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(Dated Friday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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Transcript

Friday morn[in]g

My Dear Sir!

Let me welcome you home again, & I wish I had better news about myself. Yet, it is not bad, for my affairs are settled; only I know not which way to turn myself, at so critical a moment, & not having been able to see my immediate friends since my arrival, without a little pecuniary aid. If you & Mr Gurney (to whom I did not choose to apply in your absence) c[oul]d assist me, for perhaps a very short time; it w[oul]d be a particular convenience to me, & w[oul]d prevent the settling of my affairs from being almost ineffectual. I sh[oul]d hope to be able to repay it as soon as I got to Town (the middle of next month, when Lady Croft returns out of Cheshire); but, not to engage for more than I am sure of, can you oblige me with £150 till October, when at Michaelmas I am pay’d my midsummer rents? You will show this to Mr G. to whom I have not said a syllable. Such kindness cannot make me more than I am,

My Dear Sir, Your oblig’d friend
H[erber]t Croft.

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Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

Written on the back of a prospectus from 'The Delphin Classics'

(Dated Saturday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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Saturday

My Dear Sir!

The picture of my children 5 or 6 years ago, {1} but very like still, I sent, this morning; for you & Mrs T. to see. You can return it on monday; when I will beg you to lend Sophy another body-colour drawing, & Mary Anne another of Mortimer’s, w[hic]h I think Mrs T. was good enough to say she c[oul]d borrow. The bearer brings Mrs T.’s two, & their copies. Sophy has purposely made hers lighter, as I thought yours was too Penseroso; I being fond of the pleasant saddle honest Dryden mentions in his dedication of Virgil, “w[hic]h will be sure to amble, when {2} the world is upon the hardest trot”. Give me gay sunshine; or moonlight, w[hic]h does not add to the gloominess of scenes always gloomy enough.

Dont† forget, if we ever get a good day, to give Sophy a lesson in botany, at Downes’s garden, some morning; as {3} I expect she understands a little. When she leaves Yarmouth (in a fortnight or so, I imagine) she will, I am sure, be happy if Mrs T. can charge her with any commissions in Town. Tomorrow ev[enin]g I mean to come & sit with you.

Ever most truly y[ou]rs
H. Croft

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Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Presumably the painting of his three daughters as cherubim, attributed to Lemuel Francis Abbott, now in the possession of the National Trust.

{2} This word, which is at the beginning of a line, is preceded by opening inverted commas.

{3} This word resembles ‘or’ more closely, but ‘as’ makes more sense.

† Sic.

(Undated. Postmarked 1 or 4 Feb. 1802. The date ‘Feb. 4—1802’ has been added at the head in pencil.)