‘My dear Friend,—I need not say with what delight I have read your letter from Stony Middleton.
‘Pray give my love to one and all there. As I am not with you, and must be elsewhere, I am consoling myself by the seaside, and wishing you all were with me, not omitting the young voices that are rejoicing you all day long.
‘I am as well as I can hope to be, but should be better if I could transport myself where you are; for so great a pleasure I would resign the waves of this beautiful sea, and the thousand “ladyes” on horseback, who are passing before me.
‘I cannot say how much I think myself obliged to her who has written your charming letter.