Hayley-XXI-66

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Parkgate August 7^th 1792

My dear H

I should have written to you from Newcastle but I found that I could not do justice to the kind hospitality of my Friends there if I wrote under the influence of my impending journey to Parkgate.

I therefore delayed thanking you for your kind letter (which met me at Newcastle on the evening of my arrival), till I was arrived at the place of my destination which I reached yesterday evening - so I now take up my pen to speak of Staffordshire & shall say nothing of Parkgate till I am better acquainted with its merits.

I did not intend staying more than three nights at Newcastle but not knowing in what state I might find M.^r Hatrell whose health & spirits like M.^r Nicholas’s are very

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uncertain, but he was extremely well & his manners have ever been to me truely [sic] cordial & pleasant. I therefore spent my time there perfectly to my satisfaction; & I was so happy as to find M.^r & M.^rs Wedgewood at home in a morning visit which I paid at Etruria

The grounds are well laid out, & manifest that taste for which M.^r W is so justly esteemed but except one room nearly the exact size & proportions of your Library both house & situation are moderate. I told him your sentiments of the Penelope which he \said he/ should be very happy to shew you again at Etruria.

I confess I agree with my friend M.^rs Heathcote in preferring the Lady in Comus on account of the light which is thrown upon her, tho as M.^r Wedgewood observed any other watching a sick child is an interesting subject

yet after all if M.^r Wright should give me one of his pictures I should make choice of an Italian Landship [?], & I think you will not

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condemn my taste. I am however so stupid & unsettled in my new existence at present that you must esteem it a kindness in me to bid you adieu - Drinking & diving into saltwater has a very different effect as this letter savours of the sickliness of the former I trust my next will partake more of the spirit of the latter - In the mean time I hope to be enlivened with a further history of your interesting visit to the Bard of Buckinghamshire

you will direct to me at the Assembly Room Parkgate near Chester.

I beg my love to Tom & kind respects to Mary

I am y.^rs very sincerely
Eliza Hayley

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William Hayley Esq.^re
Eartham
near
Chichester