A long Winter has past, and I have not had the Pleasure of a Line from you, acquainting me with you and your Children’s Welfare since I left England. I suppose you have been in Yorkshire out of the Way of Knowledge of Opportunities; for I will not think you have forgotten me. To make me some Amends, I received a few Days past, a large Packet from Mr. Williams, dated September 1776, near ten Years since, containing three Letters from you, one of Dec. 12. 1775. This Packet had been receiv’d by Mr. Bache after my Departure for France, lay dormant among his Papers during all my Absnce, and has just now broke out upon me like Words that had been, as somebody says, congeal’d in Northern Air. Therein I find all the pleasant little Family History of your Children. How William had begun to spell, overcoming by strength of Memory all the Difficulty occasion’d by the common wretched Alphabet; while you were convinc’d of the Utility of our new one. How Tom, Genius like, struck out new Paths, and relinquishing the old Names of the Letters, called U Bell and P Bottle. How Eliza began to grow jolly, that is fat and handsome, resembling Aunt Rooke whom I used to call my lovely. Together with all the then News of Lady Blunt’s having produc’d at length a Boy, of Dolly’s being well, and of poor good Catherine’s Decease. Of your Affairs with Muir and Atkinson, and of their Contract for feeding the Fish in the Channel. Of the Vinys, and their Jaunt to Cambridge in the long Carriage, Of Dolly’s Journey to Wales with Mrs. Scot. Of the Wilkes’s, the Pearce’s, Elphinston, &c &c &c. Concluding with a kind of Promise, that as soon as the Ministry and Congress agreed to make Peace, I should have you with me in America. That Peace has been some time made; but alas, the Promise is not yet fulfill’d.

And why is it not fulfill’d?

I have found my Family here in Health, good Circumstances and well respected by their Fellow Citizens. The Companions of my Youth are indeed almost all departed, but I find an agreable Society among their Children and Grandchildren. I have public Business enough to preserve me from Ennuy, and private Amusement besides in Conversation, Books, my Garden, and Cribbidge. Considering our well-furnish’d plentiful Market as the best of Gardens, I am turning mine, in the midst of which my House stands, into Grass Plots and Gravel Walks, with Trees and Flowering Shrubs; Cards we sometimes play here in long Winter Evenings, but it is as they play at Chess, not for Money but for Honour or the Pleasure of Beating one another. This will not be quite a Novelty to you; as you may remember we play’d together in that manner during the Winter you help’d me to pass so agreably at Passy. I have indeed now and then a little Compunction in reflecting that I spend Time so idly: but another Reflection comes to relieve me, whispering, “You know the Soul is immortal; why then should you be such a Niggard of a little Time when you have a whole Eternity before you? So being easily convinc’d, and, like other reasonable Creatures, satisfy’d with a small Reason, when it is in favour of doing what I have a mind to do, I shuffle the Cards again, and begin another Game.

As to public Amusements, we have neither Plays nor Operas, but we had yesterday a kind of Oratorio, as you will see by the enclos’d Paper; and we have Assemblies, Balls and Concerts, besides little Parties at one another’s Houses, in which there is sometimes Dancing, and frequently good Musick; so that we jog on in Life as pleasantly as you do in England; any where but in London, for there you have Plays perform’d by good Actors: That however is, I think, the only Advantage London has over Philadelphia. [bottom of page missing] are also all promising, appearing to have good Tempers and Dispositions, as well as good Constitutions. As to my self, I think my general Health and Spirits rather better than when you saw me, and the particular Malady I then complain’d of continues tolerable. With sincere and very great Esteem, I am, ever, my dear dear Friend, Yours most affectionately