go. On Saturday I hope to see Miss Bowles, & Rover her dog, & Donna her cat. & there I shall have a little quiet, & be able to answer some of the letters which follow me wherever I go.

O Cuthbert I have seen such beautiful cats in Devonshire that it was a pleasure to look at them. There was a Lady

at Sir John Kennaways

who loves cats; & I wrote in her Album this Triad. “The Three sweet sounds of the Fireside: the chirping of a Cricket: the singing of a Tea-kettle, & the purring of a Cat.” – This is a Triad. The ancient Britons used to put most of their wise sayings in Triads,

& I will make some wise sayings for you in the same manner one of these days, & some comical ones. In the time of the Britons there was no printing & no books, & indeed no paper, so they recorded things in Triads because they could easily be remembered in that form.