Thomas Carlyle letter to Leigh Hunt, July 18, 1833

              Craigenputtock, 19th July, 1833- 



My Dear Sir,



There seems no hope now of our good Thornton; so, these two letters, memorials of what might have been and was so near being, must now go the road they came. We had still an expectation; for I wrote off, to the care of Inglis, the instant I had Thornton’s letter/s/, who however I conclude was already gone. We are really vexed all of us; we think how happy your son could have been and we with him in these fine July days; my Brother here too to have doctored him, and nothing but the shine of wholesome skies, and the sound of green woods all around us. Thornton’s letter, so ingenuous so true and gentle looking, had not a little increased our interest. But what can we do? Pray only that the good youth may have got home to his own again, and feel his great misery (to the well known) assuaged a little. After such a misventure it looks foolish to say more about visits: I will only repeat however that I took you at your word in that kind imagination of your also having a house in Nithsdale; be it well understood then that so stands it. For the resy