Autograph letter signed : London, to R. W. Elliston, 1802 February 1.

Saying that his nephew's two recent letters were forwarded to him from Cambridge; responding to their contents: "The former of them found me in a state little calculated to read with indifference any exclamations of rebuke -- from whom? -- from a nephew -- and for what? was it for inattention to his affairs? -- that cannot be, unless any remittance has been made, & has not reached me; in which case, I surely am not answerable"; writing that he is extremely busy: "the business of my situation is as much increased, as my ability to transact it is diminished; and [...] very few are my hours of respite -- so few that were I to make a point of answering every formal letter from my numerous relations, I must abridge myself even of my natural rest"; referring to unspecified good news (possibly another pregnancy): "I find it necessary to write, in order to do justice to my feelings by expressing the pleasure I derive from an event, which is attended with circumstances so favourable to your wife; and which it is hoped by the blessing of Heaven, will prove an increase of your domestic happiness"; saying of himself that "I have but a melancholy tale to tell. Of the last two months, a very small portion have I passed free from sorrow & sickness. About a month I have been under confinement to my apartments, partly from the consequences of a Fall in descending some stone steps rendered slippery by the Frost, and partly by a most obstinate cold & cough. The wound in my [word missing] occasioned by the Fall is healed, but I still feel the effects of the Shock."