Letter from William Wordsworth, Grasmere, to Sir George Beaumont, 1806 August 5 : autograph manuscript signed.

Asking for his advice on negotiations he has entered into to purchase a piece of land in Patterdale; enclosing a letter he wishes him to read after he has "...furnished you with the necessary preface;" describing a house he has found in Patterdale which he would like to purchase and explaining in detail the particulars of the house, his offer and a higher offer from a clergyman who lives on an adjoining property; discussing the letter he has enclosed from his agent, Thomas Wilkinson, and alluding to a conversation Wilkinson had with Lord Lowther which resulted in an offer of help from Lord Lowther; adding "Strange as it is that W[ilkinson] could not perceive, that if i was unwilling to pay an exorbitant price out of my own money, I should be still more unwilling to pay it out of another's, especially of a person who had shown to me so much kindness, treated me with such respectful delicacy, and given such striking proof of his desire to apply his property to beneficent purposes;" continuing with a note by Dorothy Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont in which she discusses their plans for the winter; saying "...the moment we received your first letter, we determined to seek no further for a house in this neighbourhood except in the case of Coleridge's wintering at Keswick. Should he determine to do so if, within three or four miles of Keswick (which is very improbable) a suitable house should be vacant, my Brother will take it for the sake of being near to Coleridge;" relating how they would travel to Coleorton; adding that Mrs. Wordsworth is well and will be traveling with William in a few days to Park House to see John and Dorothy, since they are still there to avoid getting whooping cough which "...is in every quarter of the Vale, and there are yet a great number of children who have not had it. The house seems strangely dull without them. Derwent Coleridge is in the measles, and they expect his brother and sister and Edith Southey to sicken every day; and every day we look for news of Coleridge's arrival;" thanking her for transcribing the lines from Sir John Beaumont's poems; concluding, in a postscript, that she is certain Lady Beaumont shares their feelings about the purchase of the estate and saying "It is a most mortifying affair, and a perplexing too, though nothing can be done to prevent completing the purchase."