(Dated Friday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)
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Transcript
Friday morn[in]g
My Dear Sir!
Let me welcome you home again, & I wish I had better news about myself. Yet, it is not bad, for my affairs are settled; only I know not which way to turn myself, at so critical a moment, & not having been able to see my immediate friends since my arrival, without a little pecuniary aid. If you & Mr Gurney (to whom I did not choose to apply in your absence) c[oul]d assist me, for perhaps a very short time; it w[oul]d be a particular convenience to me, & w[oul]d prevent the settling of my affairs from being almost ineffectual. I sh[oul]d hope to be able to repay it as soon as I got to Town (the middle of next month, when Lady Croft returns out of Cheshire); but, not to engage for more than I am sure of, can you oblige me with £150 till October, when at Michaelmas I am pay’d my midsummer rents? You will show this to Mr G. to whom I have not said a syllable. Such kindness cannot make me more than I am,
My Dear Sir, Your oblig’d friend
H[erber]t Croft.
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Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.
(Published according to Act of Parliament at the Hydrographical Office, Admiralty, and printed at the Admiralty Lithographic Press. The chart shows the region explored by Captain Parry in 1819 and 1820.)
Written on the back of a prospectus from 'The Delphin Classics'
73 Eaton Terrace, S. W. - Would like to have the first edition of FitzGerald's Omar Khayyám, no. 426 in Quaritch's new catalogue, if it is still available. Wished he could have been at Boulge on Saturday [for the planting at FitzGerald's grave of the rose grown from a hip from that at Omar Khayyám's tomb].
21 Parliament Street, London, S. W.
Relates to the Clothworkers' Company.
(Undated. Postmarked 1 or 4 Feb. 1802. The date ‘Feb. 4—1802’ has been added at the head in pencil.)
(Dated Saturday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)
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Saturday
My Dear Sir!
The picture of my children 5 or 6 years ago, {1} but very like still, I sent, this morning; for you & Mrs T. to see. You can return it on monday; when I will beg you to lend Sophy another body-colour drawing, & Mary Anne another of Mortimer’s, w[hic]h I think Mrs T. was good enough to say she c[oul]d borrow. The bearer brings Mrs T.’s two, & their copies. Sophy has purposely made hers lighter, as I thought yours was too Penseroso; I being fond of the pleasant saddle honest Dryden mentions in his dedication of Virgil, “w[hic]h will be sure to amble, when {2} the world is upon the hardest trot”. Give me gay sunshine; or moonlight, w[hic]h does not add to the gloominess of scenes always gloomy enough.
Dont† forget, if we ever get a good day, to give Sophy a lesson in botany, at Downes’s garden, some morning; as {3} I expect she understands a little. When she leaves Yarmouth (in a fortnight or so, I imagine) she will, I am sure, be happy if Mrs T. can charge her with any commissions in Town. Tomorrow ev[enin]g I mean to come & sit with you.
Ever most truly y[ou]rs
H. Croft
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Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.
{1} Presumably the painting of his three daughters as cherubim, attributed to Lemuel Francis Abbott, now in the possession of the National Trust.
{2} This word, which is at the beginning of a line, is preceded by opening inverted commas.
{3} This word resembles ‘or’ more closely, but ‘as’ makes more sense.
† Sic.
Signature indistinct.