Confirms that her health has been bad since Smith's last visit but implores him and his three friends to still visit. Grieg, her gardener, has been confined for five weeks after injuring his leg climbing over a gate but has escaped fever and mortification. Her botanical zeal low recently. Prefers eating 'Convolvulus batatas' [sweet potato] to potatoes.

Thanks Smith for his "obliging attention" and assures him "her sentiments have always corresponded with those of the song" [Smith has annotated at foot of letter: "[William] Cowper's [(1731-1800)] poem on the slave trade ["The Negro's Lament]"]. Sorry that she has to leave London just as Smith's botanical lectures begin.