Hayley-XII-20

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My dear Sister

our Letters crossed each other last night at Chichester, but by sending off an extraordinary Courier this Morning, I shall overtake the departing post, & you will thus receive from me two pacquets at once. But the Burthen of all our songs must continue the same, & express only our eager Hopes of seeing you at Eartham, & our Gratitude to your good Father for so generously sparing you for the delight of your Friends —

Give us a Line to say what Time you will reach Chichester &

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Eliza will meet you there –

I shall scold you for scandalizing the Genius of my Friend Romney & for speaking so profanely of your own Person — If He does not paint a Head of you that is at once both Like & Lovely I promise you I will throw it into the Fire — Can Female Vanity, or Female Diffidence demand a sublimer Sacrifice?

do not vex yr lively Spirit In consequence of my remarks on yr Epistle to Mundy – I wish those

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sarcastic notes had been in another key because I think it would have improved the general Harmony & Beauty of the Poem - but you certainly justify yrself by Example, & probably it will not strike other Readers in the \same/ Light as it strikes me, from the accidental Circumstance of my having written an idle Squib to a neighbouring poetical Justice of our Country, which you shall see when we have the Happiness of seeing you —

I wish you may be able to decypher this vilest of Scrawls

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but I am eager to catch the post of this Morning, that nothing may retard you even for a day in yr setting forth for the South — Eliza is transported with the prospect of seeing you so soon – accept our united kind wishes & believe me my dear Sister

Ever yr

most faithful & affectionate
WH

Eartham
July 22 1782