Autograph letter signed : London, to John Nichols, 1816 October 25.

Thanking him for a favorable mention of Chalmers's work on the General Biographical Dictionary in the "Literary Intelligence" section of the August 1816 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine; describing the rigors and pleasures of the project: "[It] has been carried on with the least imaginable portion of assistance, amidst many personal vicissitudes, & many privations, some of the most painful kind, without the least interruption from that time [i.e., May 1812, when he began work on it] to the conclusion of Vol. XXX which will be published before this letter can meet the reader's eye. Extensive, however, as this task has proved, & incessant as my labour has been, I have been repeatedly cheered by the approbation of many of that class whom it is desireable to please; & I have been supported in health & spirits by the nature of the undertaking itself -- by the regular devotion of my time to a study which presents a greater variety than any other"; explaining that two more volumes of the Biographical Dictionary are necessary, due to the "very erroneous & defective state of the preceding edition, from which, in what remains of letter W & the subsequent letters, I can derive very little assistance"; adding "Indeed a particular attention to the lives now before me is the more necessary, as they have been neglected, from haste or want of materials, in all former collections of which I can avail myself"; writing that Volume XXXII, which will be published on March 1, 1817, will be the last volume: "Merely as a labour, I may rejoice to be released: but as an employment delightful for its variety, interest & curiosity, I own I shall reluctantly part with it"; thanking Nichols for the corrections and information that he has relayed from various correspondents: "To these I have paid the most respectful attention, & I should be sorry if I have been thought to have neglected my duty in not noticing them individually as they occurred."