Address:
M^rs Flinders
6 Great S^t Helens
        Bishopsgate Street
                London

Stamped: PORTSMOUTH

Annotated: July 1801

                  Star & Garter Portsmouth
                            July 7. 1801
    I came on shore this morning with a good pros-
-pect, I thought, of receiving my sailing orders, but
it is not so. I am however rewarded by thy kind
letter of yesterday, and I answer it before I return
on board, to save a boat the trouble of coming on
purpose, as it blows and rains.
    If thou feelest able to travel, I shall most
heartily be glad to hear that thou art gone to
thy mother. Her kind attention and those of thy
friends, and ^ ^the chearful [sic] spirits of my Belle, will
recal [sic] thee to thy wonted composure. Pray my
dearest, say to her that I hope she will make thee
laugh half an hour every day; and if she does
I will kiƒs her to pieces when I come back, and
love her twice as much as I do now if I
can.
    I have this morning written to Thomas
Franklin before I came on shore. I had not in-
-deed any thing very particular to say to him