Leigh Hunt letter to John W. Dalby, September 17, 1857

              (No. 25.)



Hammersmith



Sept. 17. [1857.]



My dear Dalby,



Not having had the courage to read your letter through at the time of my receiving it, owing to circumstances which had more than usually softened me, I did not see your request in the closing paragraph till this instant, otherwise I would not have delayed writing. I am as well as I can reasonably expect to be, considering that infirmities of age seem to have been growing upon me of late faster than before, and



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whatever in regret ^ & protestation it expressed, was the first to leave itself at my door, when my affliction took place (you know whose that is): his letters were then more cordial to me, or indeed even so much so, as now: not a single other friend or school acquaintance first or last, has failed to treat me with every regard & respect; and the little parlour which you sate in has just now, of his own motion, received a vision from a new one in the person of the amiable man! an admirable judge, the Lord Chief Baron, who reminds me that he was one of a club with me in my younger days, that met for the cultivation of public speaking. He wants me to go to this country-house at Hatton, and I can’t, I have been so bodily unwell; but I am trying to be able, by jaunts in omnibuses, and rehearsals of distances from home on Richard Hill. -



My dear Dalby, with love to your loving household, and thanks for their remembrances of me, I am every most affectionately yours,

Leigh Hunt.