Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleorton, to Sara Coleridge, 1806 December 25 : autograph manuscript signed.

Informing her of his safe arrival with Hartley at Coleorton and describing Hartley's behavior on the journey; saying "He has behaved very well indeed - only that when he could get out of the Coach, at dinner or to make water, I was obliged to be on incessant watch to prevent him from rambling off into the fields - instead of doing what he wanted by the Coach, he twice ran into the field, and to the very further end of it - and once after the dinner was on the Table, I was out 5 minutes seeking him in great alarm, & found him at the further end of a wet meadow, on the marge of a river. After dinner, fearful of losing our places by the window (of the long Coach) I ordered him to go into the Coach & sit in the place where he was before : and I would follow. In about 5 minutes I followed : no Hartley! Halloing - in vain! At length, where should I discover him! In the same meadow only at a greater distance, & close down on the very edge of the Water. I was angry from downright Fright! And what, think you, was Cataphract's excuse! - 'It was a misunderstanding, Father! I thought, you see, that you bid me go to the very same place, in the meadow, where I was.' - I told him, that he had interpreted the Text by the suggestions of the Flesh, not the Inspiration of the Spirit: and his Wish the naughty Father of the base-born Thought. However, saving and excepting his passion for field-truantry, & his hatred of confinement (in which his fancy at least / Doth sing a doleful song about green fields, / How sweet it were in Woods and wild Savannas / To hunt for Food and be a named man / And wander up and down at Liberty) he is a very good and sweet child - of strict honor & truth, from which he never deviates except in the form of sophism when he sports his logical false dice in the name of Excuses. This however is the mere effect of his activity of Thought, & his aiming at being clever & ingenious;" saying Hartley has been very friendly towards the children, Sara Hutchinson has taken good care of him and how attached Hartley has become to Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Wilson; adding "Concerning the London Lectures, we are to discuss it, William & I, this Evening - and I shall write you at full the day after tomorrow...Hartley has coughed a little every morning, since he left Greta Hall; but only such a little cough as you heard from him at the door. He is in high Health. All the Children have the hooping Cough; but in an exceedingly mild degree. Neither Sara nor I, ever remember to have had it / Hartley is made to keep at a distance from them; & only to play with Johnny in the open ai[r]."