‘My dear Papa,—I received your letter this morning. I am sorry you had not a pleasant journey. Every day since you went we have had nothing but rain all day (most part of the night) long, so I have not been able to stir out, only in the chaise. I am much the same as when I saw you, but hope that when we have fine weather I shall get better. My leg _is_ a great deal better. Mr. Smith advises porter, the beer is so new.... If you like to send a quarter cask my mother will pay the carriage; she has no opinion of Bury porter. If you send it by the Diss waggon let me know when it comes; if you don’t like this, order Bonnet to get me some at Bury. What terrible news you write me in your letter. I really have nothing more to tell you; write soon, and believe me ‘Your dutiful Daughter, ‘M. YOUNG. ‘N.B.—Papa, you said you would send me some red wine, as there is none drank here; he speaks very much against my drinking so much water without red wine in it, because my ankles swell so much.’ The following were memoranda noted at the time:— The 11th of June I went to the Duke of Bedford’s sheep-shearing, and got back (to London) on the 16th. The next day I had a letter that terrified me so much that on the 19th I set off for Suffolk, and went directly to Troston Hall (the seat of Capel Lofft, Esq.), where the dear dear child had been carried some days before for change of air. Good God! what a situation I found her in, worse than I had conceived possible in so short a time, so helpless and immovable as to be carried from a chair to her bed, evidently in one of those cruel consumptive cases which flatter by some favourable symptoms, yet with fatal ones that almost deprive hope. Good Heaven! what have I to look forward to if I lose my child? For her own sake I know not what to hope; the world is so full of wickedness and misery, and she must be so innocent and free from crimes, that her lot hereafter, I hope and have confidence in the mercies of God, will be blessed. Ought I then, but from selfishness, to wish her here? Yet a fond father’s feelings will be predominant. Oh, save her, save her, is my prayer to God Almighty!