Hayley-XXI-12

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Eartham
Sunday
July 15--92

My dear Eliza

I congratulate you most heartily on yr having settled your route to the Sea in a Manner that will I trust afford you satisfaction & amusement in no trifling degree — The Circumstance of having yr pleasant Friends in the road will render the Journey itself agreable [sic] & the Sight of Etruria is such as I should envy you if it were possible to envy the pleasures of those to whom we wish every thing kind & good — you will see I believe our Friend Wrights picture of Penelope at Etruria which is I think for Sentiment & Expression the happiest production of his pencil — How is the

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amiable Painter Himself – I fear like myself too much of an Invalide to be comfortably & successfully busy on works that require much mental Exertion - & the worst of Maladies to a Mind naturally active is to be reduced to Inactivity —

Many Thanks to you for what you so kindly & sensibly suggest in regard to the little scholar whose future destiny I wish to be as free from Thorns as the chances of human life will allow – I will do what I can to shield Him from Mortification & I trust his own good understanding & active Spirit will lead him to make a Figure in that beneficent Profession where an accomplished Mind & a tender Heart

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may find I think the noblest Field for Exertion & one of the best roads I know to satisfactory Emolument & to real Honour —

The Botanic Garden will I think afford you great pleasure - it is assuredly an admirable Poem & its Beauties are so varied that I think the most fastidious of Readers must in the Course of it find something to his Taste —

I promised you as you truly tell me an account of my late visit –- much may be said in merely saying it was a visit to a Brother Bard – the enchanting Cowper! But I will give you a more diffuse History of the various delights it afforded me in my next — at present an oppressive Head ach [sic] renders me peculiarly unfit for scribbling – but I would not let the post of this day depart without without thanking you for yr amicable Letter - adieu - Tom joins me in every kind wish to you – Believe me Ever yr affectionate H

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To

M^rs Hayley
Derby