Hayley-XXI-19

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Sunday
Oct 21 1792

My dear Eliza

You are fortunate I think in having made an early Retreat from Park Gate as We have such continual deluges of Rain

I am glad you met with so pleasing a Visiter [sic] at Litchfield as the polite Bishop you mention – it pleases me to find He expressed Himself in so flattering a Manner on the inestimable Friendship I have formed with his engaging Relation the dear Bard of Weston – the marvellous incidents of whose Life must have interested you extremely if his Cousin related them (as I doubt not but He did) with Intelligence & Sensibility –

You were surprized at my Expression of the two Boys – I thought I had long ago related to you the Manner in which I was induced to bring home from the Village where Cowper lives an interesting Lad

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who like myself had been afflicted with great illness in his Childhood – it happened that in my Search for an Electrical Machine to try its medical powers on Mrs Unwin I became acquainted with a good Woman & her Son who had an illeg [?possibly 'decayed'?] \old electrical/ apparatus which She had used for a Complaint in her Legs – the Youth brought this for our Service to Cowpers [sic] & daily acted there as my Electrical assistant. His Father whom Cowper described to me as a very worthy intelligent but unfortunate Man had repeatedly failed in business & was then engaged on a distant Excursion to sell Lace for different Merchants – the Lad asked if I could recommend Him to a post as a Clerk in London as He writes a very good Hand & is deep in Arithmetic – it struck me that He might be very useful in teaching Tom what He had learned so well & by a literary Commerce might acquire a little more Latin & some Greek from his little disciple – I could not afford to give him any Salary as a Secretary above

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the trifle of 5 Guineas a year towards his Clothes – I consulted Cowper on my Idea – He thought it a happy one for both the Lads - & spoke so much in favor of Tom the Elder & his Parents that I brought Him \hither/ both as a Preceptor & a Pupil to the lesser Tom & I think the Project seems to answer my expectation, as the Boys are very good Friends, & contribute I trust to Each others Improvement — Tom the Elder is I think with some singularities a very good Lad – He is an Oddity in his Person & manners & puts me a little in Mind of our little Friend Flaxman – If He makes as valuable a Man I shall have great reason to be proud of my young charge – His age is between 14 & 15 but as He has something between deformity & dwarfishness in his Person He is not so much taller than Tom the little as you might expect — But it is Time to end my long Story of the two Toms which I must not do without adding they are both well – Tom the little is highly flattered by yr kind attention to his Portrait & adds his Love & best wishes to those

of yr affectionate
H

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[inverted] yr account of the Derby writer of anonymous Letters has excited my Curiosity – I think from yr brief account of them the poor Man must be crazy — This is the most charitable Construction we can put on a superlative Malevolence

adieu

To

Mrs Hayley

Derby