Queens Square Place Westm nr

3 May 1780

The Proof you have given me, my dear Madam, that I have sometimes a Place

in your Thoughts, by the kind Token of your Remembrance which was

forwarded hither by M r Crowe was so flattering to

me, that I should be wanting to myself if I did not make you my

acknowledgments for so

agreable a mark of your esteem; and it is with the greatest truth

that I

asure you, nothing cou'd be more wellcome to

me, unless it was (to make use of an expression of gallantry) to have

received it from your own hand by your accompanying it hither. My Wife is

so well satisfied of this, that I have her commission to tell you, it

would have been the most effectual means you cou'd have taken

to have brought the favour house to herself at the same time Perhaps

you are not aware what you have done to me you have made me Purse-proud and

that is what I never thought I sho d have been indeed in the other

house could I have had any reason to be so, but what can it be that

has so much engaged our good Mrs Henchman this length of time since we

were so happy under her Roof, that she has not been able to

find an opportunity of making us equally so under our own. and is the

Capital so barren of Inducements as to afford no motives in the way of

Business, or Convenience of any kind sufficient to draw our

Friend Mr Henchman to it? even was Queen's Square Place no Part of it

— for it would be mortifying indeed to us to have occasion to

think, He has once been in Town, without coming to us, & taking up his

abode with us.

It gave us a sensible concern to understand poor M r

Capper's Relapse compelled him to take another flight to Bath, as we can

easily imagine nothing but the Necessity of Health, could reconcile him to

take so distant a Journey a second time so soon after the first, and

abandon, as it were, the pleasures of domestic happiness such as he is

blessed with, in M rs Cap per, & the endearing pledges of their mutual affection, in a

situation so desirable that one can easily imagine Nothing but health was

wanting to their wishes — it is our's, you may asure

her, that it may be amply supplied where he is, & that he may carry

back so good a Stock of it, as to have no more

occasion to take

so a distant Journey to fetch it — If he'll be so kind to

call on us, upon his return, we shall be glad to convince him, that

what I have said is not mere Compliment. Rich as Earl Soham is in

agreable neighbours, the Loss of any One more especially

such a One must however be sensibly felt by the Rest.

You were informed by Mrs Bentham's Correspondence, with you, that we

passed the last Summer in Northamptonshire, where we were five months at a

House, my Friend, Sir Francis Basset, was so obliging to give me the use

of called Sunley Park & where our time was chiefly taken up in

attending the Inclosure of an Estate of my Wife's

adjoyning to his in consequence of an Act of Parliament that

passed last Sessions for Inclosing the Common Fields

in that Parish.