Letter from Uvedale Price, Foxley, to Sir George Beaumont, 1805 April 24 : autograph manuscript signed.

Regretting that he cannot attend the Academy dinner due to inflammation in his hands: "although I can manage to write a little, I cannot cut my own meat: it is true that Knight is generally placed next to me, but there is no trial of friendship I should not sooner put him to, than that of cutting another man's meat when he ought to be eating his own"; thanking Sir George for a description of William Henry West Betty's performance as Hamlet; adding that he hears from Richard FitzPatrick that Charles James Fox's opinion of Betty's Hamlet matches Beaumont's own, "that it is not the most perfect of little Roscius's parts but the one in which he shews the strongest marks of genius"; saying that advice he had received from Andrew Knight and passed on to Colonel Mitford about putting "mineral tar" on trees to prevent them from being eaten by cattle is not only wrong but that, according to his gardener, the treatment is in fact dangerous to the trees; saying that both sheep and cattle ate through the tar: "I caught one Calf in the fact, & so little conscious of doing mischief, that he let me rub his face while he was nibbling the dry tar"; adding, however, that Sir George can tell Colonel Mitford that "my Shepherd continues to be highly pleased with it as a dressing for sheep where there is any sore place, as the flies will not come near it"; requesting, if Sir George sees a "Mr. Davy" (probably Humphry Davy), that he ask him about methods for getting tar off trees; mentioning that Davy and Andrew Knight met each other in Norfolk and share many common interests: "he [Andrew] has made a number of most ingenious experiments on vegetation, & is moreover a most experienced fisherman, & has promised Mr. Davy, who I find is [an] extremely eager sportsman, a great deal of excellent fishing"; adding "I am no naturalist & no fisherman, & cannot offer him such temptations as Andrew, but I beg you will tell him that if he does come into the County I shall have the finest pleasure in seeing him."