Pardon the liberty I take in desiring your acceptance of this little Drawing. It is not the work of an Artist, but of a very old friend, the Niece and heiress of the first Portrait Painter of the Age my intimate friend Sir Joshua Reynolds. It will serve to remind you sometimes of the Cottage you have so often visited and of its Mistress whom you have laid under such unreturnable obligations.

I go on well upon the whole, and the better because Winter so kindly delays to set in, in its roughest form