| Description | Dear Father,
I have delayed these last days writing you in order to see if the good effects of our journey to Gotha would continue, and to be able to fix the day of our departure. It is with the greatest joy that I assure you my strenght and appetite returns apace. I am now perfectly free from every feverish symtom, and the only remains of my illness is my meggerness, which, however, becomes daily less observable.
The doctor has given me his full consent to begin my journey when I please; I have thus fixed upon Monday sennight as the day of my departure. Mr. Reinhard will accompany me to Franckfort, and at our arrival Mr. Collins will have finished his business; I shall therefore only make a short stay there to recover myself a little from the first fatigues. Our rout from hence will be through Mayence, Coblents, Cologne, Nimwegen, and through Holland. In every respect this is the best road: one finds throughout better inns and more populous town than upon any other.
I am rather embarassed in regard to Mr. Reinhard’s payment. During my illness he has been at many extra expences upon my account, and to offer him a reimbursement would offend him. I think it will be the most advisable to pay him a quarter of his former salary, viz. 15 guineas, and then, if you think proper, to make him a useful present.
I have just received the parcel of stockings for Mr. Wiegleb, but without any account. There are only six pair for him, the rest for strangers; it is therefore necessary that I know the price. I must thus beg you to order Mr. Walker to send the account to Mr. Reinhard.
Pray give my love to my sister, and I hope she will excuse me answering her letter; I have such an accumulation of visits to make, and so many things to bring in order before my departure, that it be impossible for me to attempt it. I must also beg you to accept of these excuses for the abruptness of my letter.
I remain your dutiful son,
Mattw. R. Boulton
[Edited transcript.] |