Details
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). Autograph letter signed ('I am, Dearest Love, your most humble servant, Sam: Johnson') to an unidentified recipient [his stepdaughter, Lucy Porter], London, 9 September 1775, 1½ pages, 4to, on a bifolium (light browning and some offsetting; short splits to folds), pencil annotation to top of p.1. Provenance: Lucy Porter (d.1786); Revd. John Batteridge Pearson (1749-1808, formerly curate of Lichfield), her legal legatee; Philip Pennant Pearson (his grandson, and the godson and heir of David Pennant), who took the name Pennant in 1860 on inheriting the Pennant estates at Nantlys; by descent to the present owners.
'TAKE GREAT CARE OF YOUR HEALTH AND DRINK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN'. An affectionate letter to his stepdaughter: Johnson has sent Lucy some books 'by the Carrier, and in Sandys's Travels you will find your Glasses'; he has also written to 'the Ladies at Stowhill' (his friends Mrs Aston and Mrs Gastrel), and Lucy may send on Mrs Gastrel's books on the next day. The letter concludes with compliments to his friends in Lichfield, and a tender solicitude as to Lucy's own health: 'I hope the poor dear hand is recovered, and you are now able to write, which, however, you need not do, for I am going to Brighthelmston, and when I come back, will take care to tell you. In the mean time take great care of your health and drink as much as you can'.
The books Johnson sent to Lucy were George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey begun in 1610 (1615) and Henry Hammond, Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament (1653). Instead of the planned trip to Brighton with the Thrales, Johnson instead left with them for France on 15 September -- his only journey outside the British Isles.
'TAKE GREAT CARE OF YOUR HEALTH AND DRINK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN'. An affectionate letter to his stepdaughter: Johnson has sent Lucy some books 'by the Carrier, and in Sandys's Travels you will find your Glasses'; he has also written to 'the Ladies at Stowhill' (his friends Mrs Aston and Mrs Gastrel), and Lucy may send on Mrs Gastrel's books on the next day. The letter concludes with compliments to his friends in Lichfield, and a tender solicitude as to Lucy's own health: 'I hope the poor dear hand is recovered, and you are now able to write, which, however, you need not do, for I am going to Brighthelmston, and when I come back, will take care to tell you. In the mean time take great care of your health and drink as much as you can'.
The books Johnson sent to Lucy were George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey begun in 1610 (1615) and Henry Hammond, Paraphrase and Annotations on the New Testament (1653). Instead of the planned trip to Brighton with the Thrales, Johnson instead left with them for France on 15 September -- his only journey outside the British Isles.
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