Letter from Uvedale Price, Foxley, to Sir George Beaumont, 1798 March 18 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking him for paying for the cider he had ordered from Price; describing his finances as "pinched and squeezed because I must take a fancy for building at Aberystwyth! I did resist as long as I could, I believe at least two years after I had got the ground; but Lady Caroline & I found ourselves always on the spot, always looking at the waves breaking against the near rocks, & at the long chain of distant mountains with their monarch Snowdon at their head, & we thought how charming it would be [to] look at it comfortably from our own window in all weathers [...] & I must say we have enjoyed it even more than I expected"; saying that he had originally thought of just having "two or three nutshells of rooms," but then John Nash was mentioned to him and Nash proposed a larger house; describing in detail his ideas about how the house should be designed in response to the landscape and saying that he conveyed these ideas to Nash who was "exceptionally struck" by them; saying that he thinks Nash has subsequently "contrived the house most admirably for the situation"; writing that, since its completion, the taxes on the house have increased greatly and he can no longer afford to keep it; saying that he will have to rent it out and possibly sell it, "if the times don't mend"; asking if Beaumont and his wife would be interested in it: "To be sure if I were obliged to sell, it would be a great comfort to me that you should have it: I should like to be your guest, & to talk over with you all that I thought of doing but was forced to let alone for want of cash"; mentioning that he had sent a description of the view from Castle House, written in Italian, to a painter named Buonaiuti (in part to persuade Buonaiuti to come see the house, and in part to practice his Italian) and that he will send it on to the Beaumonts, as he knows "Lady Beaumont is a great critic in Italian" and the description will give them a very precise sense of the location; listing at length the plusses and minuses of Aberystwyth and the surrounding area; describing Castle House's particular advantages; giving additional information about Nash's fees and way of working.