William Hone to John Childs, 29 January, 1819 An Electronic Edition William Hone Kyle Grimes

For publication in the Hone Correspondence section of the William Hone BioText, http://honearchive.org. The letter is published under a Creative Commons license, details of which are accessible from the BioText homepage.

Letter transcribed by hand from the copy in the British Library, Add. MS 40120, f. 115.

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William Hone to John Childs, 29 January, 1819.British Library, Add. MS 40120, f. 115. For a detailed, contextual reading of this letter, see the "Conversation" on the early friendship of Hone and Childs. [return] — -TEI-
London
29 Jan 1819 My dear Sir,

Sincerely do I thank you, and your honest and friendly advice respecting "the Book""The Book" is Hone's much-delayed edition of his Three Trials. Hone was given to periods of depression and hypchondria, and these often inhibited his progress on large projects. Childs had written the day before to encourage Hone's progress. (See John Childs to William Hone, 28 January, 1819.) [return]—and I shall be glad of your opinion further, after reading the enclosed Prospectus, which will appear in the "Quarterly," Gents. Mag. Monthly Mag. Monthly Repository and Eclectic—

The affair of the NoteHone and Cruikshank's "Bank Note, Not to be Imitated!" [return] (which is going like wildfire) hurries me just now so that I can write you but little, nor would you have that, but for my being unable to send you one without a line.

Your invitation is most kind but (curse these buts) I cannot, must not stir— The Trials shall have my full attention— they shall. But before this I must get my Note throughout the Kingdom. I have set my heart on its going into every nook and cranny where a Bank note goes— Do write me by return & tell me your opinion of the thing & what to do— but mind no post paid.

"To return to the Trials— your letter on the necessity of my doing them with all my might and to a Plan is weighty and has weight with me—mind that—with me. I will do them uninterruptedly and you may rely on it with a good deal of inspiriting from your epistle which I shall take up and look at every now and then when I find myself likely to flag. My wife desires me to tell you that she has read your letter and that she thinks it the best letter I have ever received—she made me promise this — and I not only keep my promise but agree with her opinion — We join in hearty thanks for your remembrance and inquiries and beg our respects to Mrs. Childs who we may some time or other have the pleasure of seeing perhaps in this world.

I am My dear Sir Most sincerely yours W Hone

Mr. John Childs, Bungay