Many thanks my own dear Mary for your kind letter & the good account of the dear Papa--that he has not suffered much by his exertions of last week is a most excellent account--you must give my best love to dear Aunt Mary & beg her to continue to give me a bulletin of his health when you & our Elizaare gone to the gay City--I enclose a note for Miss James which you will be so good my dear to let Mrs. Dobbs's servant put into the twopenny post--perhaps you will enclose it in one from yourself for I find from a letter received from her yesterday that she has written to you to Hatton Garden begging you to come & see her at Richmond--I told her you were going to Town & she thought you were there already. Pray go & see her--She seems to have set her heart on it & I am sure would make you both very comfortable--you should see Richmond & Twickenham--they are such show places & nobody can be fitter to show them to you than our dear Friend--Mrs. Dobbs who you say likes jaunting about in a morning would I dare say take you there & fetch you again either the next day or the next but one as you might settle--Do go--Miss James would be so happy & I should so like to think of you all three together. You will certainly find a note from her at Mrs. Dobbs's.--I shall try to contrive about Haydon--I expect to hear from him every day & in my answer I dare say I shall manage it--& will let you know the where & the when & all about it--In the mean time say nothing to anyone--& above all do not name him to Miss James.

I am sitting up here in apple pie order"Apple pie order" is a colloquial reference which means, according to the , "perfect order or neatness." as white as a snowball & as round waiting for the "Right Honourable Lady" as the calls her who has signified her intention to call--No--a snowball is not a fit simile--a snowball is a thing at liberty--a thing that can roll about--I am more like a maggot in a nut--a fine fat white maggot with a pink head--a comfortable-looking sort of prisoner.--I must tell you the whole story. Tuesday, that day of triumph & topping Papa as you know did go to Reading & I did not--Well--to my sorrow nothing must serve him but that he made an appointment with Mr. Palmer or Lady Madelina (vel haec vel hoc Latin phrase meaning "either her or him." no matter) that I should wait on her Ladyship the next morning--In the mean time said Papa got tipsy--was put to bed & never made his appearance at home till the next day at breakfast, when out he came with his orders. I who have a natural hatred to great people, especially to fine grand ladies, was nevertheless so taken by surprise that I actually went up to prepare for the visit & had accomplished the changing one cotton hose for a silk one when they came to announce that my honoured Papa was forced to go to bed & that he had sent George into Reading to make apologies--So forth I went to Penge Wood--ruminating how to get out of a business so little to my taste--I don't know why I dislike Grandees except that their sort of pride interferes with my sort of pride & that I like to sit on the ground like Constance & cry "Here is my throne--Let Kings come bow to it" Mitford slightly misquotes from Shakespeare's : "Here is my throne; bid kings come bow to it" (3.1.74).--However it was the more I thought of this broken appointment the more I disliked it--I hate to go to any strange people who have before seen Papa because he is so like a flourish of trumpets "still harping on my daughter" Spoken by Polonius to Hamlet in (2.2.87-88) --so I bethought me--& on my return said as innocently as possible Dear me I hope Mrs. Frankland's children have not got the measles" Mama heard it as I intended & immediately said she would go herself--& went accordingly--& found Lady Mad. very pleasant--but unluckily our message of the day before had never reached her so she had sate sat within doors all day waiting for me--& more unluckily still she was so polite as to express a hope of seeing me when she called & Mama has actually not let me stir out from home ever since--I have been dying to go to Penge Wood--wild to go to Farley Hill--& not a step would they let me stir--& here as far as I see I am likely to remain--It is enough to make one take the measles in good earnest, & that would be a pity too, for it would deprive me of a capital excuse for not going where I do not like for at least three months of every year.--

I have been reading two books which I think you might see in London & which you would probably like to see-- Whistlecraft's --a very clever imitation of the burlesque poetry of the Italians--& almost as good--by Mr. Frere--too elegant to be called fun & too entertaining to be called by any other name. They are only two little pamphlets--not an hour's reading in both. The other is Hazlitt's . You like Hazlitt--& I like you to read him because I want your curiosity whetted to read other things--& Hazlitt is an excellent razor strop.--These are particularly agreeable--the account of the & Dr. Johnson is admirable for its truth & candour--We must expect a little paradox to be sure--It would not be Mr. Hazlitt without something of that sort--& one or two of his sayings are startling enough--for instance he prefers --one of that disagreeable Vanbrugh's most disagreeable plays, to --the finest prose Comedy perhaps in the world.

Adieu my dear love! Write to me soon & often take great care of yourself--by taking care of yourself I don't mean staying at home--on the contrary go out wherever you are likely to be amused--I mean wrap up well in leaving Theatres--& take advice if you want it--& tell truth mine own dearest & say when you are unwell--In a word Be Good--As to my sweet Eliza I shall not send her any admonitions--Thank God she does not want them--but she must write to me & love me & tell me how many lovers you both pick up--& take as many exhibitions Plays Dances Concerts & parties as may happen to come in her way--God bless you both my own dear Girls--I could not anticipate my own amusements with greater pleasure than I do your's yours .

Love to the "Mayor of Wokingham"--Aunt Mary--Kate Wheeler & all that you love--