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Friday Morn
August 10 1781

My dear Sister

By a most provoking mistake of the post your enchanting pacquet [sic] did not reach Eartham till ten oclock last night; & this hasty acknowledgement is to travel in the pocket of Eliza, who is preparing to mount her palfrey, & sally forth to breakfast at Chichester, six miles from our Village.

I scribble therefore in extreme Haste, merely to say, that I will write to you in a few days, & that I cannot let a single post depart without telling you this perverse Incident, because I well know how painful suspense, & any Idea of neglect is to such a Heart, as that of our dear Sister. When I look at the date of your charming letter, I am almost frantic with rage to think of the delay – the postman may thank his stars, I am not an absolute Tartar Prince. If I were, I should order him in my present wrath to be chained to a mail-cart for Life – yet