Thanks for Smith's letter of 18 August and medical advice regarding his giddiness and constipation with scybala. Cumberland weather still unaccountably hot; recalls that at this time of his first year in Cumberland there was still snow on the hills and thick ice but this year the harvest is almost complete. Not surprised Smith has found 'Senecio lividus'; recalls collecting seed of it from Oxford walls and has grown it on the walls at Rose Castle along with 'Antirrhinum cymbalaria', 'Hieracium morurm', 'Tussilago odorata', and 'Asarum europaeum'.

Unsure whether the weavers want of work is due to the manufacturers not having sufficient orders or that machinery has been brought into greater use. No indication of political contest heard yet from the new Lord Thanet [Charles Tufton, 10th Earl of Thanet (1770-1832)], who is not so "red-hot" as his late brother [Sackville Tufton, 9th Earl of Thanet (1769-1825)]. Mrs Goodenough persistent complaints compounded by her "unconquerable dislike to taking remedies & using applications".

Heard that Smith's bad health forced him to abandon his Bristol lectures. Lady Cullum alarmingly ill with spasms of the thorax and abdomen: camphor, opium, and [ether] have gave little relief but small doses of calomel and castor oil helped, and she is now convalescing though her appetite is suppressed by an intermittent fever. On journey to Cheltenham could only briefly stop at Oxford to use stables and coach house of Dr [Martin] Routh [(1755-1854)], Master of Magdalen College, as it was race week.

Transcribes brief extract of letter from General [Thomas] Hardwicke on improvement of his health. Implores Smith not to overwork himself on "English Flora" and to forget "every thing unpleasant that passed at Cambridge" [Smith's campaign for botany professorship]. His son at Aix-la-Chapelle, [Germany], or Brussels, [Netherlands], his daughter-in-law's poor health the same despite trying so many celebrated baths in Europe.