Transcript
Downs Lodge {1} 25th June 1802.
My dear Sir
I find we have been playing at “hide & Seek”; I left Town this morning pretty early, on the chance of seeing you & Mrs Turner at dinner at Downs Lodge, for I had the mortification, on my calling at Doctor Scott’s yesterday, that you had not received the Letter I wrote to you in reply to yours of Monday Evening, {2} & of course I had no Certainty of having that pleasure, but I was resolved to take all chances.—I cannot sufficiently regret that the shortness of your stay in Ireland, & the untoward circumstances that have happened have deprived me of the satisfaction I should have had in paying you & Mrs Turner the attention I could have wished.—Mrs Patrick & my Daughters inform me, of the pleasure the[y] received during your very short stay with them, & desire I may present their kindest compliments & good wishes for a pleasant passage across the Water, in which I sincerely join, & in the hope, that you may ere long afford us the opportunity of showing you something more than you & Mrs Turner have seen, of Town & Country, being with great sincerity
My dear Sir | Yours very truly—
J Patrick {3}
When you see our worthy Friends at Coltishall {4} We beg to be kindly remembred†.
Pray present our compts to Doctor Scott.
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No superscription or marks of posting.
{1} ‘Downs’ is the probable reading, but Downs Lodge has not been identified.
{2} 21st.
{3} The writer of this letter is identified as John Patrick in the General Index (O.14.51).
{4} William and Elizabeth Palgrave (Mrs Turner’s parents) and their family. See Palgrave Family Memorials, ed. C. J. Palmer and S. Tucker (1878), pp. 49–50.
† Sic.