My ever dear Friend, Yours very affectionately, G. MORTIMER. TO THE REV. THOMAS MORTIMER. Madeley, Dec. 22, 1820. My dear Brother, WE have named our little boy Herbert, after our old and mutual friend; and happy, indeed, should we think ourselves were he even in some small degree to resemble that saintly man. I give you his name, with the hope of its being inserted in your list of those whom you remember in your hours of intercession; and in the hope, likewise, that he will not be forgotten by your dear wife. He seems unusually well at present, better, we think, than any of our children have been at his age. The suddenness, however, both of the indisposition and removal of our little Basil, has made us consider the health and life of an infant as exceedingly uncertain in its tenure; and we hope we are enabled to leave him completely in the best of hands. You may perhaps have heard, through Eliza, of the removal of dear Mr. Purton: you know his worth, his strong attachment to myself, and the right hand he was to me in everything in which I could in any way use him, and, therefore, are prepared to suppose what a loss has been sustained by myself and others. I do not like funeral sermons in general, but I thought I ought to take up my cross on such an occasion, and endeavour to hold up his uncommon, unobtrusive, and retiring excellence to the view of others, and then, at the same time, pay my own tribute of friendship which I felt I myself owed to him.