Address:
M^r Peake
Vitriol Manufactory
Battersea near London
For M^rs Flinders

Stamped: PORTSMOUTH

                        Tuesday June 30 1801 Spithead

    I almost weep for pleasure, my dearest love, at read
ing thy two letters, which just now have reached me.
Thanks be to the wise director of all things, the glow
of returning ^ ^health will soon again crimson thy cheeks. Say
my dearest, dost thou feel universally the improvement
which thy head and strength do?
    Wouldst thou think that I should feel a dread
at thy going down to Partney? at the very thing
that I have been so anxious for? Yet I do. Thou
wilt be farther from me, and I can leƒs and leƒs bear
the idea of increasing our distance asunder. I would
ten hundred thousand times rather thou wast about
to travel down to me; and was it not so very ridi-
-culous, and so very uncertain I should really ask
thee to do it. My dear, dear love, thou art indeed
my better half. Can I live without thee and be
happy? Indeed I think at this moment it cannot
be. The philosophical calmneƒs which I imposed
upon thee, is fled from myself; and I am just
as awkward without thee, as one half of a pair
of sciƒsors without its fellow.