Fordham Sept^r 22, being Saturday
1764
P.S. I ask pardon for
spraining my thumb: it is the
cause of my writing [illeg] than usual.

Dear Jenner

Stay - hush - stop - hear me first!
- You cou'd not receive my answer sooner than you do.
Observe - your letter came to my hands but Yesterday, which
was Friday: it got to Colchester on Thursday. How this cou'd
be, I know not: the fact sufficeth me. Well - I cou'd not
write in time for the post yesterday: - you are to consider,
that I do not live next door to the post-office, Sir; but
some miles from it; if I was to run into the kitchen
& clap my letter into the salt-box, it wou'd be some-
thing like it indeed, but that wou'd not do, you know:
- it remains that I write to day; - but, today the post goes
not out: so it must go tomorrow, & you can't have it till
Tuesday. Blame not me. Why did not you take, & give,
more time?
Now to the business. You are a very good
sort of a man, (& so is Mrs Jenner too) for thinking of paying
us a visit, freely, & spontaneously. Literally, I am glad to
see you make so free. Lord bless me! (says I to my
wife when I had read your letter to her,) we are not able
to receive them - we have no bed you know, my dear,

bit the little college, tent bed in the closet -- they can't
come. 'Pshaw! says she, - but they can come, & they shall
come, if they will: what the deuce! - can't they have our
bed, & we lie in the coal-hole? - True, my dear; I did
not think of that: so they may. -- Sans [?badiner], - we shall
be heartily glad to see ye, if you will put up with the
rusticity of our entertainment: for I must desire you, who
are a much more gentlemanlike sort of man, (as you know)
than I ever was, even in my best days when I wore a [?queer]
wig, - to recollect, that we are plain, homely kind of people,
(like Baucis & Philemon), & live in a farmerly, baconish
kind of a style, with one maid, who (as you shall see)
sometimes overdoes things, sometimes under-does, &
sometimes does not know how to do them at all.
Our puddings fall to pieces; our fowls come with the legs
sticking out, so: [drawing of roast bird with legs sticking up] & so on , in proportion.
I say no more. Come if you dare. Seriously, once more,
(for I have {?relaps'd},) - we shall be sadly disappointed if you
don't come: I fear nothing but the weather. as for this next
week, I suppose you won't think of it, as you will {?unavoidally}
have any letter so late: But if the weather will do, we
shall expect you on Monday, or Tuesday sen'night. Wethink you might easily get to Cambridge on Sunday evening:

, Set out from thence the next morning early, & get to us in the
evening. We call it about 40 miles. Now take notice: - if your
chaise is high, & you wou'd avoid very bad, uneven road, with no
quarter, you must be content to go a mile or two about; go
thro' a place call'd Ford-street about 5 miles from Colchester;
& up a pretty steep hill; then watch for a turning on the
left hand between two woods: I'm not sure whether it be not
the first turning after you pass Ford-street; however the circum-
stance of the woods will distinguish it, & it is, I believe,
about a mile beyond Fordstreet. That turning will carry
you nolens volens, to the {^our} church: [a drawing of a church with spire]: the parsonage is
[damaged; inserted in pencil 'about'] a mile beyond the church. There is no turning {?that}
{?can} decoy you: keep resolutely the most beaten road
at the worst, if you mistrust the light of nature, - enquire
at the black-smith's by the church. If you fear no roads,
you {^must} turn off {^to the left} just before you come into Ford-street. Our chaise
has been thro' that lane, & never overturn'd: but it is very
rocky, & bad, & hardly safe: we always avoid it. One thing
we beg: that you would give us a line as soon as you have
settled your plan: if you will be with us on Monday sen:
don't write later than Thursday: Wednesday will be better,
if you can settle matters by that time. adieu! [illeg]
much upon seeing you, [?for] all Mrs. Philips. Our loves & c to
you both. T. T.

The rev'. Mr. Jenner
in
Huntingdon

[vertical left side]
Sept 22. 1764
Post & Sale [illeg]
His way of [illeg]
[illeg]
Round to it