Dear Brother
We found the house full of company
on our arrival here, and so it has continued till the last
set going away to day have reduced us to five in
family, M^r and M^rs Wodhull, Mary Ingram, my sister
and myself, who are all very well and desire to be
particularly remember’d to you and the Doctor, this
I tell you now lest an affair of this importance
should be omitted, M^rs Craven and M^rs Taylor who left
us this morning likewise desired their particular
compt^ts when I wrote – Astrop open’d Monday
sennight with a most brilliant breakfast,
more than fifty people, and last monday we
had a ball – Thenford is a good deal improved
since last year, by M^r Woodhulls pulling down some
old walls that were to the west of the house and
carrying the walk through the field they surrounded

[f.42v]

The stables he has built are as great Ornament
as they are built quite in a rough way and
thatch’d, but if the new plantations thrive as
well as those he has hitherto planted have done
they will in a few years be quite hid from
every part of the walk. He planted a great
many firs and some beech last year, the latter
seem a good deal blighted tho’ not so bad as yours.
But the crabs, apples, and young quick are all
over this country more blight’d than you can
conceive, and Whitmore says it is very near as
bad in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, many
people that in a moderately good season make
a hundred hogsheads of cyder, won’t this year
be able to make ten, - We yesterday drank tea
with M^r and M^rs Nicoll, he has bought a house in
one of the worst situations in England, and to which
he has been obliged to add two rooms to make it
habitable. I beg my love to Charles I will write to
him {^^when} I can learn any thing entertaining, I am
dear Brother your very affectionate
R. A. Johnson
Thenford 7. August

Dear Brother
We found the house full of company
on our arrival here, and so it has continued till the last
set going away to day have reduced us to five in
family, M^r and M^rs Wodhull, Mary Ingram, my sister
and myself, who are all very well and desire to be
particularly remembered to you and the Doctor, this
I tell you now lest an affair of this importance
should be omitted, M^rs Craven and M^rs Taylor who left
us this morning likewise desired their particular
compt^ts when I wrote – Astrop opened Monday
sennight with a most brilliant breakfast,
more than fifty people, and last Monday we
had a ball – Thenford is a good deal improved
since last year, by M^r Woodhulls pulling down some
old walls that were to the west of the house and
carrying the walk through the field they surrounded

[f.42v]

The stables he has built are as great Ornament
as they are built quite in a rough way and
thatched, but if the new plantations thrive as
well as those he has hitherto planted have done
they will in a few years be quite hid from
every part of the walk. He planted a great
many firs and some beech last year, the latter
seem a good deal blighted though not so bad as yours.
But the crabs, apples, and young quick are all
over this country more blighted than you can
conceive, and Whitmore says it is very near as
bad in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, many
people that in a moderately good season make
a hundred hogsheads of cyder, won’t this year
be able to make ten, - We yesterday drank tea
with M^r and M^rs Nicoll, he has bought a house in
one of the worst situations in England, and to which
he has been obliged to add two rooms to make it
habitable. I beg my love to Charles I will write to
him {^^when} I can learn any thing entertaining, I am
dear Brother your very affectionate
R. A. Johnson
Thenford 7. August