Tuesday
My dear Henry
I should have thanked you before now for your very interesting Letter had we not been daily expecting to see you arrive. I am very sorry the delay should be occasioned by your being unwell – I have been very much plagued with gout since my arrival, & have put myself into the hands of a new Doctor, who gives me great hopes of a thorough reform in my constitution – he speaks so sensibly & encouragingly that I have begun to act on his opinion & follow his advice, it consists principally in a strict attention to diet, – he says that something in my daily habits is evidently wrong & his object is to find out what it is which disagrees with me, he thinks it is vegetable acid, & I at present therefore touch nothing which can by possibility contain any – leaving me not much choice in the selection of my dinner – more of all this however when we meet – You cannot doubt what pleasure your Letter must have given me when you recollect my constant lamentation, at our having nothing ex<tant?> like a plan, & my wish that your posterity at least should not be in the same predicament – I propose great pleasure to my self in studying it quietly sur les lieux 1 it has often been a question with me whether a door out of the Library where you state one to be, would yet be an advantage, giving us as it would an additional bed room – but there would be as in all things a corresponding disadvantage – I do not understand how the larger room you mention where Car: Hor: & Mlle 2, now are could be managed seeing that they are not on the same level – I remember though that in Bucks view 3 the roof over Mlles room is much higher than it now is – the floor therefore might have been correspondingly raised to the level of the Library – I long very much to see you my dear Henry & your Constance 4 & your child 5! – & when the Gout is quite gone, I shall hardly be restrained from running down to you
GOD bless you
yr affe
C F
Please cite as “TALBOT4954,” in Ɛpsilon: accessed on