| Description | Sir,
Mr. Boulton being under the necessity of employing the hand of an Amanuensis, I have received his instructions to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 27th ultimo and 27th instant and to apologize to you and to the Revd. Solomon Herschell for the delay which has ensued in replying to the former of them, which he begs me to assure you would not have happened had he enjoyed even a moderate portion of good health; but the fact is that Mr. Boulton has been very rapidly declining for this month past, and what adds to the misfortune is the disorder with which he is afflicted produces most excruciating pain and deprives him sometimes of his mental and constantly of his bodily powers, insomuch that he can seldom bear even the slightest exertion of either the one or the other.
Mr. Boulton received some time since from an unknown hand a Copy of the Revd. Mr. Herschell’s Fast-Day Sermon, the perusal of which gave him extreme satisfaction, and he is glad to embrace this opportunity of returning—which he begs leave to do through you—his best thanks to Mr. Herschel for the pleasure and edification he derived from a Sermon which breathes a f[ree] spirit of pure piety and does infinite credit to the Reverend Author.
Respecting the machine referred to in Mr. Herschell’s letter Mr. Boulton regrets that it arrives too late to derive from him any benefit, his day of invention being forever over; the injunctions of the Faculty, and the more imperious mandate of Nature, forbidding him to tread any longer in the fascinating paths of the Mechanic Arts, or to interfere in any of the Concerns of Business.
If, however, it were possible that Mr. Boulton’s experience could suggest any thing that might be useful to the Revd. Mr. Herschell it would give him a peculiar satisfaction; and if, under the circumstances here noted, you should still wish to see Mr. Boulton on the subject of your communication, he desires me to say that, although his infirmities will not allow him to converse much with you, nor to promise Mr. Herschell any mechanical aid in perfecting his Machine—that you may both rely with perfect safety on his entire confidence.
I am, respectfully, Sir, your obedient Servant,
Wm. Cheshire
Mint Office, Soho,
May 29, 1807.
The hours of the day that would best sui[t Mr.] Boulton are from 11 to 3.
Mr. S. Solomon,
Great Charles Street,
Birmingham.
[Edited transcript.] |