(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.
