Autograph letter signed : "Mainhill" [Ecclefechan], to his brother, Thomas Carlyle, 1820 Mar. 25.

Reminding him that their "leisure hours are now naturally, very considerable diminished" because it is "the time of sowing"; asking his brother to "make allowance for dullness and stupidity" in his letter; commenting on the "lives of sundry eminent personages" his brother is writing, and remarking that he "should like well to have a reading of some of those chaps"; entreating him to return home in April so he can improve his health by "inhaling ... healthfull native breezes" instead of staying in "a bustling reekie old clachan like Edin[burgh]"; explaining why their parents have not written recently; commenting on the death of a neighbor who "went to bed in good health" but "died after two or three days spent in excruciating pain" due to "some failure in his digestion facultys."