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April 7
1782

My dear Sister

I scribble a few lines to you in extreme Haste merely because April is arrived & I wish you not to let Giovanni bid you Farewell without settling the plan of the kind Visit He has partly promised to his Friends of the South

I flatter myself that our Motions will particularly suit his Convenience - & that we may ourselves have the pleasure of conducting Him into Sussex – Eliza will pass great part [sic] of next Month with some of our most intimate Friends in Surry [sic] to prepare her very tender Frame by degrees for the change of Climate from Bath to Eartham — I hope to have finished

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all my present literary Business so as to meet her in Surry about the 20^th of May or perhaps the 15th & we intend returning to Eartham together at the close of that Month

Now if you will let me know at what Time Giovanni returns from Cambridgeshire & where He can most conveniently meet us we will contrive accordingly — pray laugh Him out of his idle diffident notions – I am perfectly sure that Eliza & He will be as much pleased with each other as they ought to be —

you have acted so judiciously in not shewing my Squib to Darwin & you have defended yr preceeding conduct towards Him with so much

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Eloquence that I can blame you no longer - especially as you have resolved with great discretion to take no notice of the darwinian Sneer which is certainly visible in the note I return to you – I am sorry that the dr^s sarcastic Spleen gives such a \dark/ Tinge to the opinions of Boothby - all the critical remarks that I have heard on yr Elegy have a very different Complexion –

I wish I had Leisure to say more on this interesting Subject but at present I must bid you adieu

Farewell & believe me
every yr affectionate
H

Alphonso is perfectly recovered

I ask you a thousand Pardons for repeatedly forgetting to speak of Mr Tasker —subscribe to his Book if you are tolerably rich & shew Him (as a double proof of yr magnanimity) that you can write better Odes than his Translations of Pindar –

Take up yr golden Lyre & begin yr Song to the

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returning Garrison of St Philips or their brave & compassionate commander General Murray – theres a fine Lyric Subject for you, both Sublime & Pathetic!

I expect at least half an ode in yr next Letter

God bless you
& yr Lyre