This is to say I am in good health and quite comfortable, and as happy as can be expected away from home. I like being an architect very much. All the work I have had to do for the last fortnight, has been to copy a drawing of a gate for a Porter’s Lodge, and to look over portfolios of nice prints. My master is very kind, and lets me fill up my time at over-hours how I like. I always dine with him and Mrs. G., and have plenty to eat of whatever I prefer. Last Sunday we had leg of lamb and asparagus, and a pigeon pie, and a tart, besides a glass of wine afterwards. I’m allowed to sit up to supper because I said I liked music, for Mr. G. plays on the flute, and Mrs. G. sings to the piano. He is a very good man, and she is a very motherly good woman; and the other night, because it was so cold, I had a tumbler of hot elder wine. For the present I sleep in the best spare bed till my own is got ready for me--and when company comes I’m not sent off to it, but played last night with the visitors till twelve o’clock, and they won all my pocket money. I do hope and pray you won’t forget to send me some more, as there’s another party next week. Altogether, I could not be better off for food, or amusement, or any thing, so that I needn’t be any longer on liking, as I like it very much, and am agreeable to be bound as soon as you and master think proper; and I do hope you won’t stick about the premium, as you seemed to think it a great deal--but consider the treatment. Give my kind love to everybody, and accept the same yourself, from, dear mother, your dutiful and affectionate son, RICHARD RUGGLES. P.S.--Mr. and Mrs. G. desire their best compliments--they are always asking about you in the most friendly way. Pray remember what I said about the premium, as I could never be so happy anywhere else, or make such progress in my profession. It may be supposed that I did not read the above effusion throughout, without a smile on my countenance; but the mother gravely shook her head, and said she had now to submit to me a very different statement, whereupon with a sigh, and a reflection on the duplicity of the world in general, and of architects in particular, she placed in my hands, Protocol No. 2. DEAR MOTHER,