Lamb does not date the letter. Estimated date of writing drawn from the postmark.
Signed with initials.
Address panel with postmarks: "Mrs Hazlitt / No. 4 Palace Street / Pimlico."
Lamb gives the full place of writing as "Mr Walden's, Church Street, Edmonton." Edmonton is an area in the London Borough of Enfield.
Sarah Stoddart was the sister of Sir John Stoddart, kings advocate at Malta. In 1808 she married William Hazlitt (1778-1830); in 1822 they were divorced.
Informing her that Mary's mental illness has led him to take her to Edmonton, where he is staying with her: "I am driven from house and home, by Mary's illness. I took a sudden resolution to take my sister to Edmonton, where she was under medical treatment last time, and have arranged to board and lodge with the people. Thank God, I have repudiated Enfield. I have got out of hell, despair of heaven, and must sit down contented in a halfway purgatory. Thus ends this strange eventful history;" promising to come see her soon; concluding "I repent not of my resolution."