Letter from William Gilpin, Vicar's Hill, to Sir George Beaumont, 1802 December 19 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking Beaumont for his sympathy and describing his wife Margaret's condition: "since the stroke, the dear Companion of the last 50 years of my life, has been uniformly gathering strength. She can nearly walk without assistance. Her head is perfectly clear; her features are not in the least drawn aside; & her speech is not much affected. But whether these are signs of recovery; or preparative only to another attack, is still matter of awful expectation. These are events, which, in one shape or other, happen in all families & we must live in resigned expectation of them"; adding some comments about composition and light in paintings ("Several modes of composition may be equally beautiful; & yet may not equally please: but the distribution of light is more subject to rule"); saying that he has had letters from Sir Harry Neale, who reports that his wife Grace is bearing the voyage to Naples better than they had expected; sending his "best respects" to Lady Beaumont.