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Berg Collection, New York Public Library. 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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Your letter has followed me here & reachd me only this evening. I thank you truly for the trouble you have taken. I
remember the house you point out, it is if my memory does not deceive me near the cross, & opposite the pond where the road bends
like the letter S. from your account it seems to suit us perfectly, & if there be bed rooms for a servant, my mother, ourselves, & a spare room for a friend, I think there can be no hesitation
about it. this appears to be the case, as xx it is divided into two tenements you say, & of course
the sitting room of one can hold a bed in case of need.
It gives me great pleasure that there is this prospect of our settling near you. we shall always spend the summer months there & as much more as we can. I feel attached to the country & shall look upon it as my home.
I am term-keeping but leave town tomorrow night & hope to be home on Monday. from your letter I guess that you must be in town now, if I knew where or how to trace you. as this is impossible my only way is to direct to Burton.
I should prefer taking it from year to year to having a term. but this you must regulate according to circumstances.
It gives me great pleasure to hear your little girl
If I were at home the paper should not travel so empty. but I am visiting & thoroughly fatigued with a compleat days labour in London.