Letter from William Gilpin, Vicar's Hill, to Sir George Beaumont, 1801 June 20 : autograph manuscript signed.

Attempting to clear up a misunderstanding about a picture; explaining "I had a small black-lead sketch of the Speaker in the character of a stable-boy, holding a horse. I admired it both as a strong likeness, & a good likeness; & for the singularity of uniting a stable-boy with the Speaker of the house of commons. You saw the sketch, & wished for a copy; which my brother began; but had not finished, when he left Vicar's-hill. He wished to take both the original, & the copy with him. I was unwilling, knowing in what hands I put it. However he swore violently -- at least something like it -- that I should have my drawing again. So I submitted. But, sir, from that day to this, tho I have baited him several times, I cannot hear of it"; saying that all he wanted was for Beaumont to remind his brother of the obligation: "He is one of the very best men in the world in every thing, but in matters of this kind"; writing that he wishes he could join Beaumont and his wife in their excursions, but "so far am I from being able to climb a Welsh mountain, that I cannot, without symptoms of broken-wind, climb upstairs"; saying that his old age has, on the whole, been very comfortable: "Except when I am put in motion, like a pair of bellows, I am perfectly at ease"; discussing in detail some observations Beaumont had made on "natural views" (versus "exact views"); mentioning an upcoming sale, the profits of which will go to the endowment of a school; saying that he sold "a printed copy of a journey I made into Scotland; embellished with original drawings" at White's in London for sixty guineas, and that this is in addition to "a little fund I have in the 3 percents"; telling Beaumont that a friend of his, Samuel Rogers, had mentioned him last summer, but not whether they were acquainted; commenting on Rogers: "I think he is one of the best poets of his time. You have probably seen his little work on Memory."